The following brief story is published with the permission of the person who shared it with us when they contacted us for a referral from our Special Kind of Clergy Directory. We offered what spiritual support we could and successfully connected them with a listening priest in a member jurisdiction of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. 

Please read our friend’s story as a companion piece to:

• “Transgenderism” Isn’t a Thing
• Message from Orthodox Youth to the Church: Stop. Hurting. Us.
• Priest to Mother, “Better Your Transgender Child Were Dead”
• At Age 13 I Begged God to Kill Me
• Bishop to Bishop: Straight from Confession to Suicide
• Orthodox Sermons and Near Suicide
• and Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago’s appeal to priests and monastics to stop harming LGBTQI people.

On Sunday morning, October 13, a very young Orthodox adult who is navigating their way through gender dysphoria visited a new Orthodox parish.

The priest took a gratuitous snipe at “gender confusion” in his sermon. The woman standing beside our friend muttered her assent.

Our friend fled.

Is this pleasing to the Good Shepherd?

See the Fifty Years after Stonewall and extensive Sexuality and Gender sections in our Archives.

LGBTQI persons and their loved ones who require pastoral support may reach out confidentially to editor Giacomo Sanfilippo at editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com. He alone has access to our email account. You may also contact him by private message on Twitter @GiacoSanfilippo.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue seeks to promote the free exchange of ideas by offering a wide range of perspectives on an unlimited variety of topics. Our decision to publish implies neither our agreement nor disagreement with an author, in whole or in part.

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