In 1996, Boyd received an invitation to be poet/writer-in-residence at the Cathedral Center of Los Angeles.

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An avid gardener and opera fan, he shares a home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles with his partner, writer and religious activist Mark Thompson. The two men have been together since 1984.

On May 16, 2004 Reverend J. Jon Bruno, the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles, blessed the union of Boyd and Thompson to heavy criticism from conservatives. The men were the first to receive such a blessing since the Episcopal lawmaking body approved the practice earlier that year.

Boyd has been a leader in challenging anti-gay positions within Christian churches. The Episcopal Church does not sanction gay marriage and, for years, it held that that homosexuality was incompatible with Christianity. The changing stance of Episcopalians can be attributed in part to Boyd's influence.

The Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church in the U. S. A. is a part, has dealt with issues of sexuality in complex ways, not all of them favorable to its glbtq membership.

The glbtq history of Los Angeles, the U.S.'s second largest metropolis, is replete with cultural, social, and political firsts.

Today's glbtq spirituality movements must be seen as part of a long history in which gender-special people were considered sacred to their tribe or family because of their obvious spiritual gifts.

Photographer Crawford Barton captured the blossoming of an openly gay culture in San Francisco in the 1960s and 1970s.

Carl Bean, founder of Unity Fellowship Church, gave up a promising entertainment career to pursue his vocation as a clergyman to minister to glbtq Christians of color.

Troy Perry is the founder of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a Protestant denomination devoted to ministering to the spiritual needs of glbtq people.

The Right Reverend Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man to be consecrated a bishop of the Episcopal Church, has earned strong support from members of his diocese, but has become a lightning rod for conservatives within the Anglican Communion.