Singer-songwriter Jennifer Knapp--who rose to fame with a series of best-selling albums on Gotee Records in the 1990s and disappeared from the Christian music scene after her 2001 release, The Way I Am--announced this week that she is gay.

In an interview with several media outlets, including Reuters, Knapp acknowledged that she is gay--and her new album is not specifically targeting Christian radio stations and retailers. "I just wouldn't find it respectful at all to say, 'Hey, this is something that you want in your store next to your Jesus statue,'" she told Reuters. "It would just be disingenuous to try and convince someone that they needed to do that."

Letting Go, which will be released May 11 through Sony Music-owned independent distributor RED, marks her fourth album and first release since The Way I Am--which received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album.

Knapp has sold more than 1 million records since releasing her 1998 debut, Kansas. She toured relentlessly, was part of the lineup of the 1999 Lilith Fair tour and won a Dove Award.

Knapp pulls no punches in the first line of the Letting Go track, "Inside," singing, "I know they'll bury me before they hear the whole story."

"I hope that the defiance does come across as humble," she told Reuters. "If there's any frustration, it's trying to politely break the yoke of being asked to be something that I just can't be, and with all humility go: 'Just please be kind when you discover the truth.' It's kinda all you can do."

Knapp said she still considers herself a "person of faith" and recoils at the suggestion that she is turning her back on the church, Reuters reported. Despite being in an eight-year relationship with a woman, Knapp added that she is not a pro-homosexual activist or even a self-described lesbian.

Knapp, 36, is the latest Christian singer to disclose her struggle with homosexuality. Former American Idol star Clay Aiken--who had a book published by Thomas Nelson--and Ray Boltz, who retired from contemporary Christian music a few years ago after selling approximately 4.5 million records, both revealed in 2008 that they were gay.

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