Join us in conversation with Justin Ryan, nationally recognized singer, speaker, writer, and LGBTQ+ Christian advocate whose music and ministry have reached audiences across the United States for more than two decades. A former Nashville session vocalist who has worked alongside some of country and gospel music’s most celebrated artists, Justin combines southern gospel roots with a message of radical grace, inclusion, and hope.
He is the creator and host of Southern Gospel Sissy, a weekly online program that explores faith, justice, and spirituality through music and storytelling from the margins. Justin also serves with BALM Ministries, working alongside his longtime mentor, Marsha Stevens-Pino—widely known as the pioneering artist behind “For Those Tears I Died” and often called the mother of contemporary Christian music. Together, they continue a legacy of ministry that has helped create space for LGBTQ+ Christians within the church.
Following the loss of his husband, Scott Bryant, in 2024 after a courageous battle with cancer, Justin’s work has increasingly focused on grief, resilience, and finding hope after profound loss. He is currently working on a new book that chronicles their journey through cancer, care-giving, loss, and the healing that follows, offering an honest and heartfelt look at faith in life’s most difficult seasons.
Beginning in July 2026, Justin will also serve as a monthly columnist for Maryland OUTloud Magazine, where he will write about faith, LGBTQ+ inclusion, southern gospel music, grief, and the intersections of spirituality and everyday life.
Through concerts, speaking engagements, writing, and media ministry, Justin continues to build bridges between faith communities and LGBTQ+ people, sharing the conviction that God’s love is bigger than fear, grace is wider than exclusion, and there is a place at the table for ever.
We will also hear from both Annie Berkness of ALSO Youth about their organization and the local programs they offer, as well as Sarasota’s Dr Jacqueline Roller, Psy.D, clinical psychologist.
Annie Berkness of ALSO Youth