LGBTQ+ Community Embraces Rerelease of Avalon’s ‘Testify to Love’ From Founding Member Who Says He Was Ousted for Being Gay

Almost 30 years after it topped contemporary Christian music (CCM) charts, “Testify to Love” is back with a fresh sound and a new fanbase. Michael Passons, a founding member of the Christian pop group Avalon, has rereleased the hit song with Ty Herndon, featuring former Avalon member Melissa Greene.

Passons, 60, revealed in 2020 that he is gay. Ty Herndon, a country singer, also is gay. At Herndon’s 2023 marriage to a man, Passons served as a groomsman; Greene officiated Herndon’s wedding.

Last December, Passons described being forced out of Avalon in 2003 because he “didn’t fit into the [group’s] conservative narrative.” After giving his “whole life” to the Christian church and faith, the singer told interviewer Patrick Custer, they “threw me out at the first hint that I violated a Scripture in Deuteronomy.”

RELATED: Michael Passons: Ouster From CCM’s Avalon for Being Gay Was Due to Fellow Group Member’s ‘Aggressive Campaign’

Gay Community Embraces ‘Testify to Love’ Rerelease

“Testify to Love,” the hit single from Avalon’s 1997 album “A Maze of Grace,” opens with the words, “All the colors of the rainbow.” Now, according to fans, the song is becoming an anthem that affirms queer love.

The new rendition, which features “an all-star chorus of emerging LGBTQ artists and advocates,” tries to “honor the song’s core message while fostering a spirit of inclusion,” according to GLAAD. Passions explained, “For years, I sang these [lyrics] while hiding who I truly was. To record this now…standing fully in my truth—is a full-circle moment I once thought impossible. It serves as a testimony that love does not exclude.”

Country musician Ty Herndon, who works on the annual Concert For Love & Acceptance in Nashville, Tennessee, said, “This song has always been about the power of love.” This morning (May 19), Herndon posted, “We hit NUMBER ONE on the iTunes Chart overnight y’all! We didn’t know we were starting a movement! Thanks for all your amazing videos, messages, and affirmations. Keep testifying! God’s love is for EVERYONE — the church lives in YOU! Not the other way around.”

Herndon, the first mainstream male country artist to come out as gay, shared a reel of feedback from happy fans. Several indicated they were celebrating “a day of healing for deconstructed exvangelicals.” In the comments, someone wrote:

Kids of the 90s with religious trauma who ended up actually being gay. You know what to do. Let’s blast our families with this bop. Let’s blast our feeds with this bop! Let’s heal and allow the parts of ourself who still deeply love God (but love how God made us) be seen! I’m at the place in deconstruction — where accepting myself fully means being PROUD TO BE GAY AND to equally be proud to be a follower of Christ!

RELATED: Wes Huff Shares What He Believes Has Led to so Many Faith Deconstructions

When the song released last Friday, Herndon shared, “For Michael, this is more than a cover; it’s a restoration. For all of us, it’s a reminder that faith, identity, and love belong to everyone. No exceptions.”