Lydia Meredith is an author (The Gay Preacher’s Wife: How my Gay Husband Deconstructed My Life and Reconstructed My Faith, published by Simon and Schuster, October 2016), activist, founder of Beacon of Hope, Inc. and its Renaissance Learning Center that served Metro-Atlanta for 21 years strengthening families and communities and lifting poor children and their families out of poverty. She is also an advocate — speaking out strongly for same-sex children and youth. Lydia Meredith is mother of 3 sons and grandmother of 6 grandchildren.