Meet the transgender Lutheran pastor preaching acceptance: 'Nothing is wrong with you'

A transgender pastor in California has a long overdue message for LGBTQ+ people.

Drew Stever, a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is one of the few out transgender clergy members to be ordained by a Christian institution. Now a pastor at Hope Lutheran in Hollywood, Stever was recently featured on CBS Mornings' The State of Spirituality with Lisa Ling, using the opportunity to reflect on his journey.

"I grew up female and in the female context, and I just never felt like that worked for me," he said. "There were definitely times where [I thought], 'If I can't exist in one way, I don't want to exist at all. I would just be better off not alive.'"

Always feeling a calling towards spiritual teachings, Stever attended seminary school, and ended up coming to terms with his identity during his time there. As he describes it, he went into seminary as a woman, but came out "not a woman."

"There was a moment where I woke up in the morning, and the words that came to my mind were, 'You don't have to be angry anymore,'" Stever explained. "It was almost like God just took a snowball and threw it at my face."

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The Lutheran Church ordained its first trans minister in 2015, with leadership seeming to show more acceptance towards LGBTQ+ clergy and attendees in recent years. Stever said that the church is "trying so hard" to improve, and that he believes "those who need to hear, will hear."

To those who don't believe trans people have a place in Christianity, or that scripture denies the existence of trans people, Stever's response is: "It's hard to relate [that] to modern day times, because it wasn't written for 2024. It was written for then. When we read in scripture that God created man and woman — yes, and God created everyone else as well."

To LGBTQ+ people who feel as if they've been rejected by the church, Stever would like to extend his apologies.

"My first response is, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that the church missed you," he said. "I would say specifically to folks of color, to people living with disabilities, to LGBTQ people — you are good. Nothing is wrong with you. You are good and you don't need the church to tell you that."