Christian Singer Ray Boltz Admits He’s Gay

A few years ago I made the decision to retire from contemporary Christian music," musician Ray Boltz opens on his website. "I had won awards, performed in front of thousands of people, and sold millions of records. Still, I believed that if people knew who I really was, I would never be accepted. During the last few years I've learned that there are many people who feel the same way I did."Boltz, a contemporary Christian artist who has sold over four million copies between 16 albums in his career, recently spoke with the Washington Blade about his experience coming out to his fans, his family and the world.

The 55-year-old reached out to Rev. Jeff Miner of Indianapolis' Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in December of 2007, tired of living a double life, by giving the Reverend a copy of his 1997 Christmas album with his e-mail addressed affixed; he had only then been out to his ex-wife and four children."I didn't make a big deal of it," Boltz told the Blade. "But I was trembling. I'd kind of had two identities since I moved to Florida where I kind of had this other life and I'd never merged the two lives. This was the first time I was taking my old life as Ray Boltz, the gospel singer, and merging it with my new life. Emotionally it was kind of a big deal to think about that."

"I'd denied it ever since I was a kid," he went on, describing what went through his mind when he told his family, aware that he was struggling, in December 2004. "I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, 'I’m still gay. I know I am.' And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, 'Just end this.'"