About Laurie…

For the first half of my life I never told anyone I felt like a girl inside – and ultimately I nearly killed myself over it. But after realizing this was how I was made I had surgery and I was happy for the first time in my life until things went bad at a church. After that there was a time in my life that I had pretty much given up on ever going back to church. Let me be clear, I NEVER gave up on God, but after being beat up by Christians and “the Church”, I had just about resigned myself to the fact that I would have to live out my life without the company or fellowship of other believers in Christ. I grew up in an evangelical church and that’s where I want to be – but as you can imagine being transgender is a problem for many who go there.

It took a full TWENTY FIVE YEARS of getting past rejection from my family, rejection from friends and ultimately rejection from a church I loved that led me to an 11 year period of my “wandering in the desert” before I could TRY to get past the pain. This was never a time of doubting in God, but a time of doubting that I could ever trust Christians and the Church again.

Finally I had enough left within me and with God’s perfect timing, I sought a church I could join and fellowship with. He provided for me right out of the gate, and with supportive Pastors I’m able to write about it now and you’re reading it. It hasn’t been easy and the work is just beginning. Do I trust Christians now? Absolutely not. That’s not where my trust is suppose to be. My trust is supposed to be with our Lord. Getting that straightened out has made my “return from the desert” possible.

I purposely will use the phrase “Christians who are transgender” and not the simpler “transgender Christians” (I made an exception in the title of my upcoming book simple for brevity.) I believe ALL Christians ARE Christians. Period. No one benefits by DIVIDING us into groups. I don’t believe referring to someone as a “transgender Christian” is any more proper than calling someone a “black Christian” or a “white Christian” or a “gay Christian” or a “southern Christian”. We do it too much in our society today, pick a ethnic group followed by a hyphen and add “American” and there you go. Are we better off by breaking ourselves off into all kinds of different Americans? I don’t think so, I think it FEEDS bigotry and prejudice, and I don’t see how Christ’s Church benefits when we divide ourselves into hyphenated groups. We divide ourselves enough with our denominations.

I’m very sure there will be something here you either won’t like or won’t agree with. I’m not intentionally trying to stir the pot – there’s too much of that already. But I am trying to be a voice of reason with a calm temperament and a heart of love toward everyone who may come here. I think I have a rather unique perspective on this and hope I can offer some insights. Comments on my posts are welcomed and encouraged AS LONG as they are respectful to everyone. I won’t allow anything nasty to get posted, there’s plenty of that on Facebook and elsewhere. This is a place for sharing and civil discussion.

It’s my desire that this site will help give hope to Christians who are transgender – that you CAN find a home, you CAN find acceptance and you CAN be welcomed and loved within Christ’s church AND in a church aligned with your personal beliefs and needs. For me it was a strong Bible teaching church with great worship and not too far from home that I sought. God delivered – turns out I had been driving past it for over 4 years.

It’s also my hope that Christians who are NOT transgender will find this site helpful in better understanding their transgender brothers and sisters, that being transgender is different – yes, a choice – no, that it’s not a sin to be who God made you to be, and they deserve the very same love, understanding, caring and compassion you would give any other brother or sister in Christ.