Donald Trump wants you to forget trans people exist; his fate is worse than one who is drowned with a millstone.
Donald Trump and his Project 2025 threatens the basic dignity of trans people. The Lord offers the likes of him and his supporters a stern warning. But Christians can act now to save trans people.
Now that he is president-elect, Donald Trump’s Project 2025 no longer merely a possibility; it is an active existential threat.
Throughout the campaign fear-mongering about forced treatment of adolescents helped drive up anxiety and hatred about trans people, which on its own, even without the policy to back it up, leads to higher rates of murder and violence against them. But the actual laws that Trump and the Heritage Foundation want to codify do even more than that.
According to the ACLU, Project 2025’s goal is to enact “federal law to require states and private actors to discriminate against transgender people by threatening to sue schools that protect the rights of trans students or telling hospitals that they would lose their Medicaid funding if they provide gender-affirming medical care to trans adolescents.”
These threats are deadly to trans people, who markedly have an increased rate of suicidality when their rights aren’t protected and when they don’t receive the medical care they need. According to one study, “data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.” Trans people make up a small percentage of the population, and yet, this is a hallmark feature of Trump’s agenda.
What’s more, just like they did in 2004 when they argued that support for same-sex unions led to George W. Bush’s victory, Democrats are ready to blame support for trans people on their embarrassing loss to Donald Trump. While not as explicitly heinous as Trump and Project 2025, Democrats are abandoning trans people for their own power. Not only is it a dubious and unfounded claim that disregarding the rights of queer people would win Democrats power (they probably can’t out-transphobe Republicans), it is an immoral prospect on its face.
Right-wing Christians are the most powerful voting bloc who opposes trans rights, and they are also the authors of Project 2025. It is the height of shame that they are doing so, when Christians, in fact, should be caring for the most vulnerable among us. That they instead elect to reject the Gospel, and favor their own power.
As I’ve written, “Jesus both acknowledges and affirms that gender exceeds the binary that often constrains it. A simple reading of the Gospel makes it clear that we are to love and side with the most vulnerable among us. And Paul says that church unity is dependent upon giving honor to the most disrespected among us. Today, I am telling you, that the clearest way to follow Jesus and express the Gospel is to love, affirm, and cherish trans folks, and especially trans youth. But unfortunately, Christians seem to be doing the very opposite.”
For Christians who turn their back on the love of Jesus and favor their own power, they are trying to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul. They are trying to save their own lives, which will lead to losing their lives. And if they cause these little ones, trans teens, in particular, to lose their life, Jesus tells them it would be better if they had a millstone hung around their neck and for them to be thrown into the Sea of Galilee. But that’s not the end of the story for people who hold transphobic beliefs—it is all too common for Christians to hold them, and though its commonality doesn’t justify or excuse it, there is a path for repentance and forgiveness. Many Christians incidentally hold these beliefs because of what we’ve been taught, but we are saved by grace through faith. Forgiveness, reconciliation, and a new chance are possible for everyone who wants to set down their bags of hatred.
But as we await the unrepentant to be made God’s footstool, Christians of conscience, Christians who are awake can respond in meaningful ways to this oppression of God’s people.
The first thing Christians can do is remember the lives of trans people, especially on this Trans Remembrance Day. Highlight them in your worship services and prayers. Tell their stories and reassure everyone that trans people are here and must be dignified. There are plenty of resources out there, including our own Brethren Mennonite Council’s.
Christians and churches should also make it clear that their churches and denominations are fully affirming of queer people and trans people. This means, in no uncertain terms, in word and deed, making sure queer people feel safe. Not doing this can be harmful and even deadly. But doing so can be the very opposite: life giving and life saving!
Acknowledging and affirming trans people goes a long way in reversing the tide of transphobia that may be sweeping the U.S. (if Trump and his cronies have their way). It is meaningful work in world where queer people often feel like they have to be secretive, private, or closeted.
Another way to fight transphobia is to create and cultivate queer spaces where trans folk and all queer folks can let their guards down and be themselves. Queer space, with or without allies, is so important to helping people fully be themselves in a world where they often can’t be.,
Finally, we need to continue to engage in action that protects trans people. Christians should be prepared to physically protect them from harm by housing them. We should offer mental health resources to help them work through any pain or trauma they’ve felt because of their identity. We should write our legislators, both local and nationally, to ensure their rights are protected.
Trans people are not an ideological issue or debate, they are real, and deserve to be seen and loved for who they are. Christians have often done the very opposite of this, but there's a path forward for Christians who have done harm and want to walk on a new path. We no longer need to cause the little ones to stumble. We can ally with God to protect these most vulnerable little ones.