Meet the transgender minister representing LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia

The Republican-controlled Georgia legislature ended its session in March without passing any anti-LGBTQ+ bills — and a groundbreaking transgender minister believes she contributed just a little to that outcome.

Rev. Andi Woodworth has been co-pastor of Neighborhood Church, a United Methodist congregation in Atlanta, since 2016. This year, on March 11, she became the first out trans clergy member to address the Georgia House of Representatives during its morning prayer. She had been invited by her state rep, Democrat Saira Draper.

“My hunch is just being there humanized me and humanized my community,” Woodworth says.

Georgia lawmakers had been considering several pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ and specifically anti-trans legislation, mostly tacked on to other bills, she notes. The most concerning ones included a trans athlete ban, restrictions on sex education, parental notification on library books children check out, and a ban on puberty blockers for trans minors (a Georgia law being challenged in court prohibits other gender-affirming treatment for youth). But the session closed March 28 with none of them passing.

“I want to say this had something to do with my presence at the capitol,” Woodworth says, but she gives primary credit to all the activists and citizens who worked against this legislation.

While at the capitol, she had a good conversation with House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican. “We found some commonality,” she says.

She points to what’s long been known — if you know a person who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you’re more likely to be supportive of their rights.

Woodworth has been representing for trans people since her transition in 2020. “My church has been incredibly accepting, and we have grown,” she says. “We’re finding a new connection with the LGBTQ community.”

She was one of the founders of the church, and the goal was always for it to be an LGBTQ-affirming, anti-racist congregation. She eventually realized that when she said, “All of who you are is welcome here,” she was talking not just about others but about herself.

Her co-pastor is Rev. Anjie Woodworth, to whom she was married before transitioning. The change in their relationship went smoothly, however. “The way we think about it is if we weren’t married, we’d still be best friends,” Andi Woodworth says. And they Andi Woodworth are.

Andi Woodworth had been a minister for seven years before helping to found Neighborhood Church. She always loved thinking about God, she says, and she was a religion major in college. “I just ate it up,” she recalls.

The United Methodist Church has been seen arguments over LGBTQ+ inclusion for several years. Its Book of Discipline has explicitly excluded noncelibate gay and lesbian people from the ministry since 1972, and the church doesn’t allow same-sex marriages. But the rules don’t address trans people, so that loophole has let Woodworth continue in the ministry with no problem.

The denomination has often debated lifting these antigay rules, and many progressive congregations ignore them. With the expectation that delegates to the church’s General Conference this year will end these policies, many conservative congregations have left the denomination. Neighborhood Church will keep its United Methodist affiliation, Woodworth says.

There was an uproar among right-wing Christians over Transgender Day of Visibility falling the same day as Easter Sunday this year — March 31 — and President Joe Biden recognizing it. But being Christian, or a faithful adherent of any religion, doesn’t have to mean being anti-trans, Woodworth points out. Her church used the coincidental date in its message that day, noting that Easter is when Jesus “came out” of his tomb.

Woodworth and the church spread a wide-ranging message of inclusion. “I’m not publicly partisan, but I’m certainly political,” she says, explaining that her mission is to “work for liberation of all humans.”

“We’re going to point to what is right, particularly for the marginalized and the poor,” she says. “We do a lot of anti-racism work, reproductive justice, gun reform. … We’re showing up to advocate for policies that lead to a better life for everybody.”

Regarding this year’s presidential election, “I want to be extremely hopeful and optimistic,” she says. “The election represents a chance for us to remember who we are.” And the vast majority of Americans are pro-LGBTQ+, she adds.

She’ll continue reminding people of that, and she takes joy in being an out, proud, and outspoken trans Christian. “I’m out here and really enjoying my life,” she says. “I feel blessed.”