Transgender pastor claims bias, sues Lutheran denomination

The Rev. Megan Rohrer, who was elected as the first openly transgender bishop of one of the largest Christian denominations in the country in May 2021, has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was forced out from his post after enduring several months of discrimination and harassment.

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

Rohrer, of San Francisco, resigned in June as bishop of the ELCA's Sierra Pacific Synod amid allegations of racism after he fired the pastor of a predominantly Latino, immigrant congregation in Stanton, California, on the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, for which the community had planned elaborate festivities.

In his lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Rohrer accuses the denomination of discriminating against him for being transgender and deliberately misgendering him and creating a “hostile work environment.” He is seeking monetary damages.

Rohrer, who now works as a senior communications specialist with a Black nondenominational church in San Francisco, said Thursday that he always felt the support of Lutherans in the pews, but not from the higher echelons of the national church. On his first day as bishop, during a video call, Rohrer said he was misgendered and ridiculed for featuring drag queens at his ordination.

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

“All my life, I've been an ally for racial justice and to people from marginalized groups,” he said, adding that he chose to remain silent after his removal from office last year so the predominantly white denomination could recognize its shortcomings and pass racial justice reforms. The intent of his lawsuit is not to minimize or undermine any other marginalized group, Rohrer said.

He also accuses the denomination of retaliating against him for blowing the whistle on labor violations in the denomination when he reported to synod officials that they were categorizing employees as independent contractors to avoid paying them a salary, which is a violation of federal and California labor laws.