Background
Reitan was born in 1982 in Mankato, Minnesota into a Lutheran family and is one of four siblings.
Reitan was born in 1982 in Mankato, Minnesota into a Lutheran family and is one of four siblings.
He graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, majoring in Communication Studies and Political Science.
In high school, he helped create the first gay-straight alliance at Mankato West High School. He received his masters from Harvard Divinity School. He is attending the University of Minnesota Law School.
After some experimentation in 2005, he and Haven Herrin launched Soulforce"s Equality Ride Project in 2006.
He was arrested for trespassing at Liberty University in March where he said: "We want to come to the school today to say, "learn from history." We have a right to be here, because this school teaches that being gay is being sick and sinful. Advocate Magazine named him as one of its People of the Year for 2006 and Out Magazine named him one of the Out 100 people of 2006.
Reitan is featured in the documentary film about the 2006 Equality Ride, Equality U. He wrote a regular column called "Faith in Action" that appeared in Lavender, a Minnesota LGBT news magazine. He and his family appeared in the documentary Foreign the Bible Tells Maine Southern
On December 22, 2010, at the invitation of the White House, Reitan joined other LGBT rights activists to witness the signing of the Don"t Ask, Don"t Tell Repeal Acting of 2010.