Church harassed trans ex-bishop for months before firing: lawsuit

The first openly transgender Evangelical Lutheran bishop filed a lawsuit against the church Wednesday alleging he was pushed from his post after enduring a year of discrimination and harassment.

The Rev. Megan Rohrer claims the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America forced him to resign in June — a year after he was elected to his post– after letting him take the fall for alleged racist behavior

In his lawsuit, Rohrer alleges he only resigned from the San Francisco-based post because the high-ranking members of the church created a “hostile work environment” from his first day on the job in May 2021.

He claims he was deliberately misgendered, ridiculed for featuring drag queens at his ordination and harassed for being transgender.

He is seeking monetary damages.

Rohrer claims the church retaliated when he reported the alleged discrimination, as well as labor violations that ELCA was allegedly committing by categorizing employees as independent contractors to avoid paying them a salary, which is a violation of federal and California labor laws.

“When Rohrer separately revealed the transgender harassment he had been suffering since beginning his job, the Church terminated him, and falsely accused him of ‘weaponizing’ his own identity as a trans person to ‘avoid being held accountable,’” the lawsuit states.

The former bishop accused ELCA of then using him as a scapegoat after Rohrer fired the pastor of a predominantly Latino, immigrant congregation in Stanton, California, on the Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The firing caused the congregation to lose the denomination’s financial backing. They were then forced to vacate their building and worship in the parking lot.

The congregants blamed, Rohrer, claiming he carried out the firing in a racist manner and recommended he undergo racial sensitivity training.

Instead, Rohrer claims ELCA forced him to resign the following day.

“I was pushed out of the church for following the directives of superiors,” he said. “And cast as a racist publicly.”

Since his June resignation, Rohrer has received “nearly-daily hate mail” that includes death threats.

Rohrer now works as a senior communications specialist with a Black nondenominational church in San Francisco because his firing prohibits him from working as a bishop of an synod or even as a pastor at ELCA.

The ELCA declined to comment.

With Post Wires