PAERRY PERRY GIRL MEETS A GOOD GOD

By Sara Shelton

If someone had told teenaged Jackie Hill Perry where she’d be today, she probably wouldn’t have believed it. A wife, mother, speaker, poet, and rapper, she recently added author to her list with the release of her first book, Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been.

Perry’s journey of faith isn’t your typical teenage coming-of-age story. Instead, hers is one that requires courage and conviction to speak and share.

“I wanted to invite people into my world and help them have empathy for something they may not understand,” Perry explains. “I want to allow them to walk in my shoes.”

A QUIET STRUGGLE

To fully take that walk in Perry’s shoes, you have to go all the way back to her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. Raised without the consistent presence of a male figure in her home, Perry spent her formative years in the care of her single, working mother. Weekends were often spent with her aunt, and that’s where Perry’s exposure to the gospel began.

“My mom had weekend jobs, so I went to church with my aunt on Sundays,” Perry says. “I didn’t realize then, but those Sundays in church were helpful in giving me the foundation for the gospel that would save me in the future. Even when I wasn’t sure what else I believed, I was still certain that God was real.”

But Perry was also dealing with a certainty of something else during those early years of life—a quiet struggle deep within her.

“I noticed that I liked girls as early as kindergarten,” Perry recalls. “I didn’t know what to call it or what it even was at the time. I knew it was something I felt, but I also knew it was something that wasn’t to be discussed.”

It’s difficult to learn how to trust God with all of my life, but I’m really thankful He didn’t make it any easier than it was. That’s how faith is really built. —@JackieHillPerryAs she grew up, she felt that inclination couldn’t stay quiet within her. When she reached her teens, those feelings began to scream so loudly she felt she couldn’t ignore them.

“By the time I hit high school, I was getting more and more comfortable with the feelings inside of me. I made up my mind: I was going to pursue them.”

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