Interview with Nell Fields | Ep #15

05/07/21 • 31 min

Nell Fields is a born-again Christian, social justice advocate, and a happily married lesbian who’s been with her wife Sarah, a lawyer, for over 20 years. She’s also the minister of Waquoit Congregational church in East Falmouth, MA.

The youngest of five daughters whose father was a career Army officer, Nell initially pursued a career in business and journalism. But, at a pivotal point in her early professional life, when living in the closet was exacting a heavy personal toll, Nell says she felt God’s call to enter the ministry.

As she tells PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this compelling interview, her coming out story wasn’t easy. In fact, she and a partner were once told by a minister at their church in California not to share with other members of the congregation that they were lesbian.

For Nell, it was a moment of shock, hurt, and deep disappointment. Yet, in retrospect, that moment of exclusion -- of being the other, the outsider -- proved a key turning point in Nell’s pastoral career. In fact, it has shaped her progressive pastoral vision and inclusive ministry to people of all kinds ever since.

“God gives all of us the gift to be who we are -- be it straight or LGBTQ+,” says Nell.

She goes on to say, “God loves diversity. There’s so much diversity and variety in nature, why wouldn’t there be diversity in humanity as well?”

For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

“God gives all of us the gift to be who we are -- be it straight or LGBTQ+,” says Nell.

She goes on to say, “God loves diversity. There’s so much diversity and variety in nature, why wouldn’t there be diversity in humanity as well?”

For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

Previous Episode

Interview with Deer Sullivan | Ep #14

Bisexuality... Even among members of the LGBTQ+ community it’s a concept and reality that often is not fully understood – or appreciated. As a result, bisexuals sometimes feel marginalized and rejected, even among people who identify as members of other sexual minorities. And that means being bisexual can be a lonely and misunderstood place to be.

So says Deer Sullivan, a bisexual educator and counselor who, over the years, has had long-term relationships with both women and men.

In this revealing interview with PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce, Deer talks about the realities of being bisexual in a world that tends to see sexuality in binary – black and white – terms.

"I don’t like to put people’s sexuality in boxes," says Deer. She goes on to say, with a combination of both passion and good humor, that there are a lot more people in the MIDDLE of the sexuality continuum than we commonly imagine.

For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html

Next Episode

Interview with Ryan R. | Ep #16

Ryan R. is a 24-year-old non-binary lesbian. In Ryan’s case, that means that though they are lesbian and like to date women, they don’t identify with being a girl, a woman, or, with the attributes of traditional femininity.

It was a discovery that Ryan made after dating boys in high school, faking physical attraction to males at the time, and then discovering their true gender identity in college and afterwards.

“I don’t feel like the words girl or woman describe me,” Ryan tells PFLAG’s Rick Koonce in this wide-ranging interview. Ryan goes on to say that being non-binary means different things to different people, but, in their case, has given them the freedom to pursue both personal relationships -- and their continuing discovery of self -- without feeling hemmed in by traditional gender roles or social expectations.

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For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html