Mary Hunt is a Catholic lesbian theologian. She earned a doctorate at the Graduate Theological Union where she wrote one of the earliest works on feminist liberation theology. She also earned masters degrees at Harvard Divinity School and the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley where she trained for priesthood.
Hunt has written a range of works on LGBT themes, including her book, Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship (1991), in which she claims that friendship and not marriage is the most adequate relational paradigm for mature adults. She is on the editorial board of the journals "Theology and Sexuality, Religion and Abuse", and "Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion".
She is a contributor to many collections on sexuality including Catholicism and Sexual Diversity edited by Patricia Beattie Jung in which she wrote "Catholic Lesbian Feminist Theology," which she hopes will be a sketch for a portrait.
Mary Hunt is the co-founder and co-director, with her longtime partner liturgist and therapist Diann Neu, of WATER, the "Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual" in Silver Spring, Maryland. WATER is a LGBT friendly organization that offers programs, projects and publications on feminist issues in religion.
In over two decades of work in the LGBT community, Mary Hunt has served on the boards of New Ways Ministry and the Religious Consultation on Homosexuality. She is a member of CLOUT (Christian Lesbians Out) and Dignity. She was a longtime supporter of the Conference for Catholic Lesbians.
She has lectured at Kirkridge Conference Center's LGBT weekends, spoken at ILGO (International Lesbian Gay Organizations) and preached and lectured in scores of other settings. She currently serves on the national board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion and is a member of the advisory board of the LGBT Religious Archives Network.
Mary Hunt and Diann Neu live in Silver Spring, Maryland with their daughter Catherine Fei Min Hunt-Neu.
Source: The LGBT Religious Archives Network - http://www.lgbtran.org/Pioneers.asp
