About the Author

You can contact me by emailing matt AT mattalgren DOT com.

Welcome to Asterisk, where I offer opinions about gay rights issues in both the Christian church and in US civil law. More on that in a minute, but first a few words about me and my background.

I’m a white guy living in rural southwest Ohio. I’m in my mid-30s and I sit behind a desk and hammer away at my computer keyboard all day. I run late more often than not. I’m not as active at church as I should be and I take classes at night to hopefully someday get a BA.

I was brought up in a little country Methodist church where for a year or so, Dad was president of the Trustees and Mom was president of the UMW. We were there just about every time the church doors were unlocked. I’ve known more good church people than bad, though I’ve had run ins with a few bad ones from time to time.

I came out on October 11, 2007 (I swear I didn’t know about the date). Most of my early experience was positive, but I had some delayed negatives thrown in later. What surprised me was how my new openness has changed not just me, but how other people act around me.