Jenny Alexander-Allen talks about their recently settled lawsuit that provides protections for trans teachers, resilience and the decision to go to seminary. Follow Jenny Alexander-Allen: Twitter: @QueeringCaitlin Email: jalexanderallen3@outlook.com FOLLOW MEGAN ROHRER Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mmrohrer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmrohrer Twitter: https://twitter.com/mmrohrer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meganrohrer Sound Cloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/u5MAS YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MeganRohrer Or, learn more at www.meganrohrer.com

Welcome to March's Bishop's Book Club livestream! Today, Bishop Megan Rohrer sits down with Author Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza to discuss their new book, "Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation". "Combining that deep listening and living with their work in activism, Body Becoming offers us a way of understanding the body beyond constructions--political or medical-industrial-complex defined--toward cultivating the body as important in our endeavors to build a more inclusive vision for democracy. Mixing memoir and faith, somatics theory and body practice, Henderson-Espinoza steers us through territory both familiar and difficult--as we discover embodiment as the primary place of deep wisdom, where culture shifts originate and materialize--and a better world becomes, as we too become." Learn more about Dr. Robyn here: https://drrobynhendersonespinoza.com/ You can purchase their book here: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781506473574 Want to support more conversation like this? Consider donating to the Sierra Pacific Synod through Paypal: https://tinyurl.com/spsdonation

Rev June Joplin tells her story about coming out as a trans women in the Baptist Church in Canada and provides insights for others.

Alex Ramstad Døsvik is a seminarian in the Lutheran Church of Norway and will likely becomes their first openly transgender pastor.

Check out my interview with Leigh Finke about her upcoming books: 1) Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens 2) Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with LGBTQ+ Christian Youth We also talked about her film Ending the Silence: Confronting Sexual Shame in the Church.

Town Hall with LGBTQ and Two Spirit faith leaders in the Lutheran church. Moderator: Lenny Duncan (he/him) is a follower of Jesus Christ and is in a passionate love affair with grace. Lenny spent most of his teens homeless after leaving home at age 13. He has spent time in all 48 contiguous states, sleeping by the side of the highway or in penthouses along the way. He has been a prisoner of war in the so-called war on drugs. After systemic oppression or drugs didn't kill him, Lenny found himself in a strange place: the church. Lenny has been everything from high school drop out, drug dealer, sex worker, street corner poet, hitchhiker, dharma bum, small town drifter, seminarian, political activists, father, pastor, lover, public theologian, and writer. Now he parties dead sober and thrives in the PNW. He is currently the Mission Developer Pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church launching their third site in downtown in Vancouver WA. You can find out more at churchwithnoname.org ______ Panalists: The Rev. Beate (“Bea”) Chun is a native of Germany. A post-graduate exchange program with the World Council of Churches brought her to the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio where she earned her Master of Divinity Degree. On January 21, 1991 Pastor Chun was ordained into the ELCA and has since served congregations in Texas, Wyoming, and California. Prior to coming to St. Francis Lutheran Church, she served as pastor at Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. She has a passion for preaching, worship leadership, and social justice. Pastor Manda Truchinski serves at Christ the Good Shepherd in San Jose. After obtaining her undergraduate degree she earned a Masters of Divinity at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She has been involved in faith communities of many kinds in her life, all over the US. Manda has insatiable wanderlust that she satiates by visiting friends and family all over the world and planning for her future home in a bus. She also enjoys visual arts, sustainable living, and the hot mess of communal living. Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is an alumus of Texas Lutheran University and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Vance has served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in a variety of ways throughout his life, from taking a post as National President of the Lutheran Youth Organization during his TLU days, to later working for the Women of the ELCA, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, California Lutheran University, ELCA Youth Gathering, and LSTC’s Youth in Mission. At present, he is the Indigenous Theologian and Coordinating Team Member for the ELCA’s Theological Round Table. Building on this foundation, he has also created Other+Wise, a cultural immersion experience for youth across the country. In addition to his extensive work with the ELCA, Vance is a devoted advocate for Native causes. He has held executive director positions at the Haskell Foundation and Oaks Indian Mission, and he currently works as the Communications Director for Native Americans in Philanthropy. He was recently elected President of the Board of Directors for the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, and he has been appointed Guest Curator at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures. He is also the Indigenous Theologian for the Faith-Based Initiative for the City of San Antonio, where he currently resides. Drew Stever is the co-founder and executive director of Queeranteen Camp, a free, online, interfaith camp for LGBTQ youth. They are a queer, transgender candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (aka he has studied to become a pastor and is waiting for a congregation to ask him to be their pastor.) Drew recently completed his Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary. Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, they now reside in Southern California. Drew loves birkenstocks, dogs, his partner’s home cooked meals, and building things.

Town Hall Listing to the voices of faith leaders with gender diversity. Moderator: The Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer is the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church and the Community Chaplain Coordinator for the San Francisco Police Department, Megan served for over a decade as a chaplain for the homeless and hungry in San Francisco. An award winning filmmaker, musician and historian, Megan was a finalist for the Lambda Literary award (in transgender nonfiction), received an honorable mention as an Unsung Hero of Compassion from Wisdom in Action, with His Holiness the Dali Lama and has been featured on Queer Eye (coming out June 5th on Netflix), Cosmo and in Wittenberg, Germany for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. ______ Panalists: The Rev. Dr. Dawn Roginski studied psychology and completed a MA in Counseling Psychology at the University of Minnesota where where she worked in mental health for a number of years before attending seminary at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. In 2003, Reverend Roginski became a part-time chaplain and part-time youth care worker at a residential treatment center for children in Kansas City, MO, providing care for seriously emotionally disturbed children and youth. She developed a youth ministry program from the ground up, including groups and worship. As her programs grew, she was offered the position of full-time chaplain. Reverend Roginski’s previous Pastoral calls include St. Francis Lutheran church in San Francisco and the Coalition of Welcoming Congregations in Berkeley (as a synodical call). Reverend Roginski currently serves as the Pastor for United in Grace Lutheran Church: a consolidation of The Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. Rev. Asher O’Callaghan: Before becoming a Lutheran pastor, Asher fancied himself spiritual but not religious. He thought he was done with organized religion after growing up transgender and bisexual in a fundamentalist church. But then he stumbled into a church called House For All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado where God messed up all his plans. There he heard an invitation he couldn’t help but go share. From Christ’s open table he heard: “Behold who you are. Become what you receive.” Becoming what he’s received has led him to earn a Master of Divinity from Luther Seminary, to pastor a small mountain congregation called Zion Lutheran Church, to serve as Program Director for Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, and now to serve as pastor of Highlands Lutheran Church. Rev. Lura Groen: Prior to her seminary training at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Lura worked as a Lutheran Volunteer Corp case worker at N Street Villiage in Washington D.C. After her ordination Lura became the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Houston, TX, where she founded the Montrose Grace Place for homeless youth. Lura currently serves as the pastor of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Columbia, MD. Jordan Slappey is a seminarian who has just completed his first year at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California. He graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in religion and political science and has a background in organizing and advocacy, local government, and all sorts of church work. Being from the South, Jordan has dreams of one day returning to work with queer youth and their parents to reshape the ideas surrounding the relationship between queerness and religion. Upcoming Town Halls: (confirmed speakers to date) • June 5th: Jenifer Teer and Kenneth Jackson (Bethlehem Lutheran, Oakland, CA) • June 12th: Moderator: Rev. Lenny Duncan, with Rev Manda Truchinski, Rev. Dr. Dawn Roginski, Rev. Bea Chun, K Jordan Slappey and Vance Blackfox. • June 19th: Moderator: Sr. Michelle Colins, with the Deaconess Community of The Evangelical Lutheran Church In America

Can God love transgender fish? Then why not people?