TRANSGENDER AMERICANS AND THE MISSION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
A Dangerous Trend
As of this writing, there are dozens of anti-transgender rights bills making their way through various state legislatures. These bills overwhelmingly focus on transgender children and teenagers. Some propose to socially punish these kids in various ways; exclusion from sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms which correspond to their gender identity is a popular measure. Others go much further, seeking to criminalize healthcare providers and parents for providing gender-affirming care to trans kids. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott and State Attorney General Ken Paxton did not even bother with legislation—Paxton merely provided legal rationale for Abbott to declare that providing gender affirming healthcare to one’s trans child is an act of child abuse, and from there terrorize transgender children and their families with child abuse allegations and investigations. The Texas Supreme Court has lifted a previous injunction against these investigations. (1)
The piles of legislation aimed at trans kids seek to socially punish them by excluding them from sports and gender appropriate facilities. This enforced stigmatization is accompanied by efforts to criminalize the parents, doctors, and therapists who care for trans youth. This is obviously not about protecting the children, but about forcing the children to hide in fear. And it does not stop with kids. Iowa’s General Assembly Judiciary Committee is currently considering a bill which will remove gender identity as a protected class under the Iowa civil rights act. Missouri is considering a bill which would make it illegal to change the sex marker on one’s birth certificate. (2) Oklahoma is considering yet another “bathroom bill” which would force transgender people to use the wrong bathrooms and prohibit towns and cities from making trans-friendly ordinances regarding public restrooms. (3) Woe to those who live in states where it is, or may soon be, both illegal to use a public bathroom that does not correspond to your “birth sex” and to change that “birth sex” on your birth certificate. The message of the anti-trans lobby is clear: don’t come out. If you do, you will regret it.
I do not generally find it useful to supply reasons for why powerful adults are seeking to bully, punish, even terrorize kids. On one level, there simply is no reason for these actions. Yet there are root causes that ought to be named. This proliferation of anti-trans legislation is probably not about transgender kids as such. The Governor of Utah Spencer Cox recently vetoed a bill written to exclude transgender children and teens from playing on school sports teams which corresponded to their gender identity. In a statement explaining his decision, he noted that there are only four trans kids, out of 75,000 student athletes, playing on school sports teams in all of Utah. “Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few,” he said. (4) His veto was overridden.
Governor Cox was right to note the outsized fear and anger surrounding the bill. Yet while fear and anger suggest a reactive political strategy, I offer that legislation targeting trans kids is part of a calculated, long-term strategy. Sexual and gender diversity is on the cusp of normalization in the United States, and this threatens cisgender, straight, white men. Punishing trans kids who live openly may be a part of a broader program of gender and sexual policing which would seek to unravel much of the gains LGBTQ people have made in the last several decades. This program begins with openly trans kids because they are “newer” to the scene and because, being minors, they have fewer legal protections to begin with. Currently it is less popular to target, for instance, adult, cisgender, white, gay, married men than in the past. But if we allow politicians to erode the rights and dignity of some LGBTQ people, there is no guarantee they will not continue to move the goalposts.
Misdirected Efforts: Is Inclusion Enough?
Between the fear, anger, and trauma held by trans youth and their families, the threat posed to doctors and therapists trying to do their jobs, and the obvious maneuvers deployed to render kids into political pawns, it seems clear that a Christian response is necessary. The Episcopal Church, as one of the largest LGBTQ affirming Christian churches in the United States, has the resources to launch a mitigating response to this nationwide wave of legislative terror.
Much theological groundwork has already been laid for such a response. Due to the work of resilient trans Episcopalians, lay and ordained, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has expressed support for non-discrimination laws regarding gender identity and expression and formally prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and expression in the ordination process. (5) Much of this work has been accomplished through the efforts of TransEpiscopal, a group of lay and ordained Episcopalians whose stated purpose is to attain the full embrace and inclusion of trans and nonbinary people into the life of the Church. (6)
Largely due to TransEpiscopal’s advocacy, the 2012 General Convention did expand the nondiscrimination canons and explicitly opened the rite of ordination to trans and nonbinary people. This is to say, the Episcopal Church decided to publicly declare that God does call trans and nonbinary people to serve and deacons, priests, and bishops. It is an objectively good thing that the church did this, because it is objectively good to obey God’s call.
I have written before in this magazine about Linn Tonstad’s article “The Limits of Inclusion: Queer Theology and its Others”, (7) in a piece about the responsibilities of gay men in the LGBTQ inclusive branches of the Anglican Communion, considering the symbiotic relationship between homophobic and colonialist violence. To frame the article exceedingly simply, Tonstad warns about seeking inclusion at the expense of others, dividing queer people into categories of more or less good and desirable, and reiterating the hierarchies which are foundational to homophobia and sexism. The article pushes toward true, thorough repentance and renewal in light of the sins of the Church toward all of those who are marginalized, oppressed, and abused. Surely, respectability politics have played a significant role in LGBTQ inclusion in The Episcopal Church and other Mainline churches—but this is not the only limit inclusion presents.
What, exactly, does the ordination of transgender deacons, priests, perhaps even a bishop, do for transgender people staring down the coming tidal wave of anti-trans legislation? The Rev. Cn. Dr. Kara N. Slade, in her work The Fullness of Time: Jesus Christ, Science, and Modernity (8) writes, “No accumulation of eucharistic wafers has prevented practicing Christians from supporting any of the political projects” which have plagued human life, such as the racist brutality of colonialism. Considering this moment, in which transgender people are gaining visibility while also facing targeted legislative attacks, we might find that, similarly, sacramental inclusion is, if not a misdirection of our efforts, then falling short of the Episcopal Church’s task.
The sacramental rite of ordination is doing more than its fair share in our obligation to defend the helpless. In reality, opening ordination to a greater pool of candidates does very little to address the dangerous position trans people are in. Ordination is not meant to be a means by which we acknowledge the worthiness of an individual or communicate approval of their identity and accompanying way of life. Ordination is a rite by which the Church, through a bishop, asks God to fill a called person with the necessary grace to execute a particular ministry, as a leading minister in a church of mostly lay ministers. Ordination cannot be more than this. Ordaining trans people is good insofar as it is an act of obedience to a God who does call trans people, and queer people, and all kinds of people to Holy Orders. But it is not the vehicle by which we can stop or heal transgender oppression. The church must think beyond ordination to sound the alarm bells on a dangerous, nationwide anti-trans sentiment that, if left unchecked, will spark into a horrific conflagration.
Resetting Our Feet
The House of Bishops issued a statement condemning anti-transgender legislation, with unanimous support. In part, the statement reads, “We decry legislative initiatives and governmental actions targeting trans children and their families. We urge all in our church to create safe spaces and shield all people from harassment based on gender identity.” (9) Individual Diocesan Bishops, such as Bishop Jennifer Reddall of the Diocese of Arizona, have offered even more specific direction. In a statement to her diocese, referring to the host of anti-transgender bills making their way through the Arizona State Legislature, Bishop Reddall encouraged Episcopalians in Arizona to contact their legislators to “withdraw and defeat these bills. They dishonor the sacredness of life, the beloved image of God, and are inconsistent with our faith and Baptismal Covenant.” (10)
If we are to submit to the authority of our Bishops, the message could not be clearer. It is time for all Episcopal congregations in every diocese to discover what trans people in their communities need, are threatened by, and hope for. Then they must do everything they can to offer concrete political, material, and spiritual support. Different contexts will call for different tactics. Some congregations may be prepared to take direct actions in the form of joining peaceful protests. Others may use their resources to support local transgender advocacy groups and contributing to transgender bail funds. Other parishes may decide to list their location on the REFUGE app, which helps transgender and gender nonconforming people find safe public restrooms. And every single Episcopal congregation, without exception, can pray for transgender people and all oppressed groups during public worship.
Active, consistent solidarity with the transgender community comes with social costs. It inflames the bigotry which perhaps was dormant in the hearts of some in the pews. It draws bad-faith accusations regarding commitments to (ironically) the well-being of children. If a parish decides to concretely connect with and support its local trans community, other churches they’ve previously partnered with may shun them. These consequences are difficult to navigate, but trans people can show us how to navigate social pressure and punishment. We’ve been surviving, even thriving, in intolerable conditions for quite some time.
Eleanor Klibanoff, “Texas Supreme Court Allows Child Abuse Investigations into Families of Transgender Teens to Continue,” The Texas Tribune. The Texas Tribune, May 13, 2022. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/05/13/transgender-teens-child-abuse-texas/.
MO HB 2086, billtrack50.com, April 4, 2022. https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1407926.
OK SB1249, billtrack50.com, April 4, 2022. https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1416240.
Adam Edelman “Utah Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto of Transgender Sports Ban Bill.” NBC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/utah-legislature-overrides-governors-veto-transgender-sports-ban-bill-rcna21459. Accessed 14 May 2022.
“History.” The Episcopal Church. https://www.episcopalchurch.org/who-we-are/lgbtq/history/. Accessed May 14, 2022.
TransEpiscopal. Transgender People and the Church’s Transformative Mission: Chicago Consulation. http://www.chicagoconsultation.org/?p=48 Accessed April 4, 2022.
Linn Tonstad, “The Limits of Inclusion: Queer Theology and Its Others,” Theology and Sexuality, vol. 21 no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13558358.2015.1115599
Kara Slade, The Fullness of Time: Jesus Christ, Science, and Modernity (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021).
Egan Millard, “House of Bishops Condemns War in Ukraine, Anti-Transgender Legislation at First in-Person Gathering Since Covid-19 Pandemic,” Episcopal News Service, March 22, 2022. https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2022/03/22/house-of-bishops-condemns-ukraine-war-anti-transgender-legislation-at-first-in-person-gathering-since-covid-19-pandemic/. Accessed April 4, 2022.
Jennifer Reddall, “The Bishop’s E-Pistle: Made in the Image of God,” Diocese of Arizona, March 9, 2022. https://azdiocese.org/2022/03/the-bishops-e-pistle-made-in-the-image-of-god-trans/.
