Wisconsin Annual Conference Adopts Trans Rights Resolution

Ben Weger, clergy, Stoughton UMCBoard Member, Reconciling Ministries NetworkSiblings in Christ,I rise to speak in favor of this resolution.I rise, because, for me, this is not an abstraction. It is personal.I am a transgender man. I am also a United Methodist pastor. There was a time when I did not believe those two realities could coexist. I knew the gifts God had given me. I knew the call I had heard. But I also knew the fear of rejection, exclusion, and wondering whether there would be a place for me in the church I loved. And those fears came to life when I began my transition from female to male in 2016, while I was serving on staff as laity at a United Methodist Church in Florida. After promising their full support for my transition - the clergy couple co-pastors came to my house after church, the Sunday following my top surgery - as I sat there with surgical drains hanging at my sides, this couple, who had served communion at our wedding just one year prior, sat on my lanai and in front of my beloved wife, as our daughters napped - told me the church just wasn’t ready. They gave me the option to resign or be fired, and if I resigned there would be a severance check. They were willing to pay me a significant amount of money to go away, rather than back up the beliefs they proclaimed with their actions.Suddenly, our ability to finalize the adoption of our girls was at risk, as I was now unemployed. Would I be able to find another job while in the middle of my transition? Where would we worship and where would we find community, when we had relocated there for the sole purpose of being in ministry with a church that had promised the whole of its support for exactly who we were.There was, at that time, no ability for me to challenge this discrimination - after all, the conference office was stroking the severance check given in exchange for me signing the separation agreement they had crafted.Our faith begins with the conviction that every person is created in the image of God. The question before us is whether transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse people will hear that promise from us—not only in our words, but in our actions. This resolution affirms what our denomination has already recognized: that gender identity is not a barrier to ministry, leadership, or participation in the life of the church. I stand before you today because people in this conference and throughout this denomination chose courage over fear. They chose welcome over exclusion. They chose to trust that God’s grace is bigger than their uncertainty. And because they did, I have had the privilege of preaching the gospel, welcoming new members into God’s church, sitting beside hospital beds, burying the dead, serving communion and so much more. My inboxes still fill weekly with hateful sentiments and proclamations that I am a heretic and an abomination. But God calls me and all of my trans and gender nonconforming siblings: beloved.I am not asking you to make a political statement. I’m asking you to uphold your baptismal vows to resist evil, injustice and oppression in all its forms.I am asking you to support for the teenager wondering if God still loves them.For the fearful parent trying to keep their child safe.For the person who has given up on the church because they have only heard rejection.And yes, for people like me, who have discovered that God’s call remains steadfast and God’s love remains true.If we are created in God’s image, as we claim to believe, then the more diverse we are gathered around any table, the more full a picture of who God is, we get to see.Friends, this resolution is an opportunity to proclaim with both our words and our witness that every person is of sacred worth, deserving of dignity, protection, and belonging.Thank you. Get full access to TransPreacher at transpreacher.substack.com/subscribe