Sex, Love, and an Old Brick Building: A United Church of Canada Congregation Transitions to LGBTQ Inclusion

Abstract

Whereas much literature focuses on ways that Christian discourses can perpetuate homophobia and transmisogyny, there is less scholarly attention focused on Christian groups that embrace people with diverse gender and sexual identities. As this article demonstrates, it is precisely because of their traditional marginalization that active inclusion of LGBTQ people may come to serve as a signifier of less institutionally oriented and more socially progressive forms of religiosity, especially for communities actively negotiating intersecting neoliberal oppressions. Drawing on sustained fieldwork with a progressive Protestant congregation, this project analyzes two of the community's foundational narratives: one of a minister coming out as lesbian; and one of giving up their church building. As members connect these stories to their more recent embrace of the first known transwoman to be ordained in the denomination, they reveal tensions surrounding power, embodiment, and sexuality at the core of contemporary conversations about North American religion.