For all we know, God may be trans.
What if the One who breathed the stars into being and shaped our souls lives beyond the boundaries of gender altogether? What if God is not trapped by he or she but moves freely, lovingly, powerfully, both and neither, all at once?
As a Christian leader, one who actually tries to follow Jesus, I keep coming back to the Bible. It is complicated and wild, full of poetry and paradox. But the heart of it is clear. Love God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the gospel.
Right now, when I look at what is happening to my trans siblings across this country, I see everything but love.
Here we are in October 2025, and lawmakers are still targeting trans people with cruelty dressed up as legislation. Bills that make it harder for kids to get the care they need. Laws that erase people’s names, their pronouns, their stories. Rules that tell teachers to lie about who their students are. This is not about safety. This is about fear. This is about power, and it breaks God’s heart.
Psalm 139 says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. It does not say unless you are white, with blue eyes and blond hair. It does not say unless you are rich. It simply says that we are. All of us. Every single one of us, made in the image of God.
If that is true, then every trans person is a reflection of God. Every nonbinary and gender expansive person is a living testimony to the creativity of the Creator. The differences between us are not mistakes. They are the way God shows off.
The Bible tells us that God exists as Creator, Spirit, and Christ. Creator language is sometimes described with masculine imagery, the Spirit with feminine language, and Jesus as a human man. That is not a hierarchy. It is a relationship. It is love in motion. It is God refusing to be limited to one form or one expression. If God holds all of that, then perhaps God is many-gendered. Perhaps God is trans.
So when we meet someone who does not fit inside the boxes our world created, what if instead of judging, we looked at them and saw the face of God?
To those writing laws about bathrooms and bodies, I say this as plainly as I can. Stop it. Stop making people’s existence your business. Stop weaponizing your fear and calling it faith. Look instead at the human being in front of you and see the wonder that God made.
This is holy work. The work of seeing each other. The work of choosing love instead of cruelty. The work of telling the truth even when it costs something. The work of building communities that protect the vulnerable instead of punishing them.
If you are a person of faith, now is the time to speak up. Silence helps the wrong side. Neutrality is not love. We are called to resist every system that denies God’s image in another person.
The God I know is not afraid of difference. The God I know made difference beautiful. The God I know walks beside my trans siblings, blessing their names, their bodies, their stories, and their becoming.
So let us see one another with divine eyes. Let us remember that we belong to each other. Love is the real law. And every person you meet carries a piece of God’s reflection within them.
And today, I honor a woman who lived this truth. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Mother. Warrior. Freedom fighter. She carried the torch through Stonewall and every storm after. She showed us what it means to keep loving, to keep fighting, to keep believing in our shared humanity.
Rest in power, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. May we carry your fire forward.
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. She is the author of “Fierce Love” and “The Just Love Story Bible.” Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Ebony, and Essence.