Rev. Irene Monroe is an acclaimed religion columnist, public theologian, and speaker. As an African American lesbian feminist theologian, she speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible and is a sought-after speaker, preacher and writer about race, gender, religion and spirituality.

Rev. Monroe is the former Coordinator of the African American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion. She currently is a Huffington Post blogger and as syndicated queer religion columnist, her writings appear in 43 states across the country and in the U.K. and in publications such as The Advocate, New England Bay Windows, Boston In Newsweekly, and The Witness.

Monroe’s columns are an integration of African American, gender, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist, Monroe writes about the role religion plays in discrimination against LGBTQ people and how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppressions such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.

Monroe has spoke at dozens of universities, events and conferences, including at Harvard, MIT, Brandeis, the American Academy of Religion, Penn State, Brown, Yale, Vassar, John Hopkins, and the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In addition, she has preached in many churches, including Harvard's Memorial Church, The Riverside Church in New York City, and San Francisco's Metropolitan Community Church.

Monroe has received numerous honors and awards for her achievements including The Cambridge Peace and Justice Award, the Boston Certificate of Recognition for continued leadership and dedication to Boston's Gay and Lesbian Community, the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, the Unitarian Universalist Feminist Theology Award. and she was bestowed the honor of being grand marshal of the Boston Pride Celebration.

Monroe has been profiled in O, Oprah Magazine, CNN’s Paula Zahn Now and Headline News. She was also profiled in a segment during the Gay Pride Episode of In the Life, which was nominated for an educational Emmy. She is in the film For the Bible Tells Me So, an exploration of the intersection between religion and homosexuality. Her coming out story is profiled in CRISIS: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social, and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing up Gay in America.

Monroe is a doctoral candidate in the Religion, Gender and Culture program at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, and a Ford Foundation fellow. She is a graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. Monroe sits on the advisory boards of several national LGBTQ organizations.