The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s Matthew 25 Team seeks an end to anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation

Failing that, the team is working on tools mid councils and faith communities can use to minister to members and friends

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — The Matthew 25 Team, created by the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board to help do the work of the Matthew 25 movement, turned its attention Monday to giving mid councils and congregations tools to minister to people living in the growing number of states passing anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Mel Tubb, who supports the advocacy committees in the office of the president and executive director of the PMA, took the team through reports produced by organizations including The Trevor Project. Another resource many have found helpful is the PMA’s resource, Well-Chosen Words.

While 115 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures around the country in 2015, more than 500 were introduced this year. Beginning in 2020, the primary focus of these bills shifted from LGBTQ+ people in general to transgender and nonbinary youth in particular.

Among the bills passed and signed into law by governors this year, gender-affirming care bans were the most prevalent, followed by bathroom bans, transgender sports participation bans and laws that deny the use of preferred pronouns.

Among the top protective factors for LGBTQ+ youth are:

• Social support and acceptance from adults and peers
• Affirming spaces and activities, especially at school
• Policies and practices that support transgender and nonbinary youth.

“It’s transgender people who are being bullied and harmed in bathrooms,” Tubb told the team. “It’s not cisgender folks who are in danger in these situations.”

Mel Tubb

Tubb voiced a trigger warning before sharing some key findings from The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health.

According to the survey, 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide during the previous year. But LGBTQ youth who felt high social support from their family reporting attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support.

While fewer than 1 in 3 transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming, LGBTQ youth who found their school to be LGBTQ-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide. Six in 10 LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health care during the previous year were unable to get it.

And while nearly 2 in 3 LGBTQ youth reported they had experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation and 7 in 10 transgender and nonbinary youth reported they have experienced discrimination based on their gender identity, a range of gender-affirming care including medical and surgical, mental health and non-medical services for transgender and nonbinary people has been endorsed by multiple medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

LGBTQ youth responding to the national survey said these are the most common ways they feel supported by their parents or caregivers:

• Being welcoming to their LGBTQ friends or partners
• Talking with them respectfully about their LGBTQ identity
• Using their name and pronouns correctly
• Supporting their gender expression
• Educating themselves about LGBTQ people and issues.

“The fact that very simple things — like support from family and friends, seeing LGBTQ representation in media and having your gender expression and pronouns respected — can have such a positive impact on the mental health of an LGBTQ young person is inspiring,” said Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of The Trevor Project, “and it should command more attention in conversations around suicide prevention and public debates around LGBTQ inclusion.”

Another disparity for transgender youth, as one Matthew 25 team member pointed out Monday, is the higher rates at which they become homeless, which increases the likelihood they are victimized.

The Rev. Dr. Dee Cooper, a PMA Board member and the lead presbyter for Denver Presbytery, talked about The Second Wind Fund, which began at Green Mountain Presbyterian Church in Lakewood and works to connect youth at risk for suicide with life-saving mental health treatment. The Second Wind Fund helps ensure that within 24 hours of referral, the youth gets a therapist. “Here’s a model that’s been helpful. It was founded in a Presbyterian church, and it’s expanded to great lengths,” Cooper told team members.

Sara Lisherness, the PMA’s deputy executive director for Mission Program, said that over the years, when Presbyterians produce resources or curriculum or talking points on caring for, for example, LGBTQ, transgender and nonbinary youth and adults, “it has created turmoil.” But “for our young people, where is a better place” to receive care than their church?

“I just think we need to tee the church up,” Lisherness said, “for our young people and for the adults responsible for them.”

While Presbyterians generally value diversity, many are thinking only about racial diversity, Cooper said. “It’s expanding that diversity … So much of this is education and conversation and comfort levels. Lives are at stake. It’s a deep justice issue.”

The Rev. Dr. Matt Bussell, a PMA Board member and the associate pastor for Outreach and Mission at First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, noted some Presbyterians fear that “if we keep pushing this, we’re going to lose members.” For many, “institutional preservation is more important than justice.” While “I get the preservation piece,” Bussell said, “I want to do better on the justice piece.”

The PMA Board has a retreat scheduled for July 31 through Aug. 3. Bussell said he hopes to secure time on the agenda for the board to brainstorm ways to provide LGBTQ, transgender and nonbinary youth and adults with more resources and more welcome in their communities.