Hi, this is Christina Cauterucci, and you're listening to Outward, Slate's show about queer life, culture, and politics.

We've been away for a little while, but we're back next week with a new project that we're really excited about.

It's a narrative series called When We All Get to Heaven, the story of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, one of the first gay positive churches.

But this isn't just any podcast series.

It's a story told through music, church sermons, and a treasure trove of archival tapes rescued from the trash.

It's made by the team at Eureka Street Productions, and it's unlike anything we've done

before at Slate. We're so excited for you to hear it. Here's a sneak peek. Come back next week for the

first two episodes, plus a conversation with me, Brian Louder, and the show's host, Lynn Gerber.

You won't want to miss it. If you were wandering around the Castro, San Francisco's gay neighborhood,

on a Sunday evening in the 80s or the 90s, you might have come across a pink and purple church

squeezed between two houses. Not where you'd expect a hopping church scene. But the metropolitan

community church was different. What a bright, shiny, unapologetically gay place to be.

We were really trying to address what just Christianity look like.

If your starting point is, sexuality is good.

You'd also notice a lot of men in the Castro sick with AIDS.

We were going to memorial services.

It seemed like every other week.

In 1987, this church started recording its services for people who were too sick to attend.

When we all get to heaven uses these recordings to tell the story of this queer church

and how it made meaning from AIDS.

You can find new episodes on Slate's podcast Outward.

Follow Outward now to listen.

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