Sid High is a trans Christian in Iowa and a youth ambassador for Beloved Arise. He spoke with Sojourners’ Mitchell Atencio.

I REALLY SUPPRESSED my trans identity before I came out. For me, that wasn’t accepting myself as my true self. There’s something to be said for being who you are without having to hide who you are for the approval of others. I feel more at peace with myself because God is pleased with me for being who I am and living in my authentic self. God wanted me to be who I am and to be able to show other people that they can be who they are too.

I started the first Pride event [in Marion, Iowa] when I was 15. That’s when I started getting interested in helping the community more. People often see the queer community as sinners. Even if people do believe it’s a sin, the right thing to do is not to judge and to continue to love — because that’s what Jesus did. God is Love, and [God] made us to love, regardless of who we love.

I feel disappointed in my Christian community because trying to strip people’s rights is the opposite of love, and the opposite of what Jesus calls us to do. I believe that even the people who are trying to take my rights away, take the rights of my community away, that Jesus loves them too. Jesus loves people who have hurt us, too. So, I pray for the people that are hurting the community.

God made us to love. [God]; wants us to love one another. Regardless of how you feel about the queer community, taking our rights away is not the way to go about it. The church needs to realize that the queer community — we’re just people. We are everyday people. We want to be treated like everybody else, especially in a church setting, because Jesus is important to a lot of queer people. But we aren’t able to go into a church like everybody else without facing judgment. Someday, I hope that we will be able to do that.

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