“You don’t have to leave your faith to be queer-positive.”
Reverend Dr. Cheri DiNovo, 73, is a queer activist, United Church minister, and former Member of Provincial Parliament, living in Toronto, Canada.
After the deaths of her father and stepfather as a child, Cheri dropped out of school in grade 10 and became a “street kid”, couch-surfing and sleeping in parks for the next four years. She once smuggled LSD into Canada from the US using hollowed-out bibles, an ironic prelude to her future career as a minister.
Cheri identifies as bisexual, and performed the first legalized same sex marriage in Canada in 2001. As MPP, she passed laws that added trans rights to the Ontario Human Rights Code and banned conversion therapy for LGBTQ2+ youth. In 2017, she passed the Trans Day of Remembrance Act.
For the past seven years, Cheri has been Minister at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre for Faith, Justice, and the Arts in Toronto. As of December 24, 2024, she will finally be hanging up her collar— but not retiring.
Cheri has hosted a radio show for many years called “The Radical Reverend.” After leaving the church she will be focusing on the radio show more, as well as taking on more public speaking engagements. She will also continue to perform marriages and funerals.
Cheri has published two books and is working on a couple more that she hasn’t had time to finish while working full-time. She loves to travel and has visited over 100 countries for work and for pleasure. Right after leaving the church she has a multi-country holiday planned with a friend, before diving back into working life.
Why did you retire or why are you still working?
Why did you retire?
Why are you still working?
I retired from full-time ministry because I feel the most important pursuit for me now is to save children's lives. I know that sounds dramatic but queer kids, and in particular trans and gender-diverse children, are under threat everywhere.
It's been 13 years since Toby's Law (my bill) passed into law in Ontario. The bill, named after my trans music director, was the first of its kind in a large North American jurisdiction to make trans status a protected human right. Since then three provinces and 1,400+ bills in the USA are in the process of attempting to take away those very rights.
Trans children are the most at risk for suicide and violence. This will mean the death of children. As the woman who passed more first 2SLGBTQ Bills into law in Canadian history than anyone else —and performed Canada's first legalized same sex marriage— I feel the need to protect the rights we all fought so hard to achieve.
Since part of the threat to them comes from the religious right, it's also important to give educators in particular, and everyone in general, some biblical expertise. I call it "spiritual armour". For example, why the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a queer positive, not negative, story. Or why Jesus was not silent but positive on trans rights. The religions of the Book tend to share passages that have been used to hurt queer people. I give folk the tools to discern that in fact the Bible, Torah, and Koran are queer-positive.
Freeing myself from full-time work allows me to do more public speaking, like the speeches I’ve given to Ontario English Catholic Teachers, or University and Teachers' Unions engagements.
In the end it is about saving lives.
Life expectancy 2023
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