Gail Hovey

"I am trying to hold, in one steady glance, all the parts of my life.”

This episode of Queer Spirit interviewed the author and activist Gail Hovey. The conversation centered around Hovey's memoir, She Said God Blessed Us, and unpacked the complexities of sexual abuse in the church and the power of language to express who we are to ourselves and to others.

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About

Originally from Illinois, Gail Hovey is an editor, writer, and – full disclosure here – a friend of Marvin’s that he’s known and respected for 30 years, ever since she edited an early publication of his back in the day. Like Tamara and Marvin, Gail is a seminary graduate. More disclosure here: All three of us have degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York, but, lucky Gail, more recently she’s earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine’s prestigious Stone Coast program.

Gail is also an activist for racial, economic, and social justice, a set of commitments which she traces back to East Harlem in the 1960s and which were further deepened by her time living in southern Africa. Reflecting on these matters, Gail has co-edited a fascinating book entitled No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists Over a Half Century, 1950-2000.

We could easily have an extended conversation with Gail about the Pan-African justice movements and her activism as a white ally in southern Africa and back in the U.S., but today we’re talking about her more recent publication, a memoir entitled She Said God Blessed Us: A Life Marked by Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Church. One reviewer describes your memoir, Gail, this way: “This book is a gift. . . written with compassion, righteous anger, and deep insight about the turmoil that abuse generates and about the courage and tenacity required to disarm a debilitating curse and claim an authentic blessing.”