The presidential race, many celebrity deaths, and the death of Harambe the gorilla which eventually became an internet joke were all things that had been heatedly discussed between people in the United States in the previous year 2016. There is one topic that is still a major ongoing issue for an entire community of people though, that we might be neglecting a tad since the presidency of scandal began (Let it be known that's just what I'm calling the presidency of Donald Trump since he seems to have a new scandal every day). Transgender Rights. No, this is not just about the bathroom bills, which would have forced transgender people to use the restroom of their assigned gender rather than the gender that they identify as, this is about a fight for equality in a country that is supposed to be a democracy (definition courtesy of Dictionary.com: a government by the people; aformofgovernmentinwhichthe supremepowerisvestedinthepeopleandexerciseddirectlybythem orbytheirelectedagentsunderafreeelectoralsystem), but instead is a republic (definition courtesy of Dictionary.com: astateinwhichthesupremepowerrestsinthebodyofcitizensentitledtovoteandisexercisedbyrepresentativeschosendirectlyor indirectlybythem), that is constantly treating its system of government as though it were a theocracy (definition once again courtesy of Dictionary.com: aformofgovernmentinwhichGodoradeityisrecognizedasthe supremecivilruler,theGod'sordeity'slawsbeinginterpretedbythechurchortheclergyauthorities) instead.With so many of the arguments for these bathroom bills involving either religious ideals or false statistics and untrue statements the topic does beg the question: How can someone reconcile their faith with their politics? I'm afraid I don't fully have the answer to that question. I can tell you though, that I was able to see past what I had heard about Gender Identity in church and find a brother within a friend who was born female.

Growing up my family raised me within the theology of the Roman Catholic church. For those of you who were also raised Roman Catholic you know that first of all, most in the church believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and second of all, being born into the wrong body isn't a thing that God allows to happen. I was eleven when I first started realizing that maybe I didn't actually agree with what the church was saying. I had developed my first crush on a girl that I knew at the time and I knew she would never return that affection since she was incredibly straight and her family, especially herself, were very Roman Catholic, but that's what got the ball rolling for me. From knowing that I had these romantic feelings towards her I was able to understand that maybe the church wasn't right about everything, beginning with marriage being between a man and a woman. However, for a while after that, I still had trouble with understanding the idea of being transgender. Let me be blunt in saying that I do not identify as transgender, I was born female, I identify as female, and will eventually die female, but after realizing that I was not perfectly straight I started to learn a lot about the LGBT community. I learned about the history of the movement with my favorite lesson being why we have Pride Parades in the first place. On Sunday Mornings though, that history, that pride, and the lessons I had learned were shoved into the recesses of my mind, as I entered church and crossed myself with the holy water on my fingertips. I wasn't fully being myself when sitting in those pews, listening to the sermon and the bible verses being recited. Looking back on these memories, I don't look at them fondly. I see it as a time where I was hiding my true self to maintain something that I had already lost, a good relationship with my religion. Yet I clung desperately to it for some reason I still can't really think of. Did I try to make it work because I still loved God? Was I trying to makeup for, what I saw as, my current failings to my parents by still going to church even though I wasn't happy? Was I punishing myself for my insecurities by returning to a holy place that no longer felt safe? I'm honestly not sure, what I am sure of is that at one point during the years between sixth grade and my sophmore year of high school, I had a conversation with my mother about gender identity where she told me that God doesn't make mistakes according to the bible. Before anyone says anything bad about my mom you should know, she is the most accepting, supportive, and loving mother a girl could ask for, she was simply saying that the bible doesn't believe that God makes mistakes because that's what it says, she never said she didn't like transgender people. She respects you if you give her respect, she treats you with kindness if you treat her with kindness, and she is always willing to go to bat for a cause or a person that she believes in. So after having this conversation with my mom, I really started contemplating the concepts of Gender Identity and the Roman Catholicism I had grown up around. If God didn't make mistakes then why did trans people feel that they had been put in the wrong bodies? Surely God wouldn't put a female into a male body on purpose as a punishment, right? Nobody deserves the treatment that the transgender community often receives, and God would never curse a child to that kind of torment, wouldn't he? And if God didn't make a mistake then why do these people so deeply feel as though they are in the wrong skin? Was humanity in the wrong for treating each other so hatefully when Jesus told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, or were we in the wrong for not following the bible so strictly that we were a mess of contradictions unable to even think of anything other than scripture and chores? Or had God accidentally put some of his children in the wrong place? I often like to think of my thought process as a driver in a town she knows incredibly, with sometimes taking the shortest route and other times driving the scenic roads and streets. It took me a while before I came to a conclusion that I have stuck with ever since: God doesn't make mistakes, but the devil does hurt people and being born female when you're actually male is probably one of the worst pains a person can go through. Who is to say that the heavenly father didn't put a male soul into a male body only for the devil to mess around and make the baby be born female instead? We can only answer that kind of question when we have reached heaven and can ask God, or wind up in hell and try to interrogate the devil for an explanation. There are still plenty of things to deal with on Earth though, before we turn the afterlife into a game of twenty questions.

The debate over transgender rights and religious freedom won't end overnight that's for sure, but allowing your faith and the views of those around you growing up to cloud your perceptions of the people around you now, can keep you from discovering a new neighbor, a new business partner, or even a new friend. In Mark 2:13-17 (the New International Version) 13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them.14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

When Jesus ate meals with those who were thought of as sinners, I don't see a problem with me eating lunch with my friends, one of whom being a transgender female to male. I don't see an issue with having a male to female transgender person using the same restroom as me, unless they feel uncomfortable. There is an easy solve to the bathroom situation, three bathrooms, one men's, one women's, and one for family. A bathroom that is designed for anyone to use, whether it be transgender people, a single father with a young daughter who needs to use the restroom with her father going with her, a single mother with a young son who needs his mother to accompany him to the bathroom, a single parent with multiple children of multiple ages since these bathrooms also have changing tables in them, and yes even people perfectly content with their biological gender. While this solution covers the bathroom debate, it doesn't put an end to the involvement of religion in politics as a way of keeping certain things from happening. That problem must be solved, not as singular individuals, but as one nation under one government and many different religions with many different Gods that go by many different names, and as one United States of America may we be able to see our fellow citizens as the people they truly are and not the perception of them that alternative facts and mismatched religious verses have given us.

For We Are One Nation,

Under Many Religions,

With Liberty and Justice For All.