About three months ago, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints quietly rolled out new restrictions for transgender people in the church. The new policy bans transgender people from serving as teachers, working with youth or children, or holding any gender-specific calling. It bars transgender people from using a church restroom that aligns with their gender identity unless a “trusted person” ensures no one else is using it. (How this will work in practice is left unwritten. Will the “trusted person” need to scout ahead to ensure no one is in the restroom and stand guard so no one else enters? It certainly seems so.) The new policy bans transgender people from attending any gender-specific meeting or activity that aligns with their gender identity. It also forbids overnight sleeping at activities for transgender people wholesale. In the case of mixed-gender activities, transgender people are required to leave at night.
Whereas the former policy allowed local lay leaders a degree of autonomy for accommodating transgender members, the new policy significantly limits their ability to do so by stipulating that exceptions (which “should be rare”) may be granted only by a set of leaders further up the chain of command.
The degree to which these new policies severely inhibit transgender people from fully participating in the church underscores just how gendered everything in the church is. Organizations, meetings and callings in the church are so segregated by gender that it’s nearly impossible to escape the constant reminder that your gender determines your place in the faith. For men, this includes the potential to ascend to the commanding heights of church leadership. For women, leadership opportunities are mostly limited to congregation-level positions over the children, teenage girls and adult women. At higher levels of leadership, men never have women as superiors; whereas women only ever have men. But I digress.
The church indicates that the restrictions on transgender people are to be enforced against those who pursue “surgical, medical or social transition,” making clear the preference that trans people suffer with gender dysphoria rather than find peace and happiness by living authentically. Never mind that every major medical association in the United States, from the American Medical Association to the American Academy of Pediatrics and more than 20 others, endorses gender-affirming care as safe and evidence-based — if transgender members wish to avoid church discipline, they would need to forgo potentially lifesaving medical care.
By enforcing these restrictions against transgender people who socially transition — which its handbook mentions “may include changing dress, grooming, names or pronouns,” the church opens the door to a new level of surveillance and control against its members. Who is to say what men and women must wear? How they wear their hair? How they groom themselves? Such policies stifle individual expression and suppress cultural diversity — things that make the church richer and more representative of the world around us. Now, the people most likely to complain about gender-nonconforming expression can wield this policy as a cudgel against those they perceive as subversive.
Transgender people already occupy a marginalized position within the church. However, the new policy takes the marginalization a step further. By denying transgender people opportunities to use the restroom, attend overnight activities and serve with youth or children, the church reinforces harmful misconceptions that trans people are somehow inherently dangerous. Transgender people are not more predisposed to violence than cisgender people, nor is there any evidence that trans-inclusive restroom policies endanger women.
Inevitably, trans youth will be the ones most affected by this policy change. With less visibility of faithful transgender or gender-nonconforming adults to look up to, they may rightfully wonder if there is a future for them in the church. When they see older trans members humiliated by the need for a restroom chaperone or expulsion from an overnight church function, they may rightfully question whether the church wants them to belong.
With Donald Trump’s reelection, we are poised to enter a dark period for trans rights. It’s no coincidence that after Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans TV ads, calls to the leading LGBTQ youth crisis hotline spiked 700% the day after the election. Trans youth already have one of the highest suicide rates of any group; the last thing we need is to make church a less welcoming place.
Policies like these are most harmful to the trans community, but cisgender people will also be caught in the dragnet of anti-trans paranoia. And the church will suffer, too, by the unforced error of losing out on the faith, talents and experiences of trans people. Ultimately, transgender people will never be fully equal in the church until it recognizes the inherent worthiness of same-sex relationships and the reality that gender is a social construct.
But first, this dehumanizing and reactionary policy must end. Lives depend on it.
Patrick Hardy holds a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Iowa and is a husband and father of three.
Patrick Hardy holds a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Iowa and is a husband and father of three.
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