Send us Fan Mail

Not Broken | Michael Passons
The Christian Singer from Avalon Who Refused Conversion Therapy and Found His Voice Again

In 2003, Michael Passons was called into a meeting with the other members of Avalon, one of the biggest groups in contemporary Christian music. By the time it ended, he no longer had a job.

The public was told Michael had left to pursue a solo career. The truth was much harder: he was gay, his bandmates knew it, and he had refused to enter conversion therapy.

Michael had spent eight years helping Avalon earn gold records, Dove Awards, Grammy nominations and twenty number-one Christian radio singles. Then he seemingly disappeared. Behind the silence was a man trying to rebuild his life after losing his career, his community and nearly everything he thought made him valuable.

This episode follows Michael from his childhood in Yazoo City, Mississippi, to the height of Christian music fame—and into the Nashville living room where it all came apart. It also traces the long road back: coming out publicly, returning to music and reclaiming “Testify to Love” as the inclusive anthem its words had always promised it could be.

Michael Passons was never broken. But it took him more than twenty years to stop living as though he needed to be fixed.

Content advisory: This episode includes discussion of conversion therapy, religious rejection and depression.

References and further reading

• Michael Passons Breaks Silence: His Truth About Avalon, Christian Music & 20-Year Return — The Patrick Custer Show

• Former Avalon Singer on Coming Out, Getting Ousted and Where He Is Today — Washington Blade

• A ’90s Christian Hit Song Is Now Blooming as a Queer Anthem — Sojourners

• Testifying to Love: An Interview with Michael Passons, Ty Herndon and Melissa Greene — Unbound

• Pushed Out of Christian Pop, Michael Passons Reclaims an Old Hit as an Affirming Anthem — WPLN News

• Michael Passons: Official Biography