WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate candidate Tim Shepard was working as an evangelical Christian missionary eight years ago when he came out as a gay man.
Shepard, a 34-year-old Kansas City activist, has made LGBTQ equality one of the central themes of his grassroots campaign for the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. Shepard will be participating in Pride Month events throughout the state in the coming days.
Raised in an evangelical family in Kearney and Excelsior Springs, Shepard once struggled with his identity and did not come out until the age of 26 after working as a missionary in Morocco.
