ON THE FREEDOM TRAIL Last year’s Equality Ride had more than 50 activists on board.

Sitting down to spar about gay issues with fiercely homophobic religious leaders may sound like your idea of a nightmare, but it’s actually a passion for some queer activists. And that’s a good thing, since the efforts of Soulforce—a national organization that fights for LGBT religious freedoms—have managed to change both minds and policies over the years.

“It’s not about arguing Bible passages, but more to put a face on who they’re demonizing,” notes Andrew Brewer, founder of Soulforce NYC, the local chapter of the Lynchburg, Virginia–based national organization. And now, to raise awareness about the work of the nonprofit—specifically its annual Equality Ride, a tour of college campuses that seeks to enlighten religious students and administrators across the country—Brewer has organized the Ari Gold Equality Ride Concert, a night of entertainment starring pop singer Gold. Other talents on the bill include comedian Judy Gold, vocalists Adam Joseph and Jason Walker, actor Anthony Rapp, and Project Runway’s Jack Mackenroth.

Soulforce was founded ten years ago by the Rev. Dr. Mel White and his partner Gary Nixon as an outlet for LGBT nonviolent direct actions, with an aim to create change and work toward inclusion within religious organizations. That appealed to Brewer, a New York network-television executive who contacted White to see how he could get involved. Brewer, who comes from an evangelical Christian background, was active as a teenager in the Jim Rayburn–founded Young Life ministry. But his beliefs started to unravel when he began Bible college, and spent time looking closely at the religious passages. “I thought, Hold it—this doesn’t really add up,” recalls Brewer, who began to move away from Christianity at around the same time he was coming out. Though he no longer considers himself a Christian—unlike the vast majority of Soulforce members, who are religious and queer—he finds solace in using his past to counter homophobes.

“I use my Bible knowledge to sit across from these various pastors in Brooklyn,” he says, referring folks who preach anti-gay rhetoric. “But it’s more about telling my story and sharing my background. For a lot of these people, it’s the first time they’ve met an LGBT person. While I don’t think they’re going to change their minds, they may think twice before they take a swipe from the pulpit.”

Performer Ari Gold was drawn to Soulforce for reasons similar to Brewer’s. “I thought it was a perfect match because they work with religious organizations and I come from an Orthodox Jewish background,” says the openly gay singer, adding that he attended a yeshiva for both grammar school and high school before making the secular leap to New York University. “Growing up, I felt like if anyone found out I was gay, I would be excommunicated by my community. I heard a lot from rabbis that wasn’t exactly comforting.” Gold says he began to truly find himself once he got to NYU—and that he feels for young people who are gay and attending conservative colleges and are told that they are sinful. “In college, to continue to hear those negative messages can be so damaging,” he says.

It’s exactly those messages that the Equality Ride seeks to change. An annual event started in 2006 by Soulforce Q—the organization’s Minneapolis-based youth segment—the ride takes up to 55 young people on a whirlwind bus tour to various faith-based colleges in an attempt to hold open dialogues with students and administrators. This year’s ride sets off into the deep South on October 1.

“It was really, really wild,” says Jarrett Lucas, 22, a Soulforce Q organizer who has been on both rides and will be on the next—even though he was arrested three times and held overnight in a Georgia jail during last year’s journey. Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and turned away by his family for being gay when he was just 14, Lucas attended college early and soon found his calling as an activist.

While the Equality Ride participants sometimes get asked to leave by schools or even arrested by authorities, they are often welcomed—and listened to, like at the Baptist Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Amazingly, the college did away with its policy banning homosexual conduct after students and administrators took part in a dialogue with riders last year. “I see this as the defining issue of civil rights in a way,” Lucas says. “One theologian called [homophobia] the last acceptable injustice. No one should experience discrimination. Period.”

The Ari Gold Equality Ride Concert is Apr 16, 2008. See sfnyc.org.