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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

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He’d Rather Die Than Come Out: Kane Evans

For years, Kane Evans believed there were worse things than living a lie. Coming out was one of them.

He built a life that looked the way it was supposed to look — masculinity, family, faith, career. But underneath it was a secret he was convinced could cost him everything. At his lowest point, Kane believed he would rather die than tell the people he loved that he was gay.

In this episode of The Secret Is Out, we explore what it was like for Kane growing up with faith and expectations that left little room for who he really was, being a closeted professional rugby player, and eventually reaching the point where hiding was no longer something he could survive.

This isn’t a neat coming-out story. It’s about fear, religion, sports, family, and coming out later in life — and what happens when the life you worked so hard to hold together is the very thing keeping you from being yourself.

US Suicide Hotline: Call or text 988

References

Nine Network — 100% Footy, James Bracey interview with Kane Evans, June 8, 2026. (Primary source)
ABC News Australia, Nick Campton, “Rugby league must rise to Kane Evans’s level of courage,” June 9, 2026.
Associated Press, “Rugby league international Kane Evans comes out as gay in a TV interview,” June 2026.
Reuters, “Rugby league — Former NRL player Evans comes out as gay,” June 9, 2026.
ABC News Australia, “Kane Evans coming out ‘may have saved many lives,’ says Sydney Roosters great,” June 9, 2026.
The Guardian / Australian Associated Press, “Former NRL player Kane Evans finally ‘free’ after coming out as gay,” June 9, 2026.
Sky Sports, “Kane Evans: Former Hull FC prop comes out as gay in emotional interview,” June 8, 2026.
http://NRL.com, Tony Webeck, “Evans latest to credit Fijian influence,” February 12, 2016.
The Fiji Times, “Evans ready for Bati campaign,” June 18, 2017.
The Fiji Times, “Kane, joker for Bati,” November 19, 2017.
New Zealand Warriors, “Vodafone Warriors sign giant Eels prop Kane Evans,” August 12, 2020.
ABC Religion & Ethics, Andre Afamasaga, “Kane Evans, coming out and the words Pacific Rainbow people long to hear,” June 12, 2026.

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Chely Wright: Country Music, Faith and Coming Out

Chely Wright had built the life she’d dreamed about since she was a little girl in Kansas. She was a successful country music singer, had a number-one hit, and was part of a world she loved. But behind it all, she was hiding something she had spent years believing could destroy everything she’d worked for.

Chely was gay.

In this episode of The Secret Is Out, we look at Chely Wright’s coming-out story — her deeply held Christian faith, the pressure to stay closeted in country music, the relationships she kept hidden, and the years she spent trying to reconcile who she was with who she believed she was supposed to be.

It’s also the story of what finally happened when keeping the secret became harder than telling it.

Chely Wright became the first major country music artist to publicly come out as gay. Her story says a lot about country music and LGBTQ acceptance, but even more about faith, shame, love, and what it can cost to spend years hiding a part of yourself.

www.thesecretisOUT.com
IG: @thesecretisOUTpodcast

References
Wright, Chely. Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer. Pantheon, 2010.
The principal first-person source for Chely’s childhood, faith, sexuality, relationships, career, suicidal crisis and decision to come out.
AfterEllen, “Interview with Chely Wright,” 2010.
Useful for Chely’s account of “Julia,” the L Word DVD story, her relationship with her mother, and the sequence in which she came out to Rodney Crowell and began writing Like Me. AfterEllen interview (https://afterellen.com/interview-with-chely-wright/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Out, “In Her Own Wright,” May 4, 2010.
Long-form interview published as Chely came out publicly. Particularly important for the January 26, 2006 crisis and the years preceding it. Out interview (https://www.out.com/entertainment/2010/05/04/her-own-wright?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Curve, Chely Wright coming-out interview, 2010.
First-person material about the childhood bargain with God, including Chely’s later realization that a nine-year-old could hardly be expected to understand the bargain she was making.
The Iconic Midlife with Roxy Manning, “Owning My Truth: Chely Wright on Fear, Faith, and Finally Being Free,” 2026.
A valuable recent retrospective in which Chely revisits her childhood faith, the suicidal crisis, her decision to live and come out, and her distinction between spiritual acceptance and “country music jeopardy.”
Los Angeles Times, “Country singer Chely Wright finds strength to face the music,” May 7, 2010.
Contemporary reporting about Chely’s fear of Nashville, the absence of openly gay role models in country music, and her account of the conversation with John Rich. Los Angeles Times profile (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-may-07-la-et-chely-wright-20100507-story.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
Metro Weekly, “Chely Wright’s Second Act: Out, Proud, and Living Her Truth,” 2018.
Retrospective interview covering the end of Chely’s long-term relationship, sale of their shared home, fear of being outed and the period leading into her 2006 crisis.
CBS News, “Second Cup: Chely Wright,” May 21, 2010.
Contemporary coverage of Like Me, the accompanying album, her religious struggle and her explanation of why she concealed her sexuality while pursuing country music.
Autostraddle, interview with Chely Wright, 2010.
Especially useful for the aftermath of coming out and the difference between private expressions of support from Nashville figures and willingness to support her publicly.
CBS News, “Chely Wright: Nashville’s quietly rejected me,” 2012.
Chely’s later assessment of what actually happened to her relationship with Nashville after coming out.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Official source for the episode’s content advisory. The Lifeline provides free, confidential support 24 hours a day in the United States and its territories by calling or texting 988. (988 Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/get-help/?utm_source=chatgpt.com))
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/get-help/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)