Brent: The Heart Reader

WYNN WAGNER now has an honest-to-gosh dad-gum mother-in-law named Rita. He and his husband — Rick Wagner — were married in Washington DC, after shacking up since the 1990s. Before the marriage, both their last names were Wagner. Nevertheless, Wynn announced that he was taking Rick’s last name. “Yikes,” he says. “In-laws? I have in-laws now? Nobody told me anything about that. I have nothing to wear, and my hair’s a mess.” They were also married in the Old Catholic Church.  Texas doesn’t recognize the civil marriage because it sanctions marriage apartheid at the expense of personal rights. It doesn’t recognize their church marriage because Texas does not accept religious liberty and other pesky rights itemized in the America’s constitution. Dr. Wagner holds a Th.D. from St. Wolbodo Theological Seminary. He also holds degrees from St. Alban Seminary and TCU. Wynn — the son of Swedish nationals but adopted by an unsuspecting and otherwise innocent family in Fort Worth — has written numerous gay and spiritual books, including the Vamp Camp series, influential, Commitment Issues, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Old Catholic Church, and Recovering Catholic. He was the editor of a hand full of liturgical texts currently in use around the world. A retired archbishop writes explicit gay romance novels. It’s a niche. Years ago, he was a programmer who helped write the tax software used by some of the world’s largest corporations. He also wrote Opus-CBCS, a computer bulletin board system that was wildly popular in the 1980s. Opus generated millions of dollars for HIV and AIDS, back when almost nobody was helping fund research or caring for those suffering from the disease. He wrote an article called “HIV: Day One” for those who have just learned they have HIV. It is considered one of the most widely read pieces for HIV patients and has been translated into a dozen languages, including American Sign Language. Before programming and writing, Wynn was a broadcaster in radio in Texas and New York. Before that, he was a pimply-faced kid who huffily and brazenly ignored his adopted grandmother’s pleas to pay attention to semicolons and participle phrases because he might need them someday. Wynn is a member of The Authors Guild and the Romans Writers of America.