Author: Leslie Westbrook

I grew up in a Unitarian Universlist household.  When I was a high schooler my Liberal Religious Youth group advisor was Jim Reeb, assistant minister at All Souls UU Church in Washington, D.C.  In the spring of my sophomore year of college Jim was murdered in Selma, Alabama. I vowed to become a religious professional.  I received theological school degrees from Crane Theological School of Tufts University (1969) and Boston University (1973). I officiated at my first gay wedding in October of 1973, one month after being ordained at Arlington Street Church and being installed as Assistant Minister.  Since then, I have held ministerial positions of Associate Minister in Jacksonville, Florida, Consultant for Adult Programs and Minister for Women and Religion at the UUA, and interim minister for Bell Street Chapel in Providence, Rhode Island.  In the 80’s I specialized, studying at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy in Chicago and receiving a doctorate in Clinical Social Work from the Institute for Clinical Social Work of Chicago.  For several decades (1986 to the present) I have been a Community Minister and a licensed psychotherapist in the State of Maryland, with offices in Bethesda and Kensington, Maryland.  I retired from active ministry in April of 2020.