On Tuesday, transgender pastor Rev. S. David Wynn addressed a crowd of hundreds of activists who were protesting Texas's anti-transgender bathroom bill outside the state's capital building in Austin, Texas.
Pastor: "Stop using God as an excuse to hate people" #txlege #sb6 pic.twitter.com/BAENGl2RjE
— LeAnn Wallace (@LeAnn_Wallace) March 7, 2017
Wynn is a senior pastor from Agape Metropolitan Community Church in Fort Worth, TX.
“In the beginning, God created humankind in God’s image. ... So God is transgender, ” Wynn said to the crowd, according to The Huffington Post. “We’re all created in the image of what is holy and divine and sacred, and we should all be treated that way.”
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Wynn's speech urged everyone to stop using God as an excuse for hate and discrimination.
In an interview with the Herald-Tribune in 2007, Wynn addressed the question from people who say God made him a woman at birth. "You are always going to have people ready to ask you, 'Well God created you in that body and God doesn't make mistakes and how could you be changing his work? It's not natural,'" he told the Herald-Tribune. "I believe that God created me to experience the world in just the way I have, in a transgender body, female first and now male."
"In sharing what I know from my experience, I'm doing what I am supposed to do."
Yet, despite Wynn and about 200 others testifying against Senate Bill 6 for 13 hours, the Texas legislature voted in favor of the bill, The Huffington Post reports. SB6 will now advance to the Senate, where it's almost guaranteed to pass.
This isn't too surprising, given President Trump's decision to lift protections for transgender students in public school bathrooms. Yet, we hope Wynn's message sank in for a least some of those who heard it. There are no excuses for hate or discrimination, God included.