I am Sick and Tired of Anti-Trans Hysteria - Part 1
Blame Religion? Interview with a Trans Former Evangelical Pastor
Introduction
It is yet another culture war attack from the “right.” Another cultural conflict between conservative and liberal groups, struggling to politically impose their own morality, and cultural and religious ideology upon society. While there has been a greater general acceptance in recent years of homosexuality, same-sex relationships and marriage, there is now raging discrimination against transgender (trans) people. It is the latest crank thing conservatives are currently obsessing over. And it is an abhorrent injustice against trans people, who deserve to be shown human dignity.
To hear the right-wing tell it, trans people are evil, dangerous threats against society, families, and children. Terrorists masquerading into bathrooms to harass and intimidate women - or worse!
The multiple times I have heard the right-wing rant about a “trans terrorist,” it inevitably turns our to actually be a white, cis-male, and usually a MAGA supporter.
The right-wing likes to blame “trans people” for everything under the sun. Just a few of many examples:
Transgender pilot Jo Ellis was falsely accused of killing 67 people earlier this year. Right wing media falsely claimed that Ellis was responsible for the January helicopter crash at Ronald Reagan International Airport. Not true. The crash was later determined to be an accident caused by years of poor safety practices at the airport.
Republican Rep. Paul Gosar spread hoax statements online claiming that a “transsexual leftist illegal alien” was responsible for the Uvalde mass shooting in May 2022. Not true.
Following the Abundant Life Christian School shooting in Wisconsin last December, right-wing accounts falsely claimed that “Samuel Hyde, a trans student” had committed the murders. Not true.
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Josh Hawley levied false claims against trans people include accusations that the 2024 Lakewood Church shooter was a trans woman. Not true.
Right-wing accounts on X also spread false claims that a trans person attempted to shoot then-candidate Donald Trump last year. You guessed it - Not true.
Ridiculous! Trans people are not violent terrorists. Trans people are not evil. They do not threaten children, women, families or society. They are not coming after you. The many trans people I know personally just want to live their lives quietly and be left alone.
I suppose I should start with some LGBTQIA+ definitions. Some of these terms will come in handy on the next two articles in this series.
Table 1 Definitions
There are also many more nuanced terms that may be used to describe more specific characteristics, attractions, experiences, and behaviors.
Media Anti-Trans Rhetoric
In 2018, there were nineteen bills targeting transgender people in state legislatures across the United States. In 2020, there were 60. Now there are 541. The avalanche of legislative efforts to restrict and punish trans people has increased in both pace and severity over the past few years.
The crusade started with laws purporting to “protect children,” but it quickly evolved into a broader legislative assault on nearly all aspects of trans existence. This includes laws criminalizing trans people’s use of public restrooms, laws prohibiting essential gender-affirming health care, and “drag bans” that are so broadly defined as to threaten trans and gender-nonconforming people’s ability to simply exist in public as themselves.
In February 2023, over a thousand current and former New York Times contributors signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people.” The letter condemned the outlet’s coverage, highlighting that “the Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources.”
A second letter organized by GLAAD, also criticized the New York Times’ irresponsible and biased coverage of trans people. It called for outlet to stop “platforming lies, bias, fringe theories, and dangerous inaccuracies” in its trans reporting.
And the Times knows damn well that its articles are being cited in state legislatures around the country as justification for the hundreds of genocidal, anti-trans anti-queer bills that are being introduced left and right,” Alvarez argued. - Maximillian Alvarez, Editor-in-Chief of the Real News Network
The Times made a choice to spill considerable ink over concerns about trans youth’s access to gender affirming care despite widespread agreement among every major medical association that gender-affirming is safe, uncontroversial, and effective. This choice legitimated the anti-trans movement’s argument that transness poses a threat to children.
The proof is written in black ink on the pages of anti-trans bills and policies across the country.
After all, why should it matter that every major medical association and world health authority affirms the safety and efficacy of gender-affirming health care when the New York Times presents the issue as “deeply divided”?
https://theflaw.org/articles/profiting-from-moral-panic/
Religions
One of the most commonly used reasons (excuses) people use for discriminating against not only transgender individuals, but all LGBTQIA+ people, is based on their religious beliefs; and often specifically the Bible.
So, what does the Bible actually say about out transgenderism. In a word - nothing. While the Bible doesn't explicitly address transgender identity, interpretations of biblical texts are diverse and varied. Some interpretations support traditional gender roles, while others emphasize love, compassion, and the inherent dignity of all people, including transgender individuals.
Then, what do many of the major religions say about transgender people. Most church doctrines will include a generic, if not specific, statement about treating people with respect and dignity, but most also contain more specificity about “nontraditional“ sexuality. Homosexuality really gets a bad rap here!
The table below shows 27 religious groups’ statements on homosexuality and transgenderism. Surprisingly, even though only ten of these groups had specifically negative policies about homosexuality (10 out of 27), only six of those also had negative statements about transgenderism. Only six of 27 actually condemned transgenderism.
So if the Bible doesn’t condemn transgenderism, and only six of 27 religious groups condemn transgenderism - why all the anti-trans hysteria?
Table 2 Religion Positions
https://www.hrc.org/resources/supporting-trans-non-binary-gender-expansive-children * https://nwfriends.org/
Interview with a Trans Former Evangelical Pastor
Having recently begun the transitioning process, “Jill” (52, she/her) reveals her life experience being married with children, a former pastor, and in the midst of a life altering recognition of her true self.
DKM: How and when did you understand that you are trans?
Jill: I began exploring gender a little over a year ago, and realized that I am trans in January of 2025.
DKM: How would you describe your transition at this time?
Jill: I am female presenting with everyone except my family of origin who I will be coming out to in August of 2025. I started HRT [hormone replacement therapy] two months ago with the support of my family and therapist.
If you had asked me 10 years ago why I supported by the Quaker meeting I currently attend in its discernment process around human sexuality and gender, I would have spoken from a place of trying to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community in opposition to the oppression they experience. In my recent explorations with my therapist and examination of my life, I have come to realize that I am not actually an ally. I am a trans-femme person whose gifts of ministry have always been nurture, hospitality, and generosity.
For the first time since puberty I looked in a mirror and liked what I saw.
After discussing this new understanding with my spouse, she forwarded info about a gender affirming clothing swap, and I decided to go visit. I went to the shop to scope it out and saw that it was a safe space, and in conversation with the person working the store learned that they were very short on masculine clothes. Now that I knew this would be a safe space I went home and got a bunch of clothes that haven’t fit since my accident and brought them to the swap meet. I felt pretty nervous as I browsed through the feminine clothing but a blouse just jumped out at me. It looked perfect. I went to the dressing room with a small pile of items and put this blouse on.
For the first time since puberty I looked in a mirror and liked what I saw. A lot of emotions overcame me at that point, emotions that it will take me many years to fully process, I fell to my knees in tears, and tried to hold the sobs in as both joy and grief welled up in an overwhelming flood. Joy in finally seeing myself as a person worth loving, and grief that while my knowledge of this truth would set me free, others, who I care deeply for, will not understand or may even treat me as an enemy.
The patterns of my life have begun to make sense:
My desire to extend hospitality, to see people fed and cared for
The times I spent with women in the church kitchen and home kitchen as a child
Learning to cook and care for the needs of those around me
Feeling more of an understanding and connection with the women around me than the men, and
Finding myself functioning better in more traditionally women’s roles.
In these things I have come to the realization that I identify much more with femininity than ever I did with masculinity and that my deepest desire truly is to wrap my soft, mothering, nurturing arms around all of you that I care for and nurture the divine beauty I see in you.
DKM: What has been your experience with discrimination/transphobia?
Jill: In the USA right now there is a lot of panic about the visibility of trans people being stoked by a bunch of folks who really don't want anyone poking into their private dealings. This means that people who under normal circumstances might look askance but otherwise not say or do anything harmful to a trans person are now dangerous to trans folks. My mother is unable to use my youngest child's correct pronouns or their name, and I am not out to her because I haven't wanted to deal with all the drama that will ensue. I have had people yell at me from cars as they drove by, and found myself being observed more closely than usual by loss control staff in stores. I have had to be extra alert when I am out and about since there is a significant portion of US society that believes it is OK to treat "different" people with violence. I am very careful about not having more than one drink if I am out and to not wear shoes I can't run in. I see police as a danger rather than protectors because I have seen that the role of police as they practice it is to keep people in line, not to enforce the laws without fear or favor.
DKM: How do you reconcile your transgender identity with your faith?
Jill: I never felt a need to. There is nothing in my faith that really says anything about being or identifying as transgender. The Calvinistic faith I grew up in has a lot of stuff to say, but I completely rejected that faith system as being false 30 years ago.
DKM: How do you hope to live your life in the future?
Jill: I hope to live my life as the woman I am. Without threats, without having to worry about whether my government is going to set up concentration camps for folks like me, without fear of someone bursting into a stall while I am going to the bathroom to stare at my naked body. I would love a sense of just being another person, unique as we all are, but not seen as deserving any different treatment than anyone else.
DKM: Anything else you would like to share?
Jill: I think that the primary goal for folks should be welcome rather than understanding. It is hard to fully understand others' differing experiences, so understanding should not be the primary goal or the basis for acceptance. Instead I feel that we would do better to welcome others in order to build a context in which understanding can develop.
DKM: Congratulations on your new identity. I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Next up: Part 2 - The biology behind sex and gender; Interview with a young trans woman