24 April 2026
Your congregation may have decided to welcome people of all sexual orientations before there was a significant awareness about including gender identity. You may have already talked about and worked on including gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, but not transgender people. Now is a great time to revisit those conversations and expand your welcome, especially as Transgender people, including youth, are being increasingly attacked by many politicians, religious leaders, and others in the United States and elsewhere. Or you may just be setting out on your journey and want to include transgender people right from the start. We support that decision wherever you are.
Transgender people have much to offer your congregation and need a safe place to worship and belong, just like everyone else.
Transgender people identify as a gender different than the one they were identified with at birth. This means that they may be genderqueer or gender non-binary, meaning that they don’t identify with one particular gender, or they may identify as male or female. Transgender people can be any sexual orientation—bisexual, lesbian, gay, or straight.
According to the US Trans Survey, almost 1/5 of transgender people who had been part of a spiritual or religious community were rejected by that community because of their gender identity. This can be devastating. However, 42% of those people later joined a new congregation. You can be part of this movement to create a welcoming, safe space.
Once again, we are all about expanding our welcome and inclusion!
