Identifying how communities of faith affect the well-being of transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse people – and partnering with communities to support resilience, break barriers, and promote justice.

In under-resourced, rural, and minoritized communities in the United States, a great deal of tangible resources for support for individuals and families comes from Christian faith communities and organizations – in fact, federal and state funds designed to improve public health are often granted to Christian faith communities to support community well-being initiatives. But help is not what everyone gets – the reverse is often true for LGBTQ+ people in the United States, who are often marginalized, victimized, and traumatized by Christian faith communities. Research about LGBTQ+ well-being has shown that this treatment is associated with poorer mental and physical health outcomes, increased isolation, increased self-stigma, and increased suicidality among LGBTQ+ people; however, research has also suggested that truly affirming or reconciling faith communities can reverse that trend and support LGBTQ+ well-being. Most of these investigations have been done with cisgender lesbian and gay individuals, and there’s very little known about how to turn a faith community into an affirming community for trans* people (for this project, we are using the phrase trans* to include transgender binary, nonbinary, and gender diverse and expansive people).