But when, about a month later, a clip from Fredricks’ appearance on the Funky Friday podcast went viral, the internet erupted in a different way. The backlash took on a different tone, leading many to believe Fredricks was close to being canceled. 

But here is the thing, Fredricks’ assertion is not some major revelation. It isn’t an exception to the rule. It is the rule. To love people, regardless of who they are and how they live, is a tenet of what many keyboard warriors profess to believe. 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like the first, love your neighbor as yourself.”

My dear friend, Kristian Smith, calls this “greatest commandment theology.” 

Don Abrams, executive director of Toward Forward, said he was frustrated and disheartened by the discourse surrounding Fredricks. His organization, formerly known as Pride in the Pews, is committed to equipping “institutions to advocate for the holistic health and wellness of Black LGBTQ communities.”

“It felt like we were 20 years in the past,” he said. “There’s a dominant narrative that still exists within Black church psyche, which suggests that most Black churches are not affirming and therefore those who come out of those traditions should not be affirming [of LGBTQ folks].”

That presumption, Abrams believes, is what prompted the backlash. And, I tend to agree with him. But here’s the thing: there are people – whether they are comedians, content creators, or faith leaders – who identify as affirming or are very vocal about their support for the LGBTQIA community. And for many of them, their reasons are personal and unique, often informed by experience, as in the case of Fredricks, or by vocation and theological study/engagement. 

A few of them, like Smith, I just happen to know. They are men and women, cisgender and heterosexual, who lead or have led congregations.

Rev. Earle J. Fisher, Ph.D., is one of them. For more than a decade, he has led Abyssinian Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn. Abyssinian is often described as “The Blackest Church in Memphis and Shelby County.” In order for that to be true, said Fisher, one must be all-encompassing.

“The way that I conceive and understand God is loving, merciful, and just, right? And so it’s unjust for people to be treated inhumanely based upon rigid and antiquated ideologies that often don’t even fit the narrative of the period that they’ve been drawn from.”

For a Black church to be welcoming to members of the LGBTQ community, it starts with a pastor or leader who unapologetically amplifies the full humanity of all people, said Fisher. 

“You do it because it’s just and you do it because it’s right, and so that’s what I’m saying,” he added.

Rev. Angela Johnson, who was recently named Dean of the Chapel at Dillard University, knows firsthand the challenges of being an “affirming” pastor/leader and being ordained in a denomination that excludes LGBTQ individuals from certain rights and privileges. She’s ordained in the United Methodist Church. In 2024, the UMC lifted its ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage. But prior to that time, Johnson said, gifted people have been unable to be affirmed.

“I’m a both/and, not an either/or person. I have a deep faith in justice and God. And I believed the denomination wouldn’t stay where it was. It couldn’t stay like that forever,” she said. “I knew that what God intends would have to come to fruition, because it always does.” 

For the Rev. Anika Wilson-Brown, Ph.D., lead pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., being an affirming pastor means taking on the mantle — the heavy responsibility of standing for justice. 

“And not in a silent way, but to be active in my resistance to oppression to anyone and everyone, in whatever way that shows up,” she said. “So, that means through the programming at the church, through the policies at the church, through my preaching. We recently revamped our entire constitution and bylaws to ensure that affirming was not just a whim or my pastoral choice, but that we established it as part of the legacy of the institution, that it is important that everyone is not only welcome, but that they are welcome fully to be themselves.”

In 2019, Union Temple Baptist started a dedicated LGBTQ-affirming fellowship, Agape Ministry. And on the first Sunday of June 2026, during Pride Month, they held their very first Pride worship experience. 

Fisher, Johnson, and Wilson-Brown, are just a few examples of preachers, pastors, and faith leaders doing the work. They aren’t alone, even if who they are and where they are may not be common knowledge. Some of the work, as Abrams put it, is more effective because we do not know.

“And that’s okay!”

But if one is to consider themselves affirming, as Abrams suggests, preachers, pastors, and faith leaders must be challenged to take it a step further.

“Because many of them believe that they’ve arrived, that they’ve made it, that there’s nothing left for them to do.”

If the KevOnStage kerfuffle is any indication, there is still much work to do.