Becky Bauer planted Melbourne Inclusive Church 15 years ago. They've been affirming from day one. Before anyone was offering them buildings. Before the mainstream church was having this conversation.

In this episode, Aaron and Ben sit down with Becky to hear the full story: from being adopted into a family that ministered to hippies in Michigan in the 70s, to finding an affirming church at a Pride event, to planting MIC in Melbourne, surviving early hostility from both the church and the queer community, and now helping other congregations navigate their journeys toward affirmation. She also reflects on why Rocky Roggio's 1946 work is such a pivotal tool for those conversations.

"The road to change is paved with love.", Becky Bauer

Becky Bauer is the founding pastor of Melbourne Inclusive Church. Find MIC at michurch.org.au.

Follow Queerfully Made on Spotify so the next episode lands in your queue.

Instagram / TikTok: @queerfully.made

In 1946, 22 men sat on a Bible translation committee and made a decision. A 21-year-old seminary student challenged them in writing. They admitted he had a point. But the word was already in print. And then it spread.

Sharon "Rocky" Roggio is the director and producer of 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted a Culture, the documentary that spent a decade investigating how the word "homosexual" ended up in the Bible, what it's done to LGBTQ+ people of faith, and what the archival record actually shows.

Rocky grew up in the church as the daughter of a pastor. She's a lesbian woman. She made a film to find common ground with her non-affirming parents through the Bible. She ended up changing how people around the world read it.This is a conversation about history, faith, family, and what happens when you ask the question nobody thought to ask.

PLEASE NOTE: We apologise in advance for the audio quality dropping about two-thirds of the way through. We had a system glitch and thankfully Sharon has recorded audio on her end so nothing was lost!

https://www.1946themovie.com/

Queerfully Made is the podcast where we explore the intersection of faith, sexuality, and gender. Hosted by Aaron Kelly and Ben Nicholson.

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@queerfullymade/podcasts

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you get your podcastsInstagram: @queerfully.made

TikTok: @queerfully.made

#queerfullymade #lgbtqchristian #queerfaith #affirmingchurch #1946movie

Coming out is the doorway. What happens on the other side is the work no one warned you about.

Part 1 of the ReMade series. Aaron and Ben on how to rediscover your authentic identity after the church handed you one for years. The framework that runs the whole conversation, the friends who saw them first, the calling vs. direction reframe, and the grief that doesn't care about logic.

"Exposure shapes belief. Belief shapes identity."

⚠️ Discusses religious trauma, conversion practices, and grief.

Find us at queerfullymade.com and @queerfully.made on Instagram and TikTok.

Healing is a church word. Recovery is the truth.

Sam Sellers and Elise Herde, co-founders of the Religious Trauma Collective, join Aaron and Ben to unpack what it actually takes to come out the other side of high-control religion. We get into why "just be better, not bitter" is rubbish advice, why anger is information rather than sin, and why your nervous system still flinches in relationships long after you've left the building.

Plus the unhinged crossover between Pentecostal services and Tupperware parties, the one question that reveals whether you're in a high-control group, and a full-blown debate about whether "community" should be cancelled.

Sam and Elise are therapists, ex-evangelicals, and the founders of the resource that didn't exist when we needed it. The Religious Trauma Collective is rebranding to Religious Trauma and Cults to broaden the scope beyond religious systems.

Their 2026 Online Event runs 19th to 21st of June with 18 sessions including Dr Hillary McBride, Tia Levings, and David Farrier.

Event: https://www.thereligioustraumacollective.com/annual-event

Tickets: https://religious-trauma-collective-event-2026.heysummit.com/

queerfullymade.com

What if one of the biggest voices in Australian Pentecostal theology told you the church got it wrong?Dr. Lynn Moresi is not your average theologian. She has a Doctorate in Theology, lectures at Bible college and university, and has preached from some of the most influential Pentecostal stages in Australia. She is also Aaron's former Bible college lecturer. And she is here, on this podcast, telling you that you can be queer and Christian and there is nothing to fix.That takes guts. Because coming on this podcast alone is going to cost her.We get into all of it. The moment things shifted for her theologically. Why it is so hard for people to become allies when they have nothing personally at stake. How she actually has those conversations with people mid-journey. The rigid black and white evangelical mindset that keeps people trapped. And why the deeper you go in theology the more that rigidity just falls apart.She also breaks down what a Jesus hermeneutic means in plain language. And when you hold LGBTQ+ identity up to it? All you find is love. Every single time.This episode is for the ones who were handed a Bible and told there was only one way to read it. The ones still secretly Googling at 2am hoping someone with credentials will just say it clearly. Here she is. She said it.🔗 Learn more about Dr. Lynn Moresi: https://lynnmoresi.com/📲 Follow Queerfully Made:Instagram: https://instagram.com/queerfully.madeTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@queerfully.madeYouTube: https://youtube.com/@queerfullymade🎙️ Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and everywhere you get podcasts.Queerfully Made is hosted by Aaron Kelly and Ben Nicholson, two ex-evangelical leaders having conversations at the intersection of faith, sexuality & gender.

In Season 1, Pastor Marcy Paynter from Gateway Church told us about a young man in her congregation. He'd grown up in their youth group. He wanted to lead. The leadership team gave her the unenviable job of telling him he could serve, but only if he never acted on his sexuality. No boyfriend. No physical relationship. No future.

She told him over dinner. She never saw him again.

Years later, a friend sent Marcy a podcast link. She listened to a young man telling his story anonymously. Halfway through, she realised it was him. She cried. She and her co-pastor Beth Bolmers began the long work of becoming an affirming church. Today Gateway is fully affirming, embracing and celebrating LGBTQ+ people in every part of their community.

This is that young man's side of the story.Sam Clement-Remy reached out to us after hearing his own story told back to him in our Season 1 episode with Marcy and Beth. He had no idea Gateway had become affirming. He had no idea his story was the catalyst.

In this episode he sits down with Aaron and Ben to share his version of events. The dinner. The ultimatum. The years that followed. The grief of losing a community he loved. The faith that has evolved and shifted into something that looks different now, but is still very much his. And what it felt like to discover, by accident, that the church that asked him to choose had eventually changed its mind.

This is the story of someone who didn't just survive the intersection. He's the reason an entire church had to rethink which side of it they were standing on.

You can't be what you can't see. So we keep showing it.

Subscribe and come back every week. We've got more like this coming.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Guest: Sam Clement-Remy

Hosts: Aaron Kelly and Ben Nicholson

Recorded in Naarm, Melbourne.

LISTEN BACK TO SEASON 1

The original episode with Pastor Marcy Paynter and Pastor Beth Bolmers from Gateway Church is on our channel. If you haven't heard it yet, watch this episode first, then go back to that one. The two together are the full story.

FIND US

Website: queerfullymade.com

Instagram: @queerfullymade

TikTok: @queerfullymade

LISTEN - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.

ON RADIOHeard on Joy 94.9. Tuesdays at 10pm

#QueerfullyMade #LGBTQChristian #ExEvangelical #FaithAndSexuality #QueerFaith #GatewayChurch #AffirmingChurch #DeconstructionPodcast #LGBTQPodcast #QueerTheology #ChurchHurt #SamClementRemy

So what now?

Season 1 of Queerfully Made platformed the stories. Ex-pastors, drag performers, advocates, affirming pastors, mental health professionals. People who had arrived at the intersection of faith, sexuality and gender, and lived to tell us what they found there.

But the question we kept circling back to was the one we couldn't answer in twelve episodes. What happens AFTER the intersection?In this Season 2 premiere, Aaron Kelly and Ben Nicholson sit down, just the two of them, to reckon with that question. They unpack the heart of Season 2. They debrief Pride season. And they preview what's coming this season. A few things to know going in.

→ This season we're not just telling stories of how people got to the intersection. We're asking how people make it through with as little damage as possible, and what happens on the streets that lead away from it.

→ The end goal here isn't to convert anyone. We're not interested in ultimatums. If you're queer and you've kept your faith, this is for you. If you're queer and you've let it go, this is for you. If you're somewhere in the messy middle, this is for you.

→ If you're an ally, a parent, a pastor, a friend trying to figure out how to actually show up, pull up a chair. The conversation needs you in it.

You can't be what you can't see. So we're going to keep showing it.Subscribe, hit the bell, and come back every week. We've got people booked who are going to wreck you in the best way.

It’s the Queerfully Made season finale.

Aaron and Ben sit down, no guests, just us, looking back on every raw conversation, every tear, every breakthrough from this year. We share the moments that wrecked us (in the best way), the lessons that actually stuck, and the questions you keep asking.

We’re taking December and January off to rest, breathe, and come back sharper. New episodes return late February 2026.

Until then: you belong, you’re not broken, and your story is still being written.Thank you for trusting us with yours this year.

See you in 2026 ❤️

Catch up on every episode now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.Drop your favourite moment from this season in the comments, we read them all.

#queerfullymade #lgbtq #lgbtqchristian #lesbian #gay #bi #trans #queer #christian #lgbtqinclusion #church #faithandsexuality #exvangelical #affirmingfaith #queerfaith #religioustrauma #seasonfinale #podcastlove