First openly transgender Lutheran bishop sues church

The denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, declined to comment, according to an email from spokeswoman Candice Buchbinder.

Rohrer of San Francisco resigned as bishop of the ELCA’s Sierra Pacific Synod in June amid allegations of racism after he fired the pastor of a mostly Hispanic immigrant congregation in Stanton, Calif., on Our Lady of Guadalupe Day, when the congregation had lavish celebrations planned.

In his lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Rohrer alleges the denomination discriminates against him as a transgender, intentionally misgendering him and creating a “hostile work environment.” He demands monetary compensation.

Rohrer, who now works as a senior communications specialist at a non-denominational black church in San Francisco, said Thursday that he has always felt the support of Lutherans in the pews, but not from higher echelons of the national church. On his first day as bishop, Rohrer said during a video call that he was wrongly gendered and ridiculed for showing drag queens at his ordination.

Rohrer alleges in the lawsuit that he was made a scapegoat and “publicly shamed as a racist.”

“All my life I’ve been an ally for racial justice and for people from marginalized groups,” he said, adding that he chose to remain silent after his impeachment last year to allow the predominantly white denomination to recognize its shortcomings and move through could reform racial justice. The intent of his lawsuit is not to minimize or undermine other fringe groups, Rohrer said.

He also accuses the denomination of retaliating against him for denouncing labor rights violations in the denomination when he reported to synod officials classifying employees as independent contractors in order not to pay them salaries, in violation of federal and California labor laws represents .

“When Rohrer separately revealed the transgender harassment he has suffered since he began his career, the church similarly fired him, falsely accusing him of ‘weaponizing’ his own trans identity in order to ‘not be held accountable ‘” says the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Rohrer by the law firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP of Burlingame, California.

In August, at the 2022 Churchwide Assembly in Ohio, Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, the denomination’s presiding bishop, publicly apologized to members of the Iglesia Luterana Santa Maria Peregrina and described the events that took place as “a sharp attack on you Dignity.” After the pastor was fired, the church lost financial support from the denomination and was forced to vacate its building and service in the parking lot.

Rohrer resigned in June and was the target of a church disciplinary proceeding the next day.

“I was kicked out of the church for following the orders of the superiors,” he said. “And publicly cast as a racist.”

He hopes the lawsuit will force the church to follow its own policies to treat LGBTQ people fairly and with dignity within the church. Rohrer said he never wanted to pit two fringe groups against each other.

“The church is big enough for everyone,” he said, adding it was important to acknowledge the “tragic history of racism and discrimination” in the church.

The lawsuit states that alongside “almost daily hate mail,” including death threats, as a result of the denomination’s conduct over his firing, Rohrer could not serve as a bishop of a synod or even as a pastor in the denomination.

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The Associated Press’s religion coverage is supported by AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.

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