Being the first known transgender person ordained by a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated congregation, Laura Bethany Buchleiter said she now can live fully into her calling to share the gospel in genuine and counter-cultural ways. “Where I would start is authenticity,…
Tennessee and Arkansas top the list of anti-trans legislation but many bills die in other states
While the 2021 state legislative session has produced more anti-LGBTQ legislation than any previous year — often supported by evangelical Christians — many of the anti-transgender bills have failed in statehouses. The latest setback for anti-transgender bills came in Texas…
Losing my religion
Do we really wonder why so many people are leaving organized religion? A new Gallup poll has found that for the first time, the proportion of Americans who say they are members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped…
Texas takes the spotlight as statehouses across the nation seek to restrict trans teens and voter access
Some Texas legislators want to outdo Georgia and Arkansas with a combination of bills restricting transgender teens and voting access for poor and minority citizens. The Texas bills — four concerning transgender health care, six concerning transgender athletes and two…
Anti-transgender bills introduced in more than a dozen state legislatures
While transgender rights are being expanded by the Biden administration in Washington, D.C., bills have been introduced in more than a dozen state legislatures that would narrow rights for transgender persons, especially minors, and for their parents and caregivers. This…
Amid the hypocrisy of critiquing ‘unity,’ maybe we need a different goal: Cooperation
We need to debunk the argument that achieving “unity” means everyone will get their way. That’s not logically possible. This fallacious thinking is emerging as a primary conservative critique of the new administration in Washington, D.C. And once again, it…
Q&A with June Joplin on life as an itinerant (transgender) preacher
Earlier this summer, June Joplin made international headlines when she used a Sunday morning sermon at her Baptist church to come out as transgender. Nearly three months later, more has changed than her gender. The Canadian Baptist church she had…
Court extends protections for transgender students in public schools
Seemingly lost amid a holiday weekend, a global pandemic and a presidential election, a federal appeals court ruled Aug. 26 that federal protections banning sex discrimination in public schools include protections for transgender students. In a 2-to-1 ruling, the United…
Church dismisses pastor who came out as transgender in Sunday sermon
June Joplin, the Canadian Baptist pastor who came out as transgender in her Sunday sermon June 14, has been dismissed from her pulpit at Lorne Park Baptist Church in suburban Toronto. Member Anne McKye, speaking on behalf of the church’s…