WASHINGTON (RNS) — Religious supporters and opponents of transgender rights rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday (Dec. 4), giving voice to opposing theologies as justices heard oral arguments on whether states can ban certain gender-affirming care for young people.
The protests took the form of dueling rallies separated by barricades, with demonstrators who support transgender rights — including a number of Jewish and mainline Protestant religious leaders and activists — outnumbering their opponents outside the court by a significant margin.
Across the street in front of the United Methodist Building, demonstrators representing organizations such as the National Council of Jewish Women, Keshet and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs huddled together holding signs that read “God loves trans kids” and “trans Jews belong here.”
“What brings me here today is my love of trans people and my love of folks being able to live into their potential and be conduits for holiness into the world, and therefore build a world where everyone can thrive,” Rabbi Becky Silverstein, a trans rabbi, said.
Standing next to Silverstein was Rabba Rori Picker Neiss, who works with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and is the parent of a transgender child. She said her family left Missouri after the state passed laws banning the same kind of gender-affirming treatments being debated in front of the Supreme Court.
“We are deeply invested in what it means for people to be able to have access to health care,” Neiss said. “I say that on a personal level, and then, also, as a faith community, what it means for people to recognize their entire selves and the beauty of the ways in which they’ve been created — and make their own choices.”
(Left – Right) Rabba Rori Picker Neiss of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; Darcy Hirsh, Director of Government Relations & Advocacy at National Council of Jewish Women; Rabbi Becky Silverstein; and Idit Klein, Executive Director of Keshet outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wed., Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Closer to the boundary between the groups stood several members of the group Interfaith Alliance, as well as the Rev. M.E. Eccles, a trans Episcopal priest who wore a shirt that read “this is what a trans priest looks like.”
“The Christian faith is about being authentically yourself and loving your neighbor as yourself, to allow people to be who they authentically are, and knowing that we’re all made in the image of God,” he said. “God doesn’t make mistakes. As a trans person myself, I know that I’m just as much an image of God as a cisgender, heterosexual person of whatever color, race and creed.”
He added: “It does no harm to allow people to seek out the care that they need, and it does not take away anyone’s rights to allow civil rights to exist for everybody.”
Their presence pointed to an increasingly visible faith-rooted support for transgender rights. In late November, Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, preached a sermon at the Washington National Cathedral in support of Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, the first openly gay transgender person elected to Congress.
“I couldn’t admire her more as a human and as a child of God,” Robinson said of McBride, herself an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Tennessee state Rep. Chris Todd at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wed., Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Even so, Tennessee state Rep. Chris Todd, who co-sponsored the House version of the Tennessee law being debated before the court, cited his own faith as he spoke before the crowd gathered to oppose transgender rights on Wednesday. He cited Proverbs as he implored justices to “stand on the Word of God” and use “biologically accurate terms and pronouns when addressing attorneys” — a reference to Chase Strangio, an attorney for the ACLU, who became the first transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“God created man in his own image, male and female, he created — now that’s in Genesis,” Todd said, before adding that, “it’s time now for America to turn to blessing God. That is our call today: Protect children and bless God, who made them in his image.”
In a separate interview with RNS, Todd, who describes himself as a born-again Christian and a Baptist, said efforts to enshrine transgender rights were “a rebellion against God more than anything else.” He said he was proud of laws in Tennessee and elsewhere barring gender affirming medical treatments for minors, insisting they protect children from “life altering surgeries that are not necessary.”
Todd’s theology echoed remarks made by House Speaker Mike Johnson in November, when he told reporters “A man is a man, and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman” before adding, “That’s what Scripture teaches.”
Asked about faith leaders who argue Scripture affirms transgender identities, Todd replied, “I don’t know how you would twist Scripture around to come up with that idea — it’s not possible.”
A group opposing transgender rights demonstrates outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wed., Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
Standing near the back of the crowd wearing a rainbow stole, the Rev. Debbie Layman, a pastor of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, disagreed.
“Our understanding has grown and deepened in terms of what it means to be human, and I believe our understanding of God should grow and deepen as well,” Layman said. “And I, as a person of faith, can understand that God’s love keeps getting broader, and I can’t just put it into a binary box.”
Eccles felt similarly, arguing Hebrew references to Adam and Eve in Genesis were better understood as God having created “a human and then another human, which have then become what we consider male and female.”
“To my knowledge, there’s nothing in Scripture about specifically creating genders number one and number two — God has never told us a gender,” Eccles said.
The Rev. M.E. Eccles at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wed., Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)
But the theological debate may not have been relevant to the demonstrators who came to protest against gender transition treatments for young people — a less visibly religious group than those protesting in favor of trans rights. Many told RNS they did not claim a religious affiliation, including Laura Haynes, who identified as an atheist Democrat from California.
“I believe there is a civil right to outgrow your distress before you make permanent decisions about your body,” she said.
But even if justices rule to uphold Tennessee’s law, which court watchers expect will be the case, Eccles said churches and religious institutions should stand ready to protect transgender Americans of all ages.
“They need to be sanctuaries,” he said. “They need to be safe places that accept and love people for who they are, to protect them when they can protect them. Let’s be honest: Religion, organized religion, has hurt a lot of people, particularly in the LGBTQ+ community. We need to repent and atone for that, and we also need to move forward and be a place of safety and love.”