LUSAKA, Zambia — Several transgender people in Zambia have disclosed the challenges they face attending church services due to discrimination and stigma by church leaders and members.
Alex, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is a transgender man who shared experience attending services at a local Seventh Day Adventist church in Lusaka.
“After both my parents died, I started staying with my auntie who was a Seventh Day Adventist Church member. Because I was born intersex with more female body characteristics, I was forced to wear dresses or female clothes, which I didn’t like,” he said. “My auntie and the church leaders started praying for me, saying I was ‘demon-possessed’. This situation drained me spiritually, as the church could not respect my sexuality and gender.”
Chola Bwembya who is also a transgender man, narrated how some church leaders and ushers at Deeper Life Church in Lusaka approached him after service one Sunday.
“They said that if I wanted to continue attending the church services I would need to change the way I dress by conforming to the traditional rules of the church, where females must put on female attire such as dresses and men should put on trousers to respect God,” Bwembya said. “I couldn’t stand the stigma because biologically, yes, I am a female, but I choose to be a transgender man.”
“It is really challenging for transgender persons because the church leaders or pastors preach sermons that directly attack and condemn transgender people,” he added.
Despite these challenges, Bwembya said it is encouraging to see that some churches and small prayer groups do accept transgender persons for who they are.
Christina Tembo, a transgender woman in Lusaka, said she faced challenges attending services at Catholic, Pentecostal, New Apostolic, and Reformed churches.
“Being a transgender woman, the congregants think that I am a gay man and should be prayed for to cast out the demon in my body because my behavior is more that of a female. This perception towards me affected my desire to go to church,” said Tembo, who now finds solace in small group prayer meetings at the homes of inclusive and accepting Catholics.
Tembo said it is time for the church to show love to everyone regardless of who they are because God is for everyone.
Reverend Nelson Muhango, founder of Bumper Harvest Ministries, a Pentecostal church in Lusaka, says the role of the church is to preach the message of salvation and to embrace everyone.
For the past 33 years he has seen church members and clergymen reject transgender persons and other gender and sexual minorities.
Reverend Muhango said it is time for the church to accept that such people exist and that they also have the desire for God.
“Jesus came to bring the message of salvation, not condemnation. As Christians, we should follow the footsteps of Jesus to embrace anyone,” said Reverend Muhango.
He said his church welcomes anyone from the LGBTQI+ community because Jesus died for everyone and is ready to receive any person.
Reverend Paul Shimunza a member of the advocacy group Zambia Network of Religious Leaders Living With or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (ZANERELA), urges local churches to stop the stigma against transgender persons.
He said it is an obligation and duty of the Church and all institutions of religious faith to love, lead, and embrace everyone without being judgmental or stigmatizing the LGBTQ+ community.
“Let’s embrace anyone as a church, because it is through the church that everyone can find peace love and joy in the heart,” he said.