Clayton Gibson
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Clayton Gibson | |
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| Born | April 1, 1974 United States |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation | LGBTQIA+ activist, social artist, author |
| Organization | QWELL Community Foundation |
| Known for | Founding the QWELL Community Foundation; LGBTQIA+ advocacy; writings on gay spirituality |
Notable work | Shirt of Flame: The Secret Gay Art of War Fire in the Lake (newspaper column) |
| Movement | LGBTQIA+ rights |
Clayton Gibson (born April 1, 1974) is an American LGBTQIA+ activist, social artist, and author. He is the Founder and Executive Director of QWELL Community Foundation serving LGBTQIA+ people and based in Greater Austin, Texas, which has the nation's third largest openly LGBTQIA+ population[1], per capita. Gibson is the author of the 1990's "Fire in the Lake" newspaper column (published by Toby Johnson in White Crane Journal and in other print and online publications) and numerous articles for his "Gay Spirituality" online magazine on TypePad, which was the #1 search result for "gay spirituality" for many years and featured content by Andrew Harvey, Joe Perez, and many others. Gibson also wrote the 2003 book, Shirt of Flame: The Secret Gay Art of War, under the name Ko Imani ("revolutionary faith").
Shirt of Flame applies the nonviolent theories of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi to the struggle for LGBTQIA+ equity. A central proposition in Shirt of Flame is the concept of "Voluntary Redemptive Service," an alternate tactic to traditional "Voluntary Redemptive Suffering." The book was endorsed by Arun Gandhi and other luminaries.
After recognizing a need to popularize the work of LGBTQIA+ affirming spiritual leaders at the Gay Spirit Culture Summit in 2004, Gibson went on to create and operate the social networking and directory website MyOutSpirit.com (2007-2018), for which he was featured in The Advocate national newsmagazine. MyOutSpirit was given responsibility for the "Bring Your LGBT Teen to Church Day" event created by Unitarian Universalist minister Rev. Joanna Fontaine Crawford and grew the annual event into a nationwide campaign reaching more than 1MM people.
While involved with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) from 2001-2004, Gibson cocreated the first national conference for LGBTQIA+ activists, "Together in Faith" (2004) in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which featured speakers including Rev. Dr. Mel White of Soulforce, Rabbi Michael Lerner (Tikkun), John Corvino, Rabbi Deb Kolodny, and Faisal Alam, among others. Gibson also conceived and supported AFSC's development of the first statewide network of LGBTQIA+ affirming clergy, Faith Action Network.
Gibson began the work that would become QWELL Community Foundation in December 2015. With QWELL, Gibson conceived a number of unique programs that continue to this day:
- The annual anonymous Queer Wellbeing Study that measures local LGBTQIA+ wellbeing in six dimensions (a collaboration with university researchers), providing the only consistent measure of the success of programs to improve LGBTQIA+ physical and mental health, relationships and community connectedness, cultural and living environment, learning opportunities, and economic condition;
- The "Colors of Pride Gathering," a large annual Pride event celebrating QTBIPOC people of all backgrounds and origins (now a separate nonprofit organization);
- The Queer Health Equity Program, through which Gibson drove the assembly of the world's first cohort of large health systems to pursue Human Rights Campaign's Healthcare Equality Index certification together, certifying more than 75 clinics and 300 providers in Greater Austin in the first cohort;
- FreePrideFlag.com, which has distributed more than 5,000 free rainbow flags in Central Texas since launching in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Texan Courage, which expands the FreePrideFlag.com giveaway statewide with the addition of volunteer-organized monthly dinners in neighborhoods across Texas to build community, improve the Drivers of Health, register and mobilize voters, and make Texas safer for and friendlier to LGBTQIA+ people.
- The annual National Pride Interfaith Service on television, a live event, broadcast, and program to engage and mobilize all LGBTQIA+ affirming faith communities to support LGBTQIA+ people.
QWELL's signature project is as-yet unrealized -- a network of 5-10 new mixed-use developments in Greater Austin, Texas, that each include a vibrant street level of shops and restaurants, with several floors of queer-friendly affordable housing and a top floor featuring LGBTQIA+ community centers and free clinical and office space for QWELL's partner organizations offering critical services. QWELL and its developer are actively seeking properties for these developments in Texas and around the country and are prepared to begin construction as soon as parcels of land and financing are secured.
References
- ↑ "LGBT Adults in Large US Metropolitan Areas". Williams Institute.
External links
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