On April 16, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom passed a ruling that the legal definition of a woman excludes transgender women in some cases. This came after the campaign group For Women Scotland fought to oppose sex-based protections for anyone not assigned female at birth. The group’s agenda had focused on the Scottish government’s interpretation of The Equality Act of 2010, which provides protections against discrimination. This ruling does not prevent trans people’s protection from discrimination as trans people, but it does reinforce the idea of a strict binary for gender.
MSNBC has reported that For Women Scotland is anti-trans. One of the group’s funders, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series and opponent of trans rights, once again declared her public support for anti-trans hatred.
In the United States, there have been more than 120 anti-trans bills introduced to the Texas legislature — the most in the country, Axios reported. The Trans Legislation Tracker, a tracking tool meant to track bills that “impact trans and gender-diverse people across the United States,” has identified 129 anti-trans bills in Texas as of May 22, 2025. Some bills that have been introduced focus on preventing trans people from using bathrooms and changing rooms for people of their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth. Other bills attempt to restrict gender identity on legal documents or to prohibit a person from changing their sex on their birth certificate.
Bad ideology, theology, and legislation related to gender are immoral, anti-scientific, and widely pervasive — and also extremely dangerous.
In the United Kingdom, there has been a rise in reports of crimes against trans and other people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. The organization Stonewall Scotland, a LGBTQ+ advocacy group, offers an app that makes reporting crimes easier and has recorded a 186% increase in crimes against transgender people in the past five years in the U.K. In 2023, the Human Rights Campaign released a report that tracked eleven years of violence against the transgender and gender nonconforming community, which showed an increase in the number of deaths in recent years. The report also stated that most victims were people of color.
As a transgender person, I am scared. I am scared for my trans friends and loved ones. I worry about all of the trans children in the United States and how vulnerable they are to the Right’s attacks.
I worry for myself and wonder, Will there ever be a day when my legal paperwork can represent my gender identity and chosen name? Is this a safe thing to pursue at this time? Who is targeting trans people in these hate incidents, and how do I keep my family safe?
In times like these, I also want to hide away from religious institutions because a part of me still associates religious people with hurt and transphobia. And, at the same time, religious institutions are one place where I find an accepting community.
I’m an agnostic, and I go to a wonderfully intersectional church to find community. Every Sunday, I gather together with this group of people and share a meal. It is poetic and comforting in the simplest sense, and it gives me a feeling of belonging. But sometimes, even hearing biblical vocabulary or references to doctrine can feel triggering and hostile. But I know this comes from my experience with bad theology.
Traditional anti-trans Christian ideologies will often reference Genesis to defend their position. The New International Version translation of Genesis 5:2 reads, “He created them male and female.” Anti-trans Christians interpret this to mean that sex assigned at birth is something permanent, ordained by God. But relying on this passage to offer a moral and scientific rule around the immutability of gender ignores the fact that Genesis is meant to be read allegorically, not literally.
In the book The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, theologian Jon Paul Sydnor argues that even the apostle Paul calls for an allegorical reading of Genesis by citing his letter to the church in Galatia. In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul explains the significance of Sarah and Hagar. In verse 24, he tells his audience, “These things are being taken figuratively: the women represent two covenants.” If Paul didn’t read Genesis literally, then I think that permits Christians to interpret Genesis from a more open perspective when it comes to gender and sexuality.
I hold out hope that the Bible can be interpreted in such a way as to make room for me and other trans people. I grasp on to the idea that there is a Christianity out there that is safe and committed to fighting anti-trans legislation. Perhaps to my own harm, I even sometimes find myself hoping that fundamentalists and the Far Right can be persuaded. Persuaded to care, persuaded to see the shared humanity between themselves and transgender people, persuaded by their own good book to protect my community and change their ways. Though I know this is unlikely, I continue to cling to hope. As I am literally fed and cared for by a Christian community, I gain a better understanding of what faith looks like. Today, I am choosing to have faith in my identity as something beautiful and chosen, and good.
In Transgender, Intersex, and Biblical Interpretation, theologians Terese J. Hornsby and Deryn Guest write, “The trans body is not a minority exception to a two-gendered system; it is not an anomaly or a body that exists in the margins. The reality is that there are no margins.” This limitlessness, this abundance, is not only good theology, it is safety, it is belonging.
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