On the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, the International Association for Religious Freedom welcomes the statement on the rights of Trans, Intersex and Nonbinary People issued by the Unitarian Universalist Association, our member group, in coalition with several faith groups, including the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and other Christian denominations, Union for Reform Judaism and other Jewish organisations, and others.

As an organisation uniting free and liberal religious communities and individuals, we advocate religious freedom as first and foremost freedom within religion, a freedom to live one’s life creatively and without coercion in a shared experience of the divine and a shared pursuit of justice. We acknowledge the value of the prophetic voice of progressive religion and humanistic philosophy as many still suffer discrimination, alienation, vilification and ridicule, and, in many parts of the world, may lose their freedom or even their lives for failing to conform to social norms, even though they inflict no harm on others.

Regrettably, religion often plays a role in providing justification for condemning and persecuting them, and inflicts great spiritual suffering by proclaiming their identity, their experience and expression of humanity as sinful and abominable in the eyes of the divine. This makes voices like these, where people of faith come together to speak both to society at large and to those often excluded by religion, not mere statements, but acts that have the power to change lives. By offering a different perspective and testifying to the healing, transformative power of faith, we can make a difference, just as we strive to do so in the daily lives of our communities.