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.
“Obviously, I suppressed my sexual orientation for a lot of years and when it just got to the point that I couldn’t do that anymore, I reconciled my faith background. I grew up evangelical and very proud to be evangelical ... and finally something clicked in my personal relationship with God,” Shepard said.
But Shepard said coming out cost him his job with Pioneers, an international Christian missionary organization.
This personal history of losing his employment because of his orientation is at the forefront of Shepard’s campaign as he runs in Missouri, one of 27 states that does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“One of the tenets is representation for every single Missourian,” Shepard said. “That includes LGBTQ representation. We’re in this state and not just in Kansas City and St. Louis.”
Shepard helped found the Missouri Democratic Party’s LGBTQ Caucus earlier this year. His campaign materials prominently feature his husband, Drek Shepard, and their daughter, Tylan Shepard.
He’s also making a number of appearances at Pride Month events, including a June 18 tailgate at Kauffman Stadium for the Kansas City Royals’ Pride Night. And on June 26, he’ll travel to Nevada, Missouri, for the small town’s first Pride celebration.
“We’re bringing people from Joplin, from Kansas City and just having a big block party. It’s going to be a good time,” Shepard said about the Nevada event.
Missouri has never elected an openly gay person to federal office and only two openly LGBTQ people, Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, have ever won election to the U.S. Senate.
Shepard faces an uphill climb in Missouri, where Republicans have dominated in recent elections.
As he seeks the Democratic nomination, the first-time candidate may also have trouble keeping pace in fundraising after fellow Democratic candidates state Sen. Scott Sifton and Marine veteran Lucas Kunce both pulled in six-figure cash hauls last fundraising quarter, compared to Shepard’s modest haul of $17,056.
The GOP field for Missouri’s open Senate seat includes Rep. Vicky Hartzler, an outspoken opponent of the Equality Act, legislation that would nationally bar discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
But Shepard, who is a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, is optimistic that he’ll be able to compete in the wide-open Democratic field. He is using the slogan “Missouri Uncompromised,” a pro-diversity retort to the 1820 act of Congress that allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state.
In addition to his stance on LGBTQ and racial issues, Shepard supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and calls access to health care a human right.
