News from the Episcopal Church
Episcopalians to observe Transgender Day of Visibility in celebration of trans, nonbinary people
By Shireen Korkzan
Posted Mar 28, 2025
A transgender pride flag is displayed at a booth during Portland Pride on July 21, 2024, in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Jenny Kane/AP
[Episcopal News Service] Over the next week, some Episcopal churches will recognize International Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, with special worship services and educational events to celebrate transgender people and their contributions to society, and to raise awareness of the discrimination they face worldwide.
“This is a time of celebration. I do think it’s important to acknowledge the particular context we are in right now, but for now we will focus on empowerment and strengths and celebrating the vibrant, lived reality of trans and nonbinary and two-spirit [meaning, third-gender person],” the Rev. Cameron Partridge, rector of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, Diocese of California, and a trans man, told Episcopal News Service. “We’re here and we are in community and we’re in leadership, and we have opportunities to experience and express our joy even in the midst of hardship.”
Partridge will preach at Grace Cathedral’s Trans Day of Visibility evening Eucharist at 6 p.m. Pacific on March 30, which will be streamed via Zoom.
“There are so many pressures for trans people to fly under the radar, to not be noticed, to try to minimize who they are. This Eucharist is a chance to let that aside and just be loved for who you are and to celebrate before God who God created you to be,” the Very Rev. Malcolm Young, dean of Grace Cathedral, told ENS. “It’s so important to support and love our trans siblings every day.”
After the worship service, Partridge will moderate a conversation with Nico Lang, an LGBTQ+ news and politics reporter, about their newest book, “American Teenager: How Trans Kids are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era.”
Earlier in the day on March 30, St. Aidan’s morning worship services will incorporate some liturgical resources recently created for the day of visibility. TransEpiscopal, a group that advocates for more inclusive church policies toward transgender people and creates supportive spaces for trans Episcopalians, and the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission collaborated on the liturgical resources.
Also, in the Diocese of California, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Redwood City will host a day of visibility service on April 5.
The term “transgender” refers to an individual whose gender identity, expression or behavior does not conform with the person’s assigned sex at birth, whereas nonbinary reflects a gender identity that is not strictly male or female. The terms are often associated with each other but are not interchangeable.
Rachel Crandall Crocker, a transgender activist and psychotherapist from Michigan, founded the first Transgender Day of Visibility in 2009 out of frustration that the only designated day recognizing trans people was the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The day of remembrance, which takes place every Nov. 20, memorializes those who’ve been targeted and murdered for being transgender and raises awareness of violence against trans people. In contrast, the day of visibility is a time of unashamed pride, celebration and acknowledgement of trans people’s existence and resilience.
The Diocese of New York will host a livestreamed 12 p.m. Eastern prayer service celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility on March 29 at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Aaron Scott, The Episcopal Church’s gender justice officer and a lay trans man, will preach.
“I am most excited to be with a whole bunch of other trans people at a gathering that is about us being alive – right together – even when we now have officially seen legislation that says we don’t exist,” Scott told ENS.
LGBTQ+ sentiment and hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have increased in recent years. Out of 821 anti-trans bills introduced in 49 states so far in 2025 by federal, state and local legislators, 40 have already passed, and 725 cases remain active, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, an independent research organization that tracks bills affecting anti-trans and gender-diverse people in the United States. Last week, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill into law that restricts trans people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity. Similar bills are moving forward in Arkansas, Tennessee and New Hampshire.
After taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at erasing references across federal agencies and departments to issues of diversity and “gender ideology.” By early February, agency websites began to remove mention of transgender or queer people, including the Rev. Pauli Murray, and changed the acronym LGBTQ (for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) to LGB.
“Now more than ever, it’s important for the church to invest in real relationships, whether that’s one-on-one in your parish or between your parish and diocese, and whatever transgender-led organizations that are in your wider community,” Scott said. “This is a great time to reach out to your local trans youth group or LGBTQ center and say, ‘Hey, we are an affirming church. If you have a need for food donations or a need for people who need transportation to and from medical appointments or whatever, we’re here for you.’”
New York Assistant Bishop Mary Glasspool, the second openly gay – and first lesbian – bishop in the Anglican Communion, told ENS in a phone interview, “When you are in a group that’s considered a minority group, and there is a whole sort of stereotypical characterization of that group, and you may feel targeted simply because you’re a member of that group, not because of who you are as an individual, it can be very scary,”
Glasspool, who oversees the Diocese of New York’s LGBTQ+ Concerns Committee, will retire on June 30 after almost 45 years of ordained ministry.
“You can’t say there aren’t transgender people in the world. They are wonderful human beings – children of God – deserving … to be loved and accepted into the human community,” she said.
New York Bishop Matthew Heyd, who will preside over the prayer service at St. John the Divine, echoed a similar sentiment when he spoke with ENS by phone.
“The Holy Spirit moves at ground level, and welcome is a gift and an opportunity for The Episcopal Church that we would make clear our welcome to transgender people, and that they would know that in all of our communities, they can find a place to belong,” he said.
The day of visibility service at St. John the Divine will also feature live music from the TRANScend Ambassadors, New York’s first and only choral ensemble featuring trans and gender-expansive singers. The ensemble performed at St. John the Divine’s first day of visibility in 2024 and beforehand at St. John’s in the Village in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood.
“One of the bits of feedback that I get constantly is, ‘I never thought there was going to be a place for me. I never thought I would hear trans people singing liturgical music in a church. I never thought there would be a place where I could go and feel spiritually at home and have music that spoke to me from people who I identify with,’” Felix Graham, a trans vocologist and music pedagogue who founded TRANScend in 2021, told ENS.
In the Diocese of Newark in New Jersey, the diocesan LGBTQ+ task force will offer a celebratory day of visibility service on March 31 at Grace Episcopal Church in Madison. The Rev. Abigail King, priest-in-charge of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bayonne and a trans woman, will officiate. Brigid Dwyer, a lay leader in the diocese and a trans woman, will preach. The liturgy will incorporate some of TransEpiscopal’s liturgical resources.
“When I came out to my parish, one of the things I said in my letter was that in an ideal world, coming out would be a little bit like letting people know that you moved to a new house, otherwise Christmas cards will go to the wrong place. …But we don’t live in an ideal world, and coming out is more fraught than that,” King told ENS. “Transgender Day of Visibility is a good way to elevate trans voices and celebrate who we are.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.