Jackie is a poet, and you feel that in almost every paragraph. Gay Girl, Good God was a joy to read because of its literary power and the spiritual nourishment it offers. This third section is a helpful resource and is more practically orientated than the first two. She ended up falling in love with a man! In the third part she deals with topics that her story raises – identity, enduring as a Christian, and the negative obsession with heterosexuality in many churches. This transformation affected every element of her identity and led her down an unexpected path. We hear about her struggles as a new Christian, and how Jesus slowly transformed her. Then, at the age of 19, God miraculously broke into her life and suddenly everything changed. In her teenage years she experienced gender confusion, and embraced masculinity and homosexuality. She grew up in a fatherless home and was abused as a child. We are drawn into her troubled childhood. The first two parts are Jackie’s autobiography. Page after page she drew me back to God, his love, and his faithfulness.
Her work caused me to weep, but it also caused me to sing. We hear about her firsthand experience of the brokenness of this world. Jackie states in the introduction that ‘truth is where freedom begins’ (p.3), and then goes on to demonstrate this fact. Gay Girl, Good God is a book grounded in rich truth. The majority of the book is autobiographical, and yet as she tells us her story, in reality, she is telling God’s story, and she uses every opportunity to sing his praises. Plus, Jackie herself shows a clear love for God. She wants conservative Christians to demonstrate the love of God, and she wants same-sex attracted Christians to experience the grace of God. She wants gay people to see the beauty of God. Gay Girl, Good God is a book written out of love. Jackie Hill Perry, Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been (B&H Publishing, 2018)
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