Transgender is having a moment. A new television series, “Transparent,” is about a father who transitions to a woman; another series, “Orange Is the New Black,” features a transgender actress; and a reality series, just announced by Discovery Communications, will focus on transgender people in Kansas City. And, of course, Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner very publicly on television and the cover of Vanity Fair.

Transgender people are also becoming more visible in faith communities. There are several openly transgender Episcopal priests, and a transgender woman serving in a Carmelite order has written a book about her experience. A recent “transgender summit” in Berkeley, Calif., examined the role of transgender people in the Christian church. And even some evangelicals are showing signs of changed attitudes, with prominent evangelical teacher David Gushee recently announcing he favored LGBT inclusion. How far that will extend to transgender people remains to be seen.

How do faith communities respond to transgender people? Are they welcomed? Included? Excluded? Shunned? As the transgender community is becoming more vocal about its needs and rights, religious communities find themselves navigating a realm of possible responses.

This edition of ReligionLink looks at how faith groups, denominations and communities interact with the transgender individuals among them.

Recent developments

Some in the evangelical community — traditionally opposed to LGBT issues — have shown recent signs of being more accepting of gays and lesbians. Whether this will encompass the transgender community remains to be seen. Among the signs:

• In November, The Reformation Project, an ecumenical Christian organization that supports LGBT inclusion in the church, held a conference at which evangelical professor David Gushee announced he has changed his long-held opposition to LGBT inclusion.
• In October 2014, both the Vatican’s Synod on the Family and a major evangelical conference in Nashville, Tenn., featured “softer” language on LGBT people.

Background

• Read “Debunking the ‘Bathroom Bill’ Myth – Accurate Reporting on LGBT Nondiscrimination: A Guide for Journalists” published by GLAAD in collaboration with a coalition of state and national LGBT advocacy organizations in Feb. 2016.
• Read “The Real Christian Debate on Transgender Identity” by Emma Green in the Atlantic, June 4, 2015.
• Read a Nov. 12, 2014, story by Patricia Mazzei in the Miami Herald about opposition, some of it religious, to a proposed transgender anti-discrimination law.
• Read an Oct. 24, 2014, blog post by Jonathan Merritt for Religion News Service analyzing why Gushee’s new position on LGBT Christians is important.
• Watch an Oct. 17, 2014, segment for Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly about transgender and theology as it plays out in several Chicago communities of faith.
• Read a March 2, 2014, story for Al-Jazeera America about a Catholic nun’s ministry to the transgender community.
• Read an Aug. 19, 2013, analysis by Jonathan Merritt for Religion News Service about the complicated landscape transgender Christians navigate.
• Read a July 9, 2012, story for The Huffington Post about the Episcopal Church’s decision to ordain transgender people.
• Read a Nov. 8, 2011, story in BU Today about Cameron Partridge, the first openly transgender chaplain at Boston University.

Surveys, studies and reports

“Injustice at Every Turn” is a large-scale survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in 2011. Among its key findings:

• 41 percent of respondents reported suicidal thoughts, compared with 1.6 percent of the U.S. population.
• Those who are transgender experience double the rate of unemployment of the general population, and 90 percent of those who do work report experiencing harassment or discrimination on the job.
• 57 percent of transgender people have broken ties with family members.
• Among the transgender community, those who are African-American fare “far worse than all others in most areas examined.”

“Equality Rising” is a 2013 Human Rights Campaign report surveying the setbacks and accomplishments in LGBTQ rights worldwide. Its findings include:

• Countries that saw advances in transgender rights include the United States, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Nepal, Bangladesh, South Korea, Puerto Rico and Argentina.
• 238 transgender people were slain worldwide between November 2012 and November 2013, according to Transgender Europe, which tracks such deaths. Sixteen of those killings happened in the U.S. Transgender Europe says more than 1,300 transgender people in 60 countries have been slain since January 2008.

Definitions

In the LGBTQ community, words that become labels can be seen as confining or inaccurate, especially when referring to identity. The Kaleidoscope Resource Packet, published by the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Interests, has a vocabulary list of words commonly used in the context of LGBTQ issues that includes:

Gender identity: Describes the gender with which a person identifies (i.e., whether one perceives oneself
to be a man, a woman or describes oneself in some less conventional way) but can also be used to refer
to the gender that other people attribute to the individual on the basis of what they know from gender role
indications (clothing, hairstyle, et cetera). Gender identity may be affected by a variety of social
structures, including the person’s ethnic position, employment status, religion or irreligion, and family.

Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex and gender
role they were assigned at birth. Transgender people can be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, and may
not identify as queer.

National sources

• Levi Alter

  Levi Alter is a rabbi and president of Female-to-Male International, an advocacy organization for transgender people who move from female to male bodies. FTMI is based in San Francisco.

• Mark Bowman

  Mark Bowman is founder and coordinator of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Religious Archives Network at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. He was an original member of the National Religious Leaders Roundtable of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and has been a part of multiple programs dedicated to inclusivity in the United Methodist Church.

• Candace Chellew-Hodge

  Candace Chellew-Hodge leads Jubilee! Circle, a church plant of the United Church of Christ in Columbia, S.C. Chellew-Hodge, a lesbian who writes frequently on gay issues in the churches, founded Whosoever.org, an online magazine for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians.

• Eliel Cruz

  Eliel Cruz is a speaker and writer on religion, bisexuality, media, and culture at The Advocate, Mic, and Religion News Service. He has also written for the Huffington Post, Sojourners, Washington Post, Patheos, Everyday Feminism, DETAILS, and Rolling Stone. He’s the co-founder and former president of Intercollegiate Adventist Gay-Straight Alliance Coalition, an organization that advocates for safe spaces for LGBT students at Seventh-day Adventist colleges. He is based in Atlanta, Ga.

• Noach Dzmura

  Noach Dzmura manages Jewish Transitions, an educational resource for transgender and gender-variant individuals and faith communities that want to become more welcoming of the transgender community. He is the editor of Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in the Jewish Community.

   

• David P. Gushee

  David P. Gushee is a distinguished professor of Christian ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University in Atlanta. He is frequently quoted about evangelical perspectives on ethics and was the principal drafter of the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture. He describes himself as a “Christian centrist.” Gushee’s most recent book is Changing Our Mind: A Call From America’s Leading Evangelical Ethics Scholar for Full Acceptance of LGBT Christians in the Church, in which he outlines his change of heart from opposing same-sex relationships.

• Joy Ladin

  Joy Ladin is the author of Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, which documents her spiritual and physical journey from male to female. She is an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City. Contact via the office of public affairs at Yeshiva.

• Jonathan Merritt

  Jonathan Merritt writes and speaks extensively on faith and culture and is a senior columnist for Religion News Service. Merritt’s books include A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars and Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined. He can discuss the viewpoints and concerns of young evangelicals on a range of issues, especially on sexuality and sexual identity and the environment. He lives in Brooklyn. Contact through his website.

• Kelsey Pacha

  Kelsey Pacha is youth resource coordinator at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. He is the author of “Transition to Inclusion,” a resource for congregations seeking to include and understand transgender youth.

• Barbara Satin

  Barbara Satin is a transgender activist and assistant faith work director with the Institute for Welcoming Resources, a program of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force that coordinates pro-LGBT efforts in U.S. faith communities. She participated in a 2010 Gender Spectrum panel about the inclusion of transgender people in faith communities. 

• Justin Tanis

  Justin Tanis is managing director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. Tanis is the author of Trans-gendered: Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith.

• Peterson Toscano

  Peterson Toscano is an actor who performs several one-person shows on LGBT issues and religion, including “Transfigurations,” about transgender and the Bible, which he performs in churches around the country. He is based in Sunbury, Pa.

• Mark Yarhouse

  Mark Yarhouse is a psychology professor at Regent University, an evangelical Christian school in Virginia Beach, Va., where he is the director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity. He has written widely about same-sex attraction and church counseling, including “ex-gay” ministries, and about transgender identity. He is currently involved in a study of pastors and their response to people in their congregations who are questioning their sexual identity.

• Ken Wilson

  Ken Wilson serves as a co-pastor of Blue Ocean Faith Ann Arbor. He was also the founding pastor at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, Mich., an evangelical church. He is the author of A Letter to My Congregation: An Evangelical Pastor’s Path to Embracing People who are Gay, Lesbian and Transgender in the Company of Jesus. He can be contacted through the Blue Ocean Faith website.

• NLGJA

  NLGJA, the Association of LGBT Journalists, works to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues in the media. The organization is based in Washington and offers resources for journalists, including a stylebook of LGBT terminology and a reporting toolbox.

  NLGJA has posted an open letter to journalists about covering Bruce Jenner.

Faith-based transgender advocacy groups

• Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons

  Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons is an organization of LGBT people who are religious or culturally aligned with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, despite the church’s policy against any lifestyle that is not heterosexual. Affirmation seeks to support and encourage LGBT Mormons and has multiple services for youth. It has local chapters in many states. Randall Thacker is the president.

• Affirmation: United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns

  Affirmation is an activist, all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that challenges the United Methodist Church to be inclusive of LGBTQ people around the world. It is based in Evanston, Ill.

• Center for Progressive Christianity

  The Center for Progressive Christianity is an organization that seeks to incorporate the marginalized, including LGBT people, in mainline denominations. It is based in Gig Harbor, Wash.

• Claiming the Blessing

  Claiming the Blessing is a collaborative of organizations and individuals within the Episcopal Church advocating the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

• DignityUSA

  DignityUSA “works for respect and justice for all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons in the Catholic Church” and elsewhere. Contact executive director Marianne Duddy-Burke.

• Fortunate Families

  Fortunate Families is an organization for Catholic families with LGBT sons and daughters. It is primarily for parents but has resources for getting youth to talk about their sexuality with their parents. It is based in Rochester, N.Y.

• Gay Christian Network

  The Gay Christian Network is a ministry to LGBT Christians. It is based in Raleigh, N.C. Justin Lee is executive director.

• Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association

  The Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association is an organization for LGBT Hindus and Viashnavas both in the U.S. and around the world. Contact through the form on its website.

• Integrity USA

  Integrity USA is an organization that calls for full and equal inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the Episcopal Church.

• JQY

  JQY is a nonprofit organization supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews and their families in the Orthodox community. It is based in New York. Contact through the website.

• Kaleidoscope

  Kaleidoscope is an LGBT youth support and advocacy group of the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Interests. It has a page of youth resources, including a blog, Coming Out Strong, specifically for young LGBT people.

• Keshet

  Keshet is a Boston-based nonprofit that works for the full inclusion of LGBT Jews. It produced the documentary Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School and a companion curriculum and operates a “Safe Schools & Supportive Communities” program that targets young people. Keshet also maintains offices in Denver and San Francisco. Idit Klein is executive director.

• Reconciling Ministries Network

  The Reconciling Ministries Network is a movement within the United Methodist Church that works for the inclusion of all people in the UMC regardless of sexual orientation. Contact through director of communications M. Barclay.

• ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation

  ReconcilingWorks, formerly known as Lutherans Concerned/North America, works to reconcile members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to full inclusivity of LGBT people. Aubrey Thonvold is the interim executive director. The organization is based in St. Paul, Minn.

• Reformation Project

  The Reformation Project is an ecumenical Christian organization that works for full inclusion of LGBT people within the church. It is based in Wichita, Kan., and Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian, is its president.

• Soulforce

  Soulforce is a national interfaith movement that promotes the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The organization is based in Abilene, Texas. Haven Herrin is executive director.

• UCC Coalition

  The UCC Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns advocates for full inclusion of LGBT people in church and society. Search a list of “open and affirming” congregations organized by state.

Secular transgender advocacy groups with faith resources

• Faith in America

  Faith in America battles religious-based prejudice against LGBT people. It is not a religious organization but works with people of all faiths. It is based in Hudson, N.C. Contact through the website.

• Gender Spectrum

  Gender Spectrum is a national organization that advocates for and supports transgender youth, their families, educators and health providers. It maintains a “topics” page on its website about transgender and faith traditions and faith leaders and publishes a resource guide for faith communities. Lisa Kenney is executive director. Gender Spectrum is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

• HeartStrong

  HeartStrong is a nonsectarian organization that supports LGBT students in religious schools and institutions. It is based in Seattle. Marc Adams is the founder and executive director.

• Human Rights Campaign

  The Human Rights Campaign is the country’s largest civil rights organization working for sexual equality. Its Religion & Faith Program supports programming efforts in many different groups and also offers its own resources and event support for religious LGBT advocacy.

• The Institute for Welcoming Resources

  A program of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force that works to encourage inclusiveness by faith communities. It lists “welcoming churches” and “welcoming seminaries.” The Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a United Church of Christ minister, is program director for the institute, which is based in Minneapolis.

Regional sources

In the East

• Patrick S. Cheng

  Patrick S. Cheng is an associate professor of historical and systematic theology at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and an ordained minister. He is the author of several books on queer theology, including Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology.

• Cameron Partridge

  Cameron Partridge is an Episcopal priest and the first openly transgender chaplain at Boston University.

• David E. Weekley

  David E. Weekley is a United Methodist Church pastor who described his life as a transgender man in In From the Wilderness: Sherman: She-r-man. He blogs about his life in the church at Sherman’s Wilderness. He is the pastor of St. Nicholas United Methodist Church in Hull, Mass.

In the Midwest

• Anita C. Hill

  Anita C. Hill is an ELCA minister and regional coordinator for the Midwest for ReconcilingWorks: Lutheran for Full Inclusion. She works with Lutheran congregations and individuals in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to be fully inclusive of LGBT people. She lives in the St. Paul, Minn., area.

• Emily McGinley

  Emily McGinley is a pastor at Urban Village Church, a multisite United Methodist Church in the Chicago area with an outreach ministry to transgender people.

• Ramon Rodriguez

  Ramon Rodriguez is the president of Dignity-Chicago, an organization of LGBT Catholics that works for inclusion in the church.

In the South

• Renee Garcia

  Renee Garcia is a regional director for ReconcilingWorks: Lutheran for Full Inclusion and works with congregations and individuals in Texas to bring LGBT people to full inclusion in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He lives in Houston.

• Unity Fellowship Church, Charlotte

  Unity Fellowship Church, Charlotte, is an all-inclusive church in Charlotte, N.C. Its mission statement specifically calls for no gender-based discrimination and for inclusion of LGBT people. It is a member of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a growing network of like-minded churches throughout the South. The church has worked with the Human Rights Campaign to stage a local transgender economic conference. It is led by the Rev. Leslie Oliver and the Rev. Sonja Lee.

In the West

• Vicki Gray

  Vicki Gray is an Episcopal priest who contributes to the blog Trans Episcopal. She participated in a faith leaders discussion convened by Gender Spectrum in 2010. She is a deacon at Christ the Lord Episcopal Church in Pinole, Calif.

• Alma Lopez

  Alma Lopez is a Los Angeles-based artist whose works frequently feature female Catholic saints as Chicana women with a gender twist. Her “Our Lady,” a rendition of the Virgin of Guadalupe as seminude Chicana boxer, prompted worldwide controversy when it was displayed in New Mexico in 2001. Her most recent show is “Queer Santas: Holy Violence,” on display at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. It features four female saints whose gender identity is unclear.

• Drew Phoenix

  The Rev. Drew Phoenix, who underwent sex-change surgery and changed his name from Anne Gordon, is executive director of Identity Inc., an LGBT advocacy group in Anchorage, Alaska.