Why religious leaders are divided into trans rights: NPR

Winfield, Kansas – On a recent Sunday morning in this small town of Kansas, worshippers gathered to serve at Grace United Methodist Church. Sunlight filtered through a stained glass window depicting the life of Christ.

The pulpit was home to the Rev. Charles McKinzie.

“I use him/his pronouns,” he told the congregation.

Called a lifelong Republican, McKinzie grew up in a Protestant church that taught homosexuality and gender diversity were contrary to Christian teaching. He says that when he came to believe that all humans, regardless of their sexual identity, were made of God’s image, it prompted a crisis of faith.

“We all have an image of God,” he said in an interview.

“Just as there is a light and a dark spectrum because of the sunrise and the sunset, I think God’s creation is wide enough and wide enough to include variations of what we understood as gender binary.”

Testimony against the state’s ban

Last month, Kansas became the 26th state to ban or restrict healthcare that affirms the gender-affirming of minors, according to KFF. This is the latest in a set of state laws restricting the rights of transgender Kansan. This includes the ability to change gender markers with driver licenses and play on sports teams that match their gender identity.

The law reflects growing concern among conservatives over transgender issues and has been praised by some faith leaders, including the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Treaty.

But it’s not McKinzie. Earlier this year, he traveled to Topeka to testify against Senate Bill 63. This prohibits minors who have experienced gender offenders access to adolescent blockers, hormonal therapy, and other medical treatments.

He rose to his feet in the Bible-filled Legislative Committee room.

“I would like to take the pages from this book and remind me of the words of the prophet Micah that I cherish and wrote in chapter 6.

“When I read the literature on this bill, he added, “I see something grossly unkind about it.”

In a subsequent interview, McKinzie says his faith forced him to testify.

“The Bible directs us towards God’s heart, and that desire was to look to those alienated and driven out by ordinary, polite society,” he said. “Today, LGBTQ people, the poor, the people of color, and now, trans people, in particular, are being targeted in real, concrete, deeply unfair ways.”

Other faith leaders have also spoken out. The Center for Reform’s Religious Action has denounced the recent executive orders by the Trump administration, restricting federal gender identity to men and women, and banning transgender soldiers from military service. The center also organized a sign-on letter featuring over 100 Jewish organizations, urging Congress to reject laws that would hinder transgender athletes from women and women’s sports teams.

RAC Director Rabbi Jonah Pesner says the Torah emphasizes compassion for people who are different from you.

“The Torah really focuses on love,” he said. “We are people who have experienced oppression and slavery in Egypt, and the Bible texts differ 36 times in 36 different ways.

Pessner says love means ensuring people receive medical care they deem necessary.

“It’s not just the Torah itself, but the centuries of rabbinic literature and interpretations of those books lead us to where our health and safety are of paramount importance,” he said. “Our tradition teaches that these decisions are between people and healthcare providers.”

“Love doesn’t mean that it always means affirmation.”

Other religious leaders come to very different conclusions.

The Vatican says gender-maintaining care violated human dignity, and the Kansas Catholic Conference lobbyed for the state’s ban. Lucretia Nord, the group’s public policy specialist, told state legislators that the Catholic Church encourages compassion for all.

“The kids are innocent,” she said at a hearing in January. “They are just trying to grasp the world, who they are.”

“Our responsibility as adults is to help us demonstrate the truth, beauty and goodness that lies there.

She and other ban supporters won last month when Republican lawmakers rejected Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the bill.

Many evangelical Christians are also opposed to care. In 2023, the Southern Baptist Treaty issued a resolution opposed gender transition intervention, as “a direct attack on God’s created order.” Last year, its Ethics and Religious Freedom Committee filed the Supreme Court Amicus Brief in favour of Tennessee’s ban on gender-maintaining care for minors.

Miles Marin, vice president of the committee, says love doesn’t always mean affirmation.

“True love and compassion must start with the reality of the situation,” he said in an interview.

Marin says Christians have an obligation to defend against allowing minors to receive medical care they believe will cause permanent harm.

“It’s appropriate for believers to intervene and say that the state has a role in protecting vulnerable people,” he said. “We consider this a proper role for the nation in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.”

The religious divisions regarding transgender rights are reflected in a new vote by the Institute of Public Religion. The majority of Unitarians, Jewish Americans, Hindus, Buddhists and non-religious affiliations said they were opposed to a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

Catholics and mainline Protestants were split relatively evenly on the issue, but the majority of Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, white evangelical Protestants and Latter-day Saints said they supported the ban.

Faith and family

McKinsey’s office at Grace United Methodist Church is decorated with a rainbow flag. The banner behind his desk declares, “You are loved.”

Like many Americans, his perspective on gender identity is shaped by his personal relationships. In his case, he is the father of a teenager in gender fluid.

“The parent-child experience should lean us towards empathy,” he said. “My kids have become, in many ways, a much better version of who I am.”

His child, Cumbria, is 17 years old and uses their/their pronouns. They are grateful to faith leaders like Dad who clings to the queer community.

“I can see him and know that there are people who have a voice, people who are the epitome of people listening.

Cumbria says having an accepted community of churches makes world difference as political debates continue over trans rights.