How Christian Nationalists Use Transphobia to Get Votes

In September, Wisconsin’s GOP U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde falsely claimed that his Democratic opponent, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, had given taxpayer money “to a transgender clinic,” which was apparently a reference to her earmark of federal dollars to support Briarpatch Youth Services, which serves at risk and homeless youth, including those who identify as LGBTQ+.

In August, at Moms for Liberty’s annual Joyful Warriors Summit in Washington, D.C., Trump sat down with those assembled for an hour-plus “fireside chat.” He falsely claimed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has made Minnesota a “sanctuary state” where children can go and “have gender surgeries paid for by the government.” “Think of it,” Trump told his audience, “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 29% of trans youth have been threatened with violence at school and 75% of transgender youth feel unsafe at school. Those who are able to persevere have lower GPAs, are more likely to miss school out of concern for their safety and are less likely to plan on continuing their education. The 2020 Trevor Project found that over half of transgender and non-binary youth in the United States have seriously considered suicide.

As a Christian pastor and concerned citizen, I was shocked and deeply grieved when I found out while working on this story how dangerous and difficult it can be for transgendered people in our country.

Punchbowl News reports, “Nationwide, Republicans are running anti-transgender ads in 10 competitive Senate races and nine swing House districts. GOP groups have spent $64 million on Senate ads on the issue and $4.5 million on House ads.”

We have seen an explosion of laws aimed against trans people. In 2024, 662 bills were introduced in 43 states attempting to limit the rights of transgender citizens. Of those 45 have passed, 125 are still under consideration and 492 have failed.

These bills attempt to limit a trans person’s ability to update gender information on ID’s and records such as driver’s licenses and birth certificates. Without ID’s that accurately reflect who they are, people have difficulty traveling, applying for employment and entering public establishments. Other bills attempt to undermine nondiscrimination laws by allowing employers, businesses and even hospitals to turn away LGTBQ+ people. Some bills ban transgender students from participating in high school sports. Some bills restrict free speech for transgender people by limiting access to books about them and banning or censoring drag shows.

What would Jesus do?

Many of these bills that target transgender people are encouraged and often sponsored by those claiming to represent God’s will. This is confusing to me as a Christian. Jesus has no specific guidelines concerning gender expression, but he is adamant that we treat all people with love and compassion. When he walked the earth, he healed the sick and fed the hungry. He championed people whom the rest of society did not hold in high regard (woman, children, eunuchs, known sinners, tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, the mentally ill, the disabled and the poor). In Matthew 25:40-45, Jesus explained that nations will be judged by how they treat “the least of these” (those members of society who are hurting the most). Attacking a segment of society that is already hurting in many ways is going directly against the teachings of Jesus Christ.

When he was asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Social conservatives and the Republican Party are refusing to love their transgender neighbors. Instead, they are working with local, state and national politicians to attack them in an effort to prohibit and erase them. They would have us believe that trans and other non-gender conforming individuals are going to hell and/or they are somehow outside of their maker’s sphere of love and protection. I have studied the Bible since I was very young. I have attended two seminaries, and have a Master of Divinity degree and a doctorate in biblical preaching. I can honestly attest to the fact that there is no biblical evidence to support this dangerous and hateful approach to our transgender siblings.

There is only one verse in the Bible that even remotely applies to this discussion:  “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” (Deuteronomy 22:5) Scholars have different theories about the reason for this prohibition. Having a strict code of how Israelites were allowed to eat and dress helped to maintain national purity. It is also likely this was a way to keep their gender segregated society truly segregated.

The United States is not a gender segregated society. I am not committing a sin when I wear my husband’s clothing. Religious and non-religious people have long ignored the prohibitions listed in Deuteronomy for various reasons. We eat shrimp, get tattooed and work on the sabbath—sometimes all on the same day. To use Deuteronomy 22:5 as a prohibition against being transgender demonstrates either a low level of biblical literacy or a high level of hypocrisy.

God created people of all gender expressions

The other verse that is most commonly used against transgender people is, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) Some people would have us believe that we are strictly male or female and that changing our outward appearance to match what we feel inside goes against God’s plan for creation.

One obvious problem with this interpretation is that it does not acknowledge that God created all people of all gender expressions, including people who are transgender. All humans are created in the image of God and loved by God. Another problem with the anti-trans interpretation of this passage is that it denies the full beauty of creation. When God creates man and woman in Genesis 1, it’s after creating opposites in the other parts of creation—day and night, land and sea, flying birds and swimming fish. Humans are also created in an opposite pair—male and female. Genesis 1 is not intended to be read literally. Poetically, it sets up these binaries, but God’s creation exists in spectrums. 

Between night and day, we have dusk and dawn. Between land and sea, we have coral reefs and beaches. Between flying birds and swimming fish we have penguins. A penguin is not an abomination for not fitting the categories of Genesis 1. A glorious sunrise is a blessing even though it is not entirely night or completely day. The book of Genesis was not meant to be a comprehensive list of every good thing God created. It was meant to demonstrate God’s creative power and sovereignty.

It is not God who condemns people who are trans. It isn’t Jesus or anyone who has been paying serious attention to his teachings. The movement most responsible for targeting transgender people in the United States is Christian Nationalism.

Christian Nationalism is the belief that our country is defined by Christianity, and that our government should take active steps to keep it that way. Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a “Christian nation.“ They reserve the right to define what is and isn’t Christian, even when many churches disagree with their agenda and many of their beliefs have nothing to do with the Bible.

The high visibility of Christian Nationalism in the media sometimes leads people to believe that all churches are unwelcoming to the LGTBQ+ community, but this is not the case. I am a called and ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We officially welcome and affirm people of all gender expressions and sexual orientations. This does not mean that all our members or individual congregations agree with this, but it is our official policy and one I am proud of.

I recently spoke to an ELCA bible camp counselor about trans rights and the church. Will is a transgender man in his early twenties. He looks like the stereotype of a clean-cut, friendly Christian camp counselor. He has a wide smile and an easy manner that immediately puts people at ease. He plays guitar, sings and writes songs about Jesus, makes campfires, and serves as a lifeguard while his campers swim in the lake.

Most people who meet Will do not know that he is trans. The director of the camp knew when she hired him. She and the other counselors have his full support. Most of the campers do not know Will is trans. He does not hide it, but it doesn’t come up in conversation with the younger campers. Will told me that there are high school campers every summer with “diverse gender expressions.” He is glad that he and the other counselors who are members of the LGTBQ+ community are there so the campers can see that they are loved and accepted by God and this Christian community. He says that trans young people will not know they have a future with the church unless they can see it.

Anti-trans teachings are ‘driving a wedge between a young person and God’

I asked him what he would want people to know about transgender people. He said, “Trans people are normal people—just people. We have parents and children. We are just people. We have no baked in agenda or secret society. Right now, I’m trying to pay my insurance bill and write a Bible study. I’m doing my best, not just as a man, but as a Christian, a friend, a partner, and a sibling.”

Sometimes Will and the pastors who visit the camp lead something they call “Real Talk,” where campers can submit anonymous questions about faith and life. They receive thoughtful questions like, “If God made everything, why did the dinosaurs die?” He has also had the question, “Can God forgive me for being gay, bi, or trans?” And “Will God still love me?”

They teach the campers that they are precious to God and beloved exactly the way they are.

It is hard for Will to hear that some of the campers are learning from loved ones at home and their churches that being their true selves is not compatible with their Christian faith. He says, “Driving a wedge between a young person and God, or even fueling the illusion of that separateness, is unspeakably cruel.”

If God does not condemn them, why are Christian Nationalists and the Republican Party so opposed to including transgender people in the American Dream? What do they see as the harm in taking a “live and let live” attitude toward those with differing gender expressions? If you ask proponents of anti-trans legislation, most of them will say that these bills are necessary to protect children, girls and women.

“Bathroom bills” are said to protect women and girls from cisgender men dressing like women and sneaking into their bathrooms to cause harm. This claim is not based in reality. Several states and major cities have been allowing trans people to use the bathroom they identify with for years with no increase in predatory behavior.

These “Bathroom bills” and all the talk swirling around them have caused embarrassment and humiliation for trans women, cis-gendered women and little girls. Asking people what genitals they were born with when they need to go into the bathroom is problematic.

I was talking to a fellow pastor about this and he said that he was standing outside the ladies’ room waiting for his little girl to come out. She had short hair and was wearing athletic clothing. She emerged from the bathroom sooner than expected with tears in her eyes. Two women thought she was a boy and took it upon themselves to tell her to leave because she was in the “wrong” bathroom. My friend was justifiably angry. We do not need bathroom police. No good can come of it.

To some people, the concept of being transgender seems new and shocking, even though transgender people have existed in cultures worldwide since ancient times. We have reached a time in our country where people with different gender expressions and sexual orientations are refusing to hide anymore. This disturbs  social conservatives who want everything to stay the same. But we must not allow the human rights of transgender people to be sacrificed to ease the discomfort of others.

Republican leadership is not motivated by evidence or faith in the debate over trans rights. They are encouraging the public’s fear and discomfort in an effort to mobilize them to vote.

This tactic is not new. Prior legislative campaigns, like the effort to ban same-sex marriage, targeted the LGTBQ+ community in the same way. That is no longer a winning political strategy—two-thirds of the public now approve of same-sex marriage.

As the public becomes more familiar with, and more educated about people who are transgender, this hate campaign will also fall by the wayside. The tragedy is that many trans people will be hurt in the meantime.

Rev. Dr. Judy Kincaid

Rev. Dr. Judy Kincaid serves as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. A featured preacher on the website, “A Sermon for Every Sunday,” Judy received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Temple University and her Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary. She earned her doctorate in Biblical Preaching in 2016. She lives in a church parsonage with her college professor husband, two beautiful daughters, two dogs, three cats, two little birds, a turtle and a snake.