March 29, 2025 – Faith and LGBTQ+ Rights in the Face of Adversity

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PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

We’re coming together in a really challenging time, I don’t need to tell you that. And, there are over 600, maybe 800, anti-LGBTQ bills that are being proposed around the country.We have to acknowledge that many of those challenge the very existence of trans lives, and we have to make sure that we foreground that. That that is not a side thing, that is at the foreground of the attacks on our community. And we’re going to show up together to push back those who would attack our community, any part of our community.

There are many bills out there that are trying to shut down our celebrations of Pride. There are efforts, now, to reverse the bans on conversion therapy, so young people – and not just young people, but often young people who are experiencing these psychological terror efforts to turn people away from themselves into something that someone else wants them to be. The bans are being overturned. And I’ll say even from my own situation, as a married person, there are now ten states that have introduced anti-gay marriage bills. And so we’re aware that the future of that is in peril, but we are not without resources. We have hope.

And part of the reason we have hope is because, actually, the faith community is an ally in this effort. Some people misunderstand the actual polling. The polling shows that religious folks as a whole support, overwhelmingly, LGBTQ equality. We have to lean into that. The majority with the faith community supports LGBTQ equality, and we have to be out there and insistent that our vision of morality, our vision of inclusion, our vision of welcoming and life-affirming understanding of the divine and the sacred is heard.

And so with all of that preamble, I am just delighted to welcome an incredible group of speakers tonight. We have Chase Strangio from the ACLU; Tahil Sharma from the national LGBTQ Task Force; Jon Cohen from Keshet; and Ross Keys from Interfaith Alliance in North Dakota. Each one comes from a different vantage point. All of them have something to teach us, to show us, to share with us today. And I’m excited, because we need a boost. There’s so much bad coming at us often, and tonight is not about that. We’re going to hear about the challenges, but these are some incredible people who I hope you’ll enjoy hearing them as much as I will.

So I’m going, now, just turn it over to Chase. Chase, can I invite you to join me and just let people know that Chase Strangio Gio is from the ACLU. He’s one of the most important activists within the the LGBT and HIV area. And he’s also the first trans man to, to argue in front of the Supreme Court, which is just so great.

And so I just admire you so much. Chase, thank you for joining us, and the floor is yours.

CHASE STRANGIO:

Thank you so much Paul, and thank you everyone for being here. I really am so grateful. And obviously this is a really scary time. And I believe, as Paul alluded to, that our only way through this is to be in community with each other, to be in solidarity in our resistance and our disruption of everything that is going on. So I am just very honored to be in community with all of you.

So I want to start by just talking a little bit about where we are because it’s important to acknowledge that. And I am someone who believed very much that the Trump administration would be catastrophic for LGBTQ people, particularly for trans people, and was preparing myself for that reality – and yet, somehow it is still worse than everything I an anticipated. And what we’re seeing now is this administration is both attacking individual rights and safety for so many communities, including trans communities, and then also using those attacks on individuals and on civil rights in order to destabilize our constitutional structure and our constitutional system as a whole.

This is from the weaponization of our policing and immigration systems to the collapse of our civil rights protections to the deregulation of food and aviation safety to the ending of scientific research to using Signal group chats to plan wars. It’s all very alarming, as I know you all know. And I want to focus specifically on the ways that trans people are particularly vulnerable in this moment, and the actions we can take in defensive of trans life. It is so important to note, just at the outset, that every single attack is intertwined, and our ability to be successful in this moment depends on our ability to fight with and for each other. And so that’s just another reason why moments like this are so critical for us to gather together.

As all of you probably know, campaign spending targeting trans people in the lead-up to the 2024 election exceeded $220 million. Project 2025 was fixated on trans people. So it was very clear that this administration was going to be a nightmare for our communities. And Trump has followed through in every possible, horrific, and nightmarish way, from his inauguration speech on January 20th, proclaiming that it is now the position of the federal government of the United States that there are only two sexes, determined at conception. In other words, that trans people don’t exist.

That led to, then, an executive order that same day codifying that position, and then followed by a series of executive orders, seemingly daily, attempting to instrumentalize that in so many different ways. And so then, in addition to all of the material harms that these orders and this rhetoric have caused, including the loss of jobs, the loss of healthcare, the loss of housing and identification, this administration’s decision to, in essence, situate transness as what President Trump in his day one executive order called a “false claim”, and to position us as inherently deceptive and dishonorable, is, in essence, opening the door to the widespread criminalization of trans life. And we’re seeing now, I think, an escalation in the executive orders.

One recent executive order called the affirmation of transgender young people a form of child abuse. Another executive document referred to the affirmation or the listing of one’s gender identity rather than one’s sex assigned at birth as “misrepresentation” or a “false claim”. You can see how they’re shifting from what started out as formalistic policies into a more criminalization framework at the federal level – and as Paul mentioned, this is of course being mimicked and even expanded at the state level. We have bills, for example, in Texas that would, in essence, make it a felony to announce one’s gender identity different from one’s sex assigned at birth. Bills in Arkansas that would attempt to ban any support for social transition, including a gender non-conforming haircut.

And so this is the sort of, just, breadth of what we’re seeing at the state and federal – and local level, too. And so then when we think about how do we combat this, I think it’s really important to name at least some of the reasons why this is happening. And I sort of want to name two in particular.

And one is that there are many people who – or maybe some people who -actually do have some deep-seated hatred of transness. But I think many more people have a fear of transness – and in particular a fear that is a product of this deep-seated fear within themselves, and I think the fear of the freedom and even the liminality that transness represents. Because trans people represent the destabilization and the defiance of something that we are taught is fixed and stable. I do think there is this desire to control the sex binary, to control trans bodies, because of that sense of anxiety that trans people provoke and others.

And then on a more structural level, we’re also seeing this happening because control over the body and control over the family is a central tool of authoritarian regimes in order to control society at large. There is a need to control people’s imagination, people’s sense of what they can do with their bodies, what they can do with their desire, and what they can do with their families.

And so all of this just reiterates the extent to which we’re dealing with a set of individual attacks, almost existential and emotional attacks. And then also this is connected to the structures of governance, and all of this is happening at once, and it’s creating the understandable sense of fear and chaos.

But we’re not a alone in it. And we’re not alone in our resistance. And that, I think, is the thing we have to remember every single day. And so, moving forward, what can we do? I think there’s three things that I generally think we need to be doing at all times – and faith communities are absolutely essential in this.

And the first is the single most important thing that I think we can all do right now – and this is especially important for faith communities, because so much of the rhetoric can be grounded in religion that is weaponized against us – is to disrupt the narratives that transness is inherently harmful and disruptive and deceptive.

And so that means being an active participant in reshaping the narratives every day in your communities, in your workplaces, in your school districts, in your school boards. And Paul and I have the same school district here in New York, and we’re fighting back against all of this anti-trans rhetoric here in New York City. And we all have a role to play in doing that.

And we’ve heard President Trump say, over and over again, that he brings up trans people to rile his base in a way that did not happen eight years ago. And the reason for the shift is because there’s been a shift in cultural narrative, and we all have a role to play in disrupting that. And if we don’t have faith leaders in the position of disrupting that, we will not be successful. So that’s number one.

The other thing to do – and we know this is true, but I just want to reiterate it as someone who advocates in the courts and in legislatures across the country – is to be engaged with your political representatives at every level of government.

Obviously that means at the congressional level – we need our representatives, we need our senators to hear from us. But it really also includes your school boards, your state legislative representatives, your mayors, your district attorneys. We need to be more engaged. And we need to be relentless, because we need to have a meaningful opposition to what we’re seeing.

And we need to build power in our local and state communities. So we need people to be active – which means doing things that you think other people are doing, or that you think don’t need to be done. And I have to tell myself this every time there’s a call to engage because I think: oh, do I have to? Is that really useful? And the answer is yes, it is. It definitely is.

And then the third thing that I say every single time is: give materially to people. People are in need right now of resources and support. The government is ending people’s careers. The federal government ending research. Hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs, and trans people are losing so much: healthcare, identification, the ability to move freely.

And we need communities to show up and be distributive, redistributive in your impulses, hold people in all of the ways they need to be held. And that is how we’re going to get through this, because we need to be the safety net for each other. And I think that is the thing we can do every single day. And at the end of the day, I believe wholeheartedly that our goodness and our collective power will prevail. And this administration is full of people who feel power by making other people feel small. And that is not a strategy with longevity. In the end, I think our love and our care for each other will be the thing that wins the day, and we just can’t forget it.

So thank you for joining in the fight. Thank you for being vocal. And thank you for loving and caring for each other.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

Chase, thank you so much for that. I really appreciate your wisdom, your clear call, and all that you are doing for the LGBTQ community in your own life and abroad.

I’m going to turn to Tahil Sharma, and welcome you, Tahil. I have known you for a long time – this is such a pleasure – interfaith activist for years who I’ve worked alongside and now who is leading the faith initiative at the LGBTQ Task Force. We’re so glad you’re joining us. Thank you so much, and I look forward to your wisdom today.

TAHIL SHARMA:

Thank you so much, Paul. I appreciate the opportunity, and I’m thankful to all of the folks who decided to join this call today. And I’m especially thankful in this moment to Chase, who laid out a lot of the groundwork for this conversation, to contextualize what we’re up against and to really think about how we can address it.

I’d like to start off with a story of something that I experienced recently from a trip that I took to Texas. I was in Austin during some major bills that were being considered for votes of committee hearings. And during one of the subcommittee hearings that was focused on banning trans in sports, from allowing them to change their birth certificates, there was a trend in the room that really caught me by surprise.

One was the fact that many folks used religion to be able to testify and talk about their worldviews and why it justifies them being able to discriminate against transgender people. It was very important to note that at least three people were in the room quoting the Bible to be able to justify the gender binary, and to be able to discriminate against transgender people,.

But second, the presence of faith communities to respond to that was abysmal. The only community that was there testifying against the bill to protect trans people was the Unitarian Universalist community. Now, what does this frame bring? What does this make you want to ask? Where’s everyone else? While we understand that in this moment of deep injustice among many things that are going on for faith communities around the country, it’s clear that we don’t have a lot of backup. And it’s very clear that faith communities are trying to find their own ways to be, to survive day by day.

But there’s something really important to think about when we’re navigating this conversation about what it means to be a community that is open and affirming. Are you open and affirming to the point where you know that LGBTQ people may exist within your denomination and your faith tradition, and they’re more than welcome to worship with you? They’re more than welcome to be in community with you? Or are you actually trying to create a community that makes it secure and affirming for them to live unapologetically as themselves?

It’s very clear, historically, that LGBTQ individuals and communities have existed among many traditions. There are many stories, there are many ways that they engage with mythology. There are historical moments that actually focus on a history that goes back centuries. And unfortunately, faith communities in this day and age have often forgotten that they don’t need to start from a posture of an open door invitation into your space. You have to start from a place of mercy, of compassion, and being willing to be able to be held to account for what the Church has done – even if it wasn’t your individual church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or faith community.

I recently participated and supported some faith-based LGBTQ work at the Creating Change Conference that took place in Las Vegas a couple of months ago. And I hosted what was called the Faith Institute, which is a space where LGBTQ, religious, and spiritual folks were able to engage in conversations about advocacy, spiritual fulfillment and cross-movement solidarity. And one of the things that I will always remember in that space were not the people that filled the seats, which were many, but it was many of the people that accidentally entered the room thinking that they were going somewhere else, and having a complete about-face without any sense of respect or willingness to be able to engage what’s happening in the room.

We have to remember that LGBTQ people, in this moment, are still struggling with this idea that we can find alliances and that we can find allyship from religion and spirituality, both in practice and in institution. So it’s very important for us to remember that when we posture ourselves to have progressive theologies or open and affirming spaces, it actually doesn’t mean much when there’s still a lot of distrust out there – because your absence within the schools, the town halls, within school board meetings, when looking for testimonies in the House and the Senate, both at the national and the local level, means that you are not there to be able to defend the progressive traditions that you claim, and to be able to defend the people that are under attack from the very same religion that you come from. And I speak from that as a Hindu and a Sikh, where I may come from progressive understandings of my own faith traditions, but know that my own faith traditions carry subtle conservative context that hold certain opinions about LGBTQ people. And this is true for communities across the board in this space.

So I invite you to reimagine what it means to be secure and affirming for LGBTQ people in your faith spaces: how are you creating resources for them to feel like they’re fulfilled? As in inquiry individuals, how are you making sure that it’s not just that they’ve filled a seat in the room during a congregational service, but that they have a roof, that they have food, that they have clothing, and that they have security once that service is over? How are you making sure that theologically, your congregation is in consensus about protecting the marginalized and oppressed? Not to just offer them more seats, but to equalize them, to be able to empower them, and make them feel like they can be entire individuals. And how are you making sure that you are showing up in those spaces when marginalized and oppressed people cannot show up?

Remember that you go in there to be able to speak for your tradition, and to give it the new name, the new posture, the new narrative that it deserves – which is pluralistic, inclusive, and just; but it is also to make sure that when people of color, when Black and Indigenous people cannot show up, when LGBTQ individuals cannot show up because of their safety, and when others who cannot afford to show up because of accessibility – you are the ones that need to use your privilege, your platform ,to be able to speak up for them. Learn from them. Listen to them, see what their needs are, then speak up for them when you’re giving them permission.

And then when you go back to your faith community, remember that it is about what they need, not what you think they need. This is how you’re able to serve them in the best ways possible. And this is how you can make sure that your community is leading by example, and not by a precedent because of institutional precedent of oppression and pain and fear. I’ll pass it back to you, Paul.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

Thank you so much, Tahil. I really appreciate all your work in this area, and important words.

I’m going turn it next to Jon Cohen, who is Keshet’s director of community mobilization and a national community-builder with a commitment to LGBTQ Rights. Welcome, Jon.

JON COHEN:

Thank you. Thank you so much, and thank you to everyone that is here and everyone in this movement. My name is Jon and I use he/him pronouns. I work at Keshet as the director of community mobilization. A little bit that’s not in my bio: I grew up in South Florida, and growing up in South Florida is a very diverse community. I grew up Jewish, and my mom’s family is Mexican, and my step family was from Trinidad. And so growing up in South Florida in a multi-faith, multicultural home, I didn’t realize that. I didn’t realize the ways that was not the norm for so many people. And growing up in the way that I grew up, I was just Jewish.

I was never particularly observant or drawn to religion. And it really wasn’t until I found Jewish social justice that I really started to feel a connection to Judaism and a deeper meaning to religion. And I think that the work that Keshet does and the work that we are able to do together is an embodiment of religious values that don’t just pertain to Jewish people. I think that a lot of religious values go to, just, the idea of loving the stranger and being a supportive community.

Keshet’s work, Keshet is a Jewish and LGBTQ nonprofit that functions in the United States. We have four main program areas that we work in. We do education and training work where we go into Jewish organizations and communities and teach them about LGBTQ identity, how to be affirming communities, and how they can take action for the LGBTQ community.

We have youth programming for queer Jewish youth, ages 13-24, where they can have positive, affirming spaces to do leadership development. We have queer Jews of color programming for queer people of color and also Jewish to have affinity spaces and spaces to come together to learn and grow.

And then the work that I’m here to talk about is our community mobilization work, where we really act as the bridge between the Jewish community and the advocacy community of the LGBTQ rights. And so a lot of the work that we do is going into synagogues, Jewish institutions, educating their communities on how to use their religion and be people of faith that support LGBTQ rights. I think that’s something that is particularly relevant for folks that are of the non-majority faith in the United States, is how often the anti-LGBTQ legislation that ends up going through due to religious freedoms often can have harms on the non-majority faith in the United States such as Judaism and so many others.

There are specific examples I can think of in certain agencies that will not adopt to same sex couples, and they also won’t adopt to Jewish couples, because it is against their religion – but they are receiving federal funding from the government. And so with a lot of our communities, they are very familiar with the ways that discrimination can be a slippery slope and can lead to a lot more harm.

A piece of our work that I am excited to share that will hopefully make its way into the chat is that Keshet has, we have, seven values for taking action. And these are values that come from the Old Testament, and so they’re relevant to many but not all religions. And these aren’t just talking points. When we have gone into synagogues or Jewish organizations, one of the first things that we approach them with are shared values. And so going into communities of faith and being able to call upon shared values of faith has been really beneficial to allowing us to do that work in communities that would otherwise not necessarily bring us in.

And then another piece of work that I’m going to share is our Jewish Pledge for Trans Dignity. We recently held a call that had over 300 Jewish people from across the country sign on and come and take a pledge to support the trans, non-binary, and intersex community in the light of all the executive orders and everything happening in the country.

And I would say that in terms of doing the work, being in coalition, showing up in relationships, I would say that our theory of change is working together and really understanding and leaning into the idea that just because you are in coalition with an organization or with a group of people does not necessarily mean that you agree or align with every single thing that person or that organization shares. And we’ve had many instances of having to lean into and test those relationships due to challenging moments that are happening to everyone.

I think that when we think about the work and that everyone has a role to play that there is no right way to be an advocate. There are so many opportunities to take action in any way that you can. If you’re someone that can go to your state capital… I was in Tallahassee last week with a group of Jewish people talking to representatives as people of faith in support of the LGBTQ community. There’s a person on my team that is in Austin, Texas right now because she was doing that in Texas today. And so that is one definite way.

Another way is to just contact your legislators on the phone, online, via email, and to talk to your community. I think that if you’re someone on this call, you are probably very bought-in. You believe it. You are here because you care. I imagine that you probably know people who care either not at all or less than you, and so your role in this movement is to talk to those people. The panelists and all these calls can definitely share information to the listeners, but it only goes so far. So the real key here are all the people watching, and that you go and talk to your community that may be less informed on the issues, may be less directly impacted, and make sure that they know that these things matter, why they matter, and how you can take action for them.

And in interfaith spaces, we have found a lot of success when we come together for the LGBTQ community. A majority of people of faith support LGBTQ non-discrimination, and that’s really showing up in the work. Keshet was a part of the Faith Institute that Tahil shared, and we have worked in partnership with Interfaith Alliance many times to work on LGBTQ rights, both from a Jewish perspective but also from a faith perspective, and to bring faith leaders together and to bring additional perspectives. And it feels like a privilege to be able to do this work and to be able to channel our energy to do something about it, and to really put our resources to making things better for the LGBTQ community, particularly trans people, intersex people, and non-binary people.

And I appreciate being here and I’ll pass it back to you, Paul.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

Thank you so much Jon, and I just appreciate your work so much.

Our last presenter is Ross Keys, who is the director of Interfaith Alliance in North Dakota, he is working on the ground in quite a rocky landscape, let me put it that way, of North Dakota. But it has been incredibly strengthening to me to see Ross’s strength and the way that the religious communities have stepped up, even though they’re small, but they have stepped up and have shown courage in this moment.

And Ross, I’m so glad that you’re joining us, and I’ll pitch it over to you.

ROSS KEYS:

Thank you, Paul. This is a real honor and, man, a fantastic group of speakers. I’m very glad to be a part of this. So my part of this would be talking about how the faith community can reach out and create allyship in a place like North Dakota. I’ll maybe do this a little bit more from the organizing standpoint, maybe a little bit more from the politics and policy standpoint, since that’s my background. So it’s maybe a little different lens that I’ll give here.

In North Dakota the local groups have been active. North Dakota Human Rights Coalition had been active for a couple of decades. But in terms of partnership and what I think is really effective outreach and working between faith groups and the LGBTQ community, we coalesced in the 2023 legislative session, where Christian nationalism and all of the things that brings with it descended upon the state. And in particular, that session saw an all-out assault, with about 20 bills targeting the LGBTQ community in North Dakota.

Now, the Interfaith Alliance in North Dakota was in its early stages; but we thought, something simple, maybe a letter to the editor, would be a good way to get faith leaders’ names out in the public statewide to show their opposition to these horrible bills and their support for the LGBTQ community. And it’d also be a chance to show them that they weren’t alone, because when you’re in a small town like Rugby, North Dakota and your message of faith seems to come to a different conclusion than many of the faith leaders around you, you can feel pretty alone, pretty isolated.

So that letter created community among ourselves, and this was something new for almost all of the faith leaders involved, but that’s been a goal of the Interfaith Alliance of North Dakota, providing opportunities for faith leaders to engage in public policy to hopefully change hearts and minds. We ended up on that letter, by the way, we ended up with over double the signatures we were expecting, significantly increased the size of our interfaith group, and it was a great way to demonstrate allyship with a marginalized community that was under attack. So this was a kickoff for a succession of meaningful efforts at outreach.

About the same time, the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, which is kind of a sister organization to Interfaith Alliance – I’m on their board, they’re on my board, we work together on things all the time – they decided to start holding weekly LGBTQ Legislative War Group meetings, which included numerous faith leaders from across the state. At the same time that was going on during the 2023 session and going into 2025, the Interfaith Alliance was inviting key LGBTQ activists to give legislative session updates on our monthly calls for our network of faith leaders. And so we just developed a response after those attacks.

We soon took that a little bit further. Two members of the Interfaith Alliance Board and others started a very intentional effort to build relationships between the faith and LGBTQ communities through a series of welcoming town halls that were held in, Fargo, North Dakota churches. Faith leaders and LGBTQ communities were invited to listen to speakers and enjoy some fellowship time and conversation over a meal after the speakers had finished.

At these, members from the LGBTQ community and especially the trans community, had an opportunity to be in direct conversation with members of our faith communities. And, in fact, at one of those that I was able to make it over to, Pastor Nicole Garcia, formerly with the National Task Force, spoke in person at one of those, and spent several days of Pride Week with us.

We lost some key leaders after that. There was a trans pastor, a gay pastor in Fargo that moved out of state, and so we’re in a process of trying to rebuild that, take it statewide under the umbrella of the Interfaith Alliance in North Dakota. So those are a couple of pretty specific examples.

I’d like to wheel back, now, to the legislative session, because the legislative session, with my background, it provides a perfect opportunity, especially for Interfaith Alliance, to provide opportunities for faith leaders to become informed and involved in some of these key issues. We hold monthly calls during the session that focus on legislative updates. In particular, in 2025, going on right now, I was up at the capitol this morning focusing on Christian Nationalism bills – so that could be anything from school vouchers to these LGBT issues to book banning – you name it.

But what we do here is we push weekly actions, at least weekly actions, where we’ll provide descriptions of the bills to either support or oppose along with direct links. So it’s “click here” if you want to see this bill, and also direct links to submit testimony and examples of effective testimony on the bills, making it as simple and easy as possible – because, especially, what I’ve been finding out during Lent is that it’s a pretty busy time for these pastors in rural North Dakota, and I’ve got to create something that they can turn around quickly, because we only have a few days, normally, of advance warning on when these bills come before committee.

Our partner organization, North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, continues to host the LGBTQ Legislative Work Group, and we encourage faith leaders to provide testimony online or in person, which has been extremely successful in 2025. I’d love to go over a list of bills, in fact straight out of the Christian Nationalism playbook, that we have defeated this session in North Dakota.

Sometimes, though, we simply encourage – if they’ve already submitted testimony online – we encourage faith leaders to show up, show support, show allyship, and we can have a little fun with it at the same time. In fact, there was a bill, a feelgood bill for extremists, that would encourage the Supreme Court of the US to overturn Obergefell. And a UCC pastor showed up for that bill, and we had worked with the ACLU, Human Rights Coalition, and a variety of individuals.

The rooms were packed that day. To make sure that the UCC rep was visible –  because what she had done, she wore her collar, but she also brought this very bright, multicolored, stole; looked like a pride flag. It was absolutely beautiful. And so I worked with all of the other folks who were providing testimony, and we placed her right up next to the speaker’s box where the people would come one by one for testimony. And so all the cameras were on the people giving testimony, and our UCC pastor who’s on our board in that beautiful stole. It drives some of the legislators absolutely crazy, but we had fun with it. But it also meant a lot to show that she showed up, there was allyship there. So we’re always looking for opportunities to outreach or show support.

We have an annual LGBTQ summit, one of the best, most informative summits held in our state – and with my background, I’ve been to just about every summit in North Dakota, whether it’s coal, oil, ag, you name it. Faith leaders serve on the planning committee for the summit. And another interesting role that we picked up: an extreme church, an extreme conservative church in Bismarck, said that they were going to do a prayer circle outside the event center that we were holding the summit a couple years ago. And so a group of faith leaders put on their collars and we all put on pride flag armbands or neckerchiefs or headbands, something to identify us. And we provided a safe space, a little bit of security, so that anyone who felt uncomfortable walking past that prayer circle, we could come over, get them, walk them into the event. Even these little things can really mean a lot to the folks attending one of these pride events.

Other efforts that were taken in North Dakota with faith leaders reaching out to the LGBTQ community: UU, Episcopalians, UCC, ELCA, and others – it may not seem like much, but I find, on the ground, that it does mean a lot to folks coming out with welcoming resolutions and/or resolutions opposing Christian Nationalism. We’re showing God and Country or Postcards from Babylon or other films, and then holding panel discussions to explore Christian Nationalism, Project 2025, and the threat that they pose to all sorts of things, but including the LGBTQ community.

And earlier today, by the way, at the Capitol, that’s why I was up there, is we had a lobby day – ACLU, North Dakota Human Rights. We got a pastor, again, we placed her right in front of cameras as two very important bills were being discussed, a bathroom bill and a pronouns bill. That was this morning, working with other groups to make our case at the legislative session.

Quickly, a couple of key takeaways before I get pulled off, here – I see Paul… Creating partnerships is important. Faith communities in North Dakota are reaching out to LGBTQ organizations to create dialogue and build meaningful relationships. But demonstrating this allyship is critical, especially when the loudest voices attacking the LGBTQ community at these hearings also have folks wearing collars. So what can your faith community do? Develop a plan, seek interaction, reach out, commit to an ongoing effort, and then show up.

So Paul, that’s it.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

I loved what you said, Ross, I just really did. I appreciate it so much, because it’s very much about how the sausage is made in all different directions, but you are really doing the work, and I really appreciate it.

I want to invite the other panelists to get back on camera so we can all be together, and I’m going ask a few questions. And first one, I just want Chase – you answered this in the Q and A, but I wanted to give you an opportunity. You mentioned about material support for trans organizations. And I just wanted to  give you an opportunity to mention a few organizations that you feel could really use support right now.

CHASE STRANGIO:

Thanks Paul, and thanks for the question. I said in the chat that I think Trans Justice Funding Project is a great place to go, in part because what they do is they do grant-making to small trans-led organizations across the country. It means that you can get support to organizations in North Dakota, organizations in Alabama, that maybe you wouldn’t have a personal relationship with. But Trans Justice Funding Project has trans-led grant-making boards that then distribute the money out to grassroots organizations which really need the money right now.

And then, also, just think about other ways that material support can happen. Maybe it’s just cooking meals for people in your community. Maybe it’s responding to a GoFundMe, maybe it’s giving someone a place to crash if they have to get healthcare in another state from where they live. I think it’s all the different ways that we can provide support and shelter, love and care to each other.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

I’m going to just put this out there for each of you, because each of you are activists in your own way. But you’re also, either as an ally – I don’t want to presume anything about anybody’s anything, really, but I do want to just acknowledge that this work is hard, and if anybody wants to talk about self-care in the work and how you care for yourselves as inspiration for those listening, because this could be hard, and especially when you’re coming face-to-face with people who are really saying awful things about you or trying to erase you or whatever they’re trying to do, how do you care for yourself? So I’ll put that to the group.

ROSS KEYS:

I can start. It’s one of the first things I say whenever I go to speak, especially during these sessions. These bills and the resolutions that are being talked about can be very difficult to deal with. They’re very hateful. They’re very hurtful.  You need a good core group of allies that can help you recenter when you’re dealing with this. And that’s why these partnerships are so important.

But I also tell some of the folks in the rooms that I’ve seen people go a hundred miles an hour during a session, but that was the last session that we saw them at. It was too much. So, understand your limits. Focus. If you think you can work on all the bills, you’re going to watch them all pass by and not get a thing done – and you’re probably going to get burned out at the same time. So have that safe group of friends, focus, and take care of yourself.

JON COHEN:

I think all that is so great. And just one thing that I really want to add is: creating and finding opportunities for joy. I live in Miami, Florida, and so often, even the last few years, people that live in California or New York or Boston have asked me, how can you live there? It must be so terrible all the time.

And last Thursday I was at LGBTQ Know Your Rights Bingo hosted by a drag queen; and I’m going to walk in the Pride parade in two weeks. And so the joy in the community exists, even in states that are trying to stop it. And I said that I was in Tallahassee last weekend. One of my favorite things about being in Tallahassee and advocating with in person and with our partners is that there is a drag queen, a trans masculine attorney in a suit. There is a 14-year-old non-binary seventh-grader with green hair. And then there’s an ally, and they are a group. And it looks so funny to see, and to me, that is queer joy and the ways that we are so different but find ways to come together and be together.

And so I would encourage anyone in this movement to find the joy, create the joy, and try to find it wherever you can.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

All right. Tahil, Chase, if you want jump in, but I also just want to note a couple of folks in the chat were offering the fact that they will quote the Bible in support of their LGBTQ efforts, and I think that it’s so important, one, to acknowledge – and thank you for Ross bringing up Christian Nationalism and the conflation. We think of book bans. We think of the attacks on public schools and the attacks on LGBTQ rights. Those are all of a piece, of a movement, a religious movement, a theocratic movement in our country. And we have to be very careful – a quest for power – we have to name it so that we can counteract it. And I think especially people like me, Christians, have a special obligation to speak up against it.

One thing I’d be interested, Chase, if you wouldn’t mind, is speaking a little bit about your experience of what it meant to you to argue in front of the Supreme Court and what it means to have someone who is trans arguing a trans case in the Supreme Court. It’s historic, and I say that with all the gravitas of what that word means.

CHASE STRANGIO:

Thanks, Paul. I felt so many things, and I’ve been at the ACLU for 12 years and had worked on a series of Supreme Court cases, including Obergefell, which has been mentioned several times.

A case that never was argued on behalf of Gavin Grim, a trans boy whose school board singularly attacked him in 2015 and his case went all the way up to the Supreme Court. Then after Trump won the last election, it went back down to the lower courts because they attacked trans young people under Jeff Sessions almost immediately – but not as aggressively as they have this time.

And then in 2019 we worked on a case on behalf of Amy Stevens who was fired from her job. And that was the case that became Bostock versus Clayton County, Georgia, in which the court held that LGBTQ people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the law prohibiting sex discrimination in  employment. And at the time I sat at counsel’s table, I was one of the lead lawyers on the case, but I did not argue it. Our legal director, David Cole did.

And then I was very much supported by the entire ACLU that should there be another trans case at the Supreme Court, they wanted to put me in a position to be ready to argue it so that we could have trans voices there in the space when our lives were being debated on such important issues.

And so it took a lot of years of litigating in the lower courts and arguing appeals and making sure that I felt like I was the best advocate for the community if that day should come. And then when we had this most recent case go up to the Supreme Court – and I had worked on a lot of these cases, I argued five of them in the appeals courts – I felt grounded and ready to do it. And of course the narratives of “first” often, I should say, eclipse, all of the historic work that leads to a person doing something. And actually there was Pauli Murray, a Black faith leader who was likely non-binary, a trans who was really the architect of the Black Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement. And so much of the work that we do is on Polly’s shoulders. And so I was thinking about that in that moment, and in the lead-up and all of my colleagues and people who took care of me and prepped me and made sure I was eating and that I wasn’t going to lose my mind in every way.

And so it was such a communal effort and stretching back through history, and all of the work that we did was built upon so many people’s thinking and lives and bodies – and will continue to be. And so that it was very meaningful that day. And I think the most meaningful thing was coming out of the courthouse and seeing the rally and seeing all of the people and looking at the difference between our side, grounded in love, and their side, grounded in hate.

And it was the difference between brightness and joy and hope, and just miserable, downtrodden, smallness. And that’s what, really, keeps me going every day.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

I love that. I love everything about that answer. But I think when you came out and – we had lots of friends who were there that day outside of the Supreme Court, and one thing that they noted was so many faith communities, so many faith leaders, who were really out there celebrating trans people. Celebrating, and that was the headline, more faith communities out there for trans people than against. And that’s what we want to make sure is happening.

One thing that has come up and I want to ask Tahil, it’s one thing for adults to be in this movement and trying to argue. I am curious how we’re also thinking about young people, and how important it is for us to remember that some people can’t advocate for themselves in the same way. And especially when you have faith coming at you negatively; but what can be the power of faith coming at you positively if you’re a young person?

TAHIL SHARMA:

Yeah, that’s a great question, Paul. I think one of the big ones is for sure public witness. You know when there are Pride parades, when there are testimonies in state houses, when there are a school board meetings or anything in between, when there’s a public presence of faith, communities that affirm your dignity, that affirm your humanity, they really can go a long way. But I think associated with that is us, as religious folks, as faith leaders, as folks within faith institutions and communities needing to do a better job at translating – and I’m not saying English to another language – translating between communities so we can really understand how we can build solidarity, because a trans child is not going to do Christian Church-speak at all times.

A teacher is not going to be able to speak the same language as an organizer. We need to be so clear that if we need to build solidarity, we need to make sure people are understanding that we’re standing with them. Because if they don’t understand because of any separations, because if they assume the worst of a community that they only have a frame of the worst for, there will be no way to be able to clear the air. They need to be aware that there is clear language that defends you. There is clear community that defends you, and we’re not inviting you in to convert, either. We’re reminding you that we’re here for alliance-building and to make sure you have protection.

PAUL RAUSHENBUSH:

That’s a great way for us to end.

Many of us will be in DC for the Trans Day of Visibility with the Christopher Street Project. I hope that people are showing up on that day, that’s the 31st of March. Many of us will be here for World Pride, and if anyone on the call is coming to DC for World Pride, there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for us to talk about faith and LGBT rights, and there will be a panel on human rights and religion. And so that’s an opportunity that we’re looking forward to.

And the last is, I want to announce an invitation to our next public gathering like this. Interfaith Alliance is going to be partnering with MoveOn and Indivisible to have a conversation about organizing, and the role of faith communities in mass mobilizations – especially in the streets. April 5th is a big call across the country to show up on the streets. Faith communities have an important role to play. We invite you to join us on April 2nd at 8pm. The director of MoveOn will be there, the director of Indivisble will be there, the director of Kairos will be there, and many other faith leaders as well as Interfaith Alliance, and so everyone is invited.

Please join me in thanking, so much, our four guests tonight, and for all that they are, that they do, and that they brought to us tonight.