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There is little research on the public's opinion of transgender behavior. One 2002 poll for the Human Rights Campaign found that 48 percent of the people surveyed would have "no problem working with a transgendered person."

Experts believe there are about 400,000 transgendered persons, less than one-half of one percent of the population, in America. In order to be diagnosed with gender identity disorder, there must be a strong desire to be the other sex and a persistent discomfort with one's body. The person may or may not have had sex reassignment surgery, and he or she may or may not have homosexual attractions.

There are six levels of GID according to what is known as the Harry Benjamin Scale. The occasional cross-dresser is stage one; someone who has had a surgical procedure, such as a vaginectomy or penectomy, has completed the final step.

A raft of transgender rights groups have formed in recent years to take up the civil rights cause. For example, there's the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. That's not to mention many sexual rights groups lending support. (The acronym GLBT is now a standard classification for such groups, referring to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons.)

Such groups are seeking more than additional restrooms. The most vocal campaign is for special federal protections for employment and housing. However, through multiple lawsuits, transgender rights organizations are defending the transgendered homeless, college students, immigrants, and prisoners.

As of January 2008, some 13 states have laws prohibiting employers and landlords from discriminating against transgendered people. Ten states have enacted hate crime laws explicitly protecting "gender identity or expression." A growing number of major corporations have gender identity nondiscrimination policies.

Intense activism for transgender inclusion is having a ripple effect on local churches. Pastors are more likely to encounter a GLBT activist than a church member with GID; few pastors are trained to address either transgender advocacy or those with GID.

When church leaders include a transgendered individual who has "come out" into the spiritual life and leadership of a local congregation, it almost always provokes sharp controversy. But a number of liberal religious groups are rallying around the transgender movement in the name of social justice. The Raleigh, North Carolina-based Faith in America is at the forefront.

"Religion has been used in history to discriminate against various groups of people by justifying slavery, denying women the right to vote, and persecuting religious minorities," says Jimmy Creech, executive director of Faith in America. "Today it is being used to persecute lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people."

Creech likens the struggle for transgender liberties to the early civil rights movement to end racial bigotry. Creech, a former United Methodist Church (UMC) minister, says he spent three years studying Scripture before concluding that church teachings on homosexuality are fear-based and motivated by hate. Creech views the transgender movement as indistinguishable from the gay rights cause.

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February 2008, Vol. 52, No. 2