Statement honoring Trans Day of Remembrance
Today, November 20, is Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual international observance to honor the memory of individuals who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.
As an organization committed to gender justice, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCSRW) takes particular concern for all violence and vitriol directed at people because of their gender. Further, as an organization called to advocate especially for women, we lament the ways that rhetoric of “protecting women” has been used to demonize, dehumanize, and harm people who are transgender. It is important on this day and always to be clear that we stand in solidarity with transgender and non-binary people and reject all forms of gender-based violence.
From our earliest days, GCSRW has called upon the Church to recognize the intersecting evils of misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. The agency faced significant backlash in the late 1980s for our intersectional advocacy, and we grieve how our witness became muted over the decades since. We acknowledge that prejudice proliferates not only through harmful words and acts, but through silence and acquiescence.
As we live into a new era for The United Methodist Church, on the other side of restrictive laws and threats to funding, it is time to repair broken bonds and to rededicate ourselves to speaking up not only for women—cisgender and transgender alike—but for all who experience discrimination based on their gender.
We recognize and honor the fact that people understand and express gender differently. It is true that some people understand gender in binary terms (i.e., male and female). It is also true that diverse conceptions of gender—as more than a rigid binary—have existed throughout human history, in all times and places. There is no returning to “the way things have always been” because we are already there. There have always been gender-variant people in this world.
Recently, the bishops of the UMC announced the ratification of constitutional amendments adding “gender” as a protected category and articulating the UMC’s commitment to confronting and eliminating all forms of racism and colonialism. These amendments were approved by over 90% of voters throughout our worldwide connection. The pairing of these two acts is important because colonial powers are significantly responsible for undermining and violently suppressing non-binary perspectives on gender, including through the subjugation of Indigenous peoples and knowledge (for which the UMC bears complicity).
One strategy of colonial rule has been to coopt Christian morality as justification for imposing binary gender and quashing traditions and practices honoring gender diversity. If we are going to be seriously dedicated to rooting out colonialism and its effects, as well as to being inclusive with respect to gender, we must take seriously the Church’s role in creating unsafe and sometimes unlivable conditions for non-binary, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people throughout the world.
Transgender Day of Remembrance is at once a sacred memorial for those who have died and a somber reminder of the ways the Church has contributed to anti-transgender prejudice and violence.
We, as the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, say plainly, “No more.”
No more anti-trans hate in the name of Christianity. Gender is not binary in our holy scriptures, and the apostle Paul reminds us that “there is no longer male and female” in Christ (Galatians 3:28).
No more anti-trans hate in the name of women. We know that the gravest threats to women are violence, discrimination, and inequities perpetrated by people and systems that hoard power and resources, devalue women and girls, and enable ongoing harassment and abuse. We will not be distracted by aspersions cast on transgender people, but instead, we pledge solidarity and call on all who say they respect women to work assiduously to eradicate any and all forms of gender-based harm.
No more anti-trans hate, period. We reaffirm our baptismal vows to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves, including transphobia.
May we mourn the dead with resolve to work for change alongside the living.
May we honor the resilience of trans people everywhere.
And may we renew our commitment to the liberating message of Jesus, recognizing every person as a full and equal part of God’s human family.