Transgender, reality and pastoral care

Mar 17, 2018 by

by Martin Davie, Reflections of an Anglican Theologian.

Last week the Church of Scotland published a report entitled Diverse Gender Identities and Pastoral Care which is intended help its pastoral teams ‘to support those in our communities who identify themselves as transgender.’[1]

The report was produced on behalf of the Church of Scotland by the Scottish Trans Alliance which describes itself as a ‘project to improve gender identity and gender reassignment equality, rights and inclusion in Scotland.’ [2] It consists of eleven stories about the experiences of seven transgender people, two mothers of transgender children, the wife of someone who is transgender and a Church of Scotland minister. The transgender people involved include those who would describe themselves as ‘androgyne’, ‘non-binary,’ and ‘demi-boy’ and those who have undergone transition from male to female and female to male.

This report is worth considering by those outside the Church of Scotland because it raises the question of what is the best way to care pastorally for those who identify as transgender. Is the approach advocated in the report the correct way forward, or would some other approach be preferable?

The approach taken by the report.

The approach to pastoral care advocated by the report can be summed up in the single word ‘acceptance.’ The message contained in all the stories in the report is that everyone should accept unconditionally and without question the identities claimed by transgender people and support them in living out those identities.

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