First Transgender Christian Bishop In U.S. Elected In California

SAN FRANCISCO — The Rev. Megan Rohrer has been breaking barriers for LGBT people in the evangelical Lutheran faith for nearly two decades. Already the first transgender person to be ordained a pastor in any Christian denomination in the U.S., Rohrer is now the first to be elected a bishop.

Rohrer, who goes by they/them pronouns, was elected Saturday to serve as bishop of the Sacramento-based Sierra Pacific synod, NPR and others have reported. The synod serves about 200 congregants in northern California, central California and northern Nevada.

They will become the first transgender person to serve as a bishop in any of the country’s major Christian faiths, according to Religion News Service.

“It’s an honor to be called to serve the Sierra Pacific synod,” said Rohrer, who currency serves as a pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco and a community chaplain for the San Francisco Police Department, in a statement to Religion News Service.

“During this time when some imagine trans people at their worst, Lutherans have once again declared that transgender people are beautiful children of God,” they said. “Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my family as I accept this call.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America opened its ministry to LGBT pastors who are in relationships in 2009, officially recognizing Rohrer’s status as a pastor, along with six other LGBTQ people, a year later. Prior to that, LGBT ministers in the ELCA were ordained only if they remained celibate.

Rohrer became a pastor in 2006, in what has been widely described as an “extraordinary candidacy process” that sidestepped the ELCA’s then-ban on LGBT ministers.

Although the ELCA began allowing LGBT ministers in 2010, some of the largest Lutheran denominations, like the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, continue to oppose homosexuality.

The synod “believes the Bible teaches homosexual behavior is contrary to God's Word and will,” according to its website, continuing that the church “seeks to minister to those who are struggling with homosexual inclinations.”

The Missouri synod, in 1973, described “homophile behavior as intrinsically sinful," and in 1992 developed a “plan for ministry” for homosexuals and their families.

Growing up Lutheran in South Dakota, Rohrer shared with Cosmopolitan magazine in 2017 some of the obstacles they had to overcome as a trans person in the Lutheran faith.

They remember the harassment endured, telling the magazine some classmates would even use the Gospel of Matthew to insinuate it’d be better if they drowned in the ocean.

At the Sierra Pacific synod is, Rohrer’s approach will be one of a progressive mindset.

Documents stating their qualifications in the bishop election process show Rohrer’s priorities as first to hire a communications professional “to lead a major evangelism effort,” promote low-income housing and to review the synod’s policies that lead to bias, Religious News Service reported.

Rohrer has been an activist in the Bay Area for years, working with the LGBT homeless community in San Francisco as executive director of the non-profit, Welcome.

“Pastor Megan has created programs to provide groceries for HIV+ individuals, and advocates nationally for homeless LGBT youth and to help faith communities’ welcome LGBT individuals,” their website states.

They told Cosmopolitan “using faith to tear other people down is not good news.”

“We need to all be as loud and as angry as the people who want to declare that there are types of people that God can’t love.”