Former pastor urges churches to accept trans people “for who they are”

 

From her childhood, Lucy knew there was something different about her. 

“From my earlier memory I knew my gender didn’t match what I was told to be,” she said. 

It wasn’t until she was in her 20s that she learned about who she was—a Queer person. 

She kept it quiet for a long time, during which she heard church people say many hurtful things about LGBTQ+ people. 

“They said them assuming I agreed with them,” she said. “They didn’t know they were talking to a Queer.” 

Lucy shared her story September 23 at the second episode of A Time To Listen, an online conversation for Canadian Mennonite Brethren church members who want to talk about LGBTQ+ and the church. 

A total of 115 screens were tuned into the episode, which also included sharing by Ron and Sharon, a Mennonite Brethren couple who shared about their journey after their son came out as Queer. 

Now a self-described transgender lesbian, Lucy graduated from Bethany College, a Mennonite Brethren school in Saskatchewan, studied at the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, served with Multiply, the denomination’s mission arm, and became a pastor while presenting as a male.  

Before transitioning, she left pastoral ministry so as not to create a problem for the church or the conference. 

Soon after, the board of her former church issued a statement condemning her, and some former members sent hurtful e-mails. 

She also remembers being “shamed” by a former member—one of her parishioners—in a grocery store, while others spread rumours. 

“It felt like everything I had tried to teach them about Jesus as their pastor had been thrown out when they found out I was trans,” she said, adding not everyone acted that way. “But the majority have rejected me.” 

She recalled sermons she preached where she asked the congregation if they would welcome anyone into the church, just like Jesus. 

“Every time I preached that, there would be a chorus of ‘amens,’” she said. “But when I left it wasn’t pretty.” 

As for transitioning, she had to do it. 

“I would have died if I hadn’t,” she said, adding she was experiencing severe depression and have suicidal thoughts. 

“It was so emotionally painful for me I wanted to die,” she shared, noting that 43 percent of transgender people try to die by suicide. 

“Nearly half will attempt suicide,” she added. 

Now working as a trauma therapist, she urged churches to accept trans people “for who they are. People are dying while church committees and conferences discuss what they believe about trans people.” 

That, she said, is “what at stake for transgender people in the church.”