Shannon TL Kearns

Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. As an ordained priest, a playwright, a theologian, and a writer all of his work revolves around making meaning through story.

Kearns’s first book “In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey With Scripture” was published in 2022.

Kearns is a recipient of the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship for 2022, a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21 and he was a Lambda Literary Fellow for 2019 in playwriting and in 2022 for screenwriting. He was a Finnovation Fellow for 2019/2020. He is a sought after speaker on transgender issues and religion as well as a skilled facilitator of a variety of workshops.

Kearns co-founded QueerTheology.com with Brian G. Murphy. Since its start in 2013, this work has reached more than a million people all over the world through videos, articles, and online courses and community. Their Queer Theology podcast is the longest running LGBTQ+ Christian podcast.

Kearns founded and led Uprising Theatre Company in Minneapolis for 6 years. That work focused on social justice theatre that empowered people to take action as well as uplifting the voices and stories of trans and nonbinary artists.

Kearns’s plays include "Body+Blood," "in a stand of dying trees," "Line of Sight," "Twisted Deaths," "The Resistance of My Skin," and "Who Has Eyes To See."