Megan Rohrer (born 1980) is an American activist for homeless and LGBTQ+ rights and former Lutheran bishop.[2] Rohrer is the first openly transgender minister ordained in the Lutheran tradition and a successful author and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 2012 for "Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect."[3] As an historian, Rohrer has written the book San Francisco's Transgender District.[4][5] Following his reception as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 2010,[6][7][8][9][10] He served the church as bishop of its Sierra Pacific Synod from 2021 until June 2022. [11][12][13][14]
Rohrer was born on April 3, 1980, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.[2] In 1998, they graduated from high school and enrolled at Augustana University to study religion.[2] In college they came out as gay, and became president of the gay–straight alliance. They encountered resistance, threats, and attempted "cures" by fellow students for their sexuality.[2][6] Rohrer graduated from Augustana in 2001.[2]
In 2000, Rohrer worked at the Children's Home Society in Sioux Falls, SD.[21]
Rohrer formed the San Francisco LGBTQ Meetup to organize support for the homeless. “We can’t cure homelessness,” said Rohrer. “But we can still be present and be visible out in our community. That was a big part of why we wanted to start having these gatherings.”[22] Rohrer has helped the homeless in San Francisco, serving as the Executive Director of The Welcome Ministry, since 2002,[23] which programs serve the homeless and hungry by distributing sandwiches,[22] and has participated in a night ministry with other local pastors.[7][8][24][25] Rohrer has also helped to grow and distribute thousands of pounds of free food from community gardens.[7][15]
Feeding people, especially seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS, has always been part of The Welcome Ministry.[26] Rohrer managed the hot meal program and food pantry of the historic St Francis Lutheran Church, near the Castro, in San Francisco.[27] In 2013, the city was actively working to gentrify the Duboce Park and Castro neighborhoods, and began by attempting to close down the food program as a means to reduce homelessness.[28][29]
Through Welcome, in 2015, Rohrer supported efforts in Kona, Hawaii to benefit homeless people and other low-income people with their vision needs, by making gathering resources and providers in the area to sponsor and support the initiative.[30][31] At the event, three generations, Megan Rohrer, his mother, Peggy Heard, and grandmother, Darlene Audus, bathed the feet of the homeless at a washing station and applied lotion to the often cracked and ragged feet.[32]
American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, originally founded the Singers of the Street (SOS) choir, which became a project of Welcome. Singers of the Street is a choir of San Franciscans who have experienced, or are at risk of, homelessness and its mission is to raise their voices for justice, healing and joy.[33] In 2015, Street Requium, composed by Kathleen McGuire, in collaboration with Andy Payne and Jonathon Welch, was performed by von Stade and the Singers of the Street in the Bay Area, as a means of mourning the homeless who have died as a result of being unhoused.[34] The Bay Area Reporter interviewed Rohrer in 2016 during the first Trump Administration when speculation that the city of San Francisco could lose $1 billion in federal funding for housing services, because of his advocacy work with HIV/AIDS homelessness.[35][36] In 2022, Rohrer was appointed to the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, which advises the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.[37] Rohrer continues to serve as the co-chair of the San Francisco Local Homelessness Coordinating Board. In February 20, 2024, Rohrer's work helped secure over $50 million in federal funding for homeless individuals and domestic violence survivors.[38]
Ordained ministry
Rohrer was ordained in 2006, during a time when the ELCA did not allow LGBTQ pastors to openly serve.[39] When the policy changed in 2009, Rohrer became the first openly transgender person to serve as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.[2][7][6][40]
In 2010, Rohrer and six other Bay Area gay and transgender pastors were reinstated into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, after the national assembly voted to allow partnered gay people to serve as clergy. The pastors' churches had previously been removed from the denomination for ordaining gay and lesbian ministers who refused to adhere to the denomination's document guiding clergy conduct, "Visions and Expectations".[41] At the time "Visions and Expectations" required that candidates for and persons on the clergy roster remain celibate outside of legal marriage and monogamous within marriage.[42]
In 2014, Rohrer was installed as pastor of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in San Francisco.[6][8]
On December 11, 2021, the Sierra Pacific Synod terminated the employment of Nelson Rabell-González, who presided over Misión Latina Luterana in Stockton, California, and defunded the congregation. The congregation was uninformed about the decision and Rohrer, who attended the service there the next day, declined to provide an explanation. Members of the congregation protested the decision and left the building with a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe to worship elsewhere. Rohrer also allegedly threatened to call the police on a father and child who remained in the sacristy.[48][49][48][50][51][52][53]
On March 1, 2023, Rohrer filed a lawsuit against the ELCA and Sierra Pacific Synod,[54] seeking monetary damages for gender discrimination, openly "hostile work environment"[55][14] and workplace[54] harassment.[56]
On June 23, 2023, Rohrer was removed from the ELCA roster of Word and Sacrament by Interim Bishop Claire S. Burkat as a result of the denial of Rohrer's petition for On Leave from Call status.[13][57]
In 2011, Rohrer and historian Joey Plaster created a remarkable work of public history: Vanguard Revisited, which introduced the history of the 1960s radical queer-youth organization Vanguard to contemporary queer homeless youth, who created their own art and poetry zine in conversation with essays and themes from the original Vanguard newsletter.[58]
Rohrer was recognized by Out Magazine for his work at their 20th Annual Transgender Unity Banquet, in 2012, for his historical research in Vanguard Revisited: The Queer Faith, Sex & Politics of the Youth of San Francisco's Tenderloin.[59]
In 2015, Rohrer started a fundraiser to raise bail for Meagan Taylor, a black trans woman who was held in isolation in an Iowa jail.[60]
Starting in 2016, Rohrer wrote a children's books series expressing LGBTQ themes to help churches who want a safe children's ministry materials for reconciling churches and diverse families.[61]
For the 50th Anniversary of Compton's Cafeteria Riot, in 2016, Rohrer published a second issue of theVanguard Revisited zine with new materials by the original authors and editors for the Tenderloin Museum.[62] The Tenderloin was the historical geographic center of the city’s emerging GLBT movement from the 1940’s through the 1960’s.[58]
In the wake of the 2016 Oakland warehouse fire, in which at least three transgender people were killed, Rohrer was called upon by the city of Oakland to provide support and assistance to the community.[63] During a December 2016 vigil, in the Castro,[64] 75 people gathered in Harvey Milk Plaza to remember the loss to the transgender community and Cash Askew, a famous transgender musician who also perished at Ghost Ship.[65] Rohrer developed the ‘Elegy For Ghost Ship: An Evening of Music In Remembrance’ at Grace Cathedral as a means of healing and mourning the loss of the 36 people who died.[66] "When a tragedy happens in our community we need a lot of opportunities to mourn," Rohrer said. "When the original tragedy happens the first thing we do is mourn the victims and care for the survivors. Then we attend to the people who may have had similar tragedies in their lives and who might be affected by seeing this in the news media." Rohrer also noted that first responders and parents who imagine losing children in such a tragedy might also be in need of guidance and healing.[67]
2018 was the Year of the Woman, with the Women’s March movement, which Rohrer was on the board leadership.[68]
In 2017, Rohrer was hired as the first-ever LGBTQ+ Chaplain for the San Francisco Police Department. In 2017, working with his deeply held belief that religion should unite, not divide, us even further.[69] As part of his work with the San Francisco Police Department, in 2019, Rohrer advocated for then Police Chief William Scott to apologize on behalf of the Police Department, to the Transgender community in San Francisco, at the 53rd anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, which predated the Stonewall riots in New York by 3 years.[70] This truth and reconciliation event occurred at Glide Memorial Church which has long been a place of advocacy for the Transgender District, especially in the 1960s through 1980s.[71][72]
As the Trump Administration announced in 2017 that Transgender people would be banned from serving in the military, Rohrer led protests to advocate for the rights of transgender active military and veterans.[73][74][75]
In 2017, during the San Francisco Trans March, organizers discouraged participants from interacting with police officers providing security, citing concerns about police conduct toward BIPOC transgender people. As SFPD chaplain, Rohrer noted that some officers volunteered because they identified as LGBTQ and wished to support the event. [76]Rohrer stated that their role as a transgender chaplain was intended to encourage reporting of hate crimes and domestic violence.[77]
In late June 2016, people gathered to at 18th and Castro streets to remember the lives of the tragic mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida that took the lives of 49 people with a memorial of flowers, photos and cards.[78] One year later, on June 12, 2017, Rev. Rohrer spoke to over 100 people to remember the anniversary.[79][80][81][82]
Rohrer has advocated for trans people who would be negatively impacted by proposed "bathroom bills" that seek to restrict restroom usage based on sex assigned at birth.[83][84]
In 2021, Rohrer shared their experiences of being a pastor during the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocated for LGBTQ community members to get vaccinated.[85]
In August 2025, Rohher published a new book, San Francisco's Transgender District.[86][87]
2010 – OutHistory.org “Since Stonewall Local Histories Contest” First Place for “Man-i-fest: FTM Mentorship in San Francisco from 1976 – 2009" featuring the life and work of Lou Sullivan
Rohrer, Megan; Kapros Rohrer, Laurel (2018). New Wonders: Lessons Learned at the End of a Long Winding Road. Lulu.com. ISBN9781387744626.
Rohrer, Megan; Strouse, Susan (2019). Progressive Hymns. LULU Press. ISBN9780359940561.
Rohrer, Megan; Strouse, Susan (2022). The Chaplain's Gut: An Embodied Guide to Holy Anger. Lulu.com. ISBN9781387855223.
Adult titles edited by Rohrer:
Rohrer, Megan (2014). Holy Night: Prayers and Meditations for People of the Night: Friends of the San Francisco Night Ministry. Lulu.com. ISBN9781312256903.
Adult titles co-edited by Rohrer:
Rohrer, Megan; Keig, Zander (2014). Manifest: Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect. Lulu.com. ISBN9781312461147.
Rohrer, Megan; Tisdale, Daniel (2014). Bible Stories: Reimagining Between the Lines. ISBN9781312379374.
Rohrer, Megan; Keig, Zander (2016). Manifest: Transitional Wisdom on Male Privilege. Lulu.com. ISBN9781365276828.
↑ California Institute of Integral Studies, "CIIS Dissertation Abstracts 2023-2024" (2024). CIIS Dissertation Abstracts. 2. https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/dissertation-abstracts/2
↑ Anderson, John Joseph, "Incompatible: The Construction of the Homosexual Subject in American Mainline Protestantism" (2011). Dissertations. 142. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/142
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