Christian Singer Jennifer Knapp Comes Out

When Jennifer Knapp settles in for coffee and a conversation in a midtown Manhattan apartment, a surprising Australian drawl comes tripping out of her mouth. “Do I really?” she laughs when I tell her she sounds Aussie-born and bred, even though she has roots in Kansas and music ties that are thoroughly Nashville. “I’m easing back into my Southern drawl,” she says with a laugh, but she’s not quite there yet.

The accent is earned — Knapp spent much of the past eight years living in Sydney, traveling through the outback “when I needed to be in touch with the earth.” In September 2002, Knapp, now 33, walked away from her career as a million-record-selling, multiple-Dove-award winning Christian singer-songwriter. On the lineup of the first Lilith Fair, she had crossover appeal even then, though her name is most indelibly known to the fans of “Jesus music.”

The rumors dogged her then as they dog her now. They said Jennifer Knapp canceled all her gigs and sold every inch of gear save one acoustic guitar because she was a lesbian. She stopped answering her e-mail, going months without talking even to her mother or her manager, because she was a lesbian. She dropped out of sight because she was a lesbian. And now, poised to release her first studio album in years, Jennifer Knapp is ready to face those rumors.

Turns out they’re true: Jennifer Knapp is a lesbian.