Hello, I’m Nichole Letitia, and I’m Transgender. When I first realized these feelings and emotions about who I am, I was only 5 years old. Over the years I had much difficulty dealing with the emotional struggle being levied on me by those folks who consider themselves Christians, because I was always taught that Christians are supposed to be as close to Jesus as possible, which means that they aren’t supposed to judge anyone, but how too often do we see these judgements happening anyway?

In my dealings with people from many different religious denominations, I have discussed who I am with those who would listen, and I have been told so many times that God made each of us in his image, and that God made me the way I am and I should be happy with that. Now, I’m not one who likes to argue with anyone who I believe knows more about religious doctrine than I, but when it comes to God making each of us in his own image, YES, he did make Adam in his image, and YES, he did mold Eve to be Adam’s partner in life, but once he made the first two humans in this fashion, that is where he stopped and allowed the natural forces of human reproduction to take over.

Now if it holds true that God made each of us in his image, and we are supposed to be mirror images of a work of art in his glory, then how does one account for all of the deformed children and other manifestations we see on a daily basis in this world? We’ve all been told of a mystical source of energy that is the essence of who we are, and that essence is known as the soul. Nobody knows for sure at what point the soul inhabits these shells we’ve been given for the time we are allowed to stay in this world, but we’re told that all souls are made in heaven. Each soul is unique, and every soul is either male or female, I believe this with every breath I take and all of the goodness I feel within my heart, and I further believe that God does not make mistakes with regards to our souls. But my faith has always led me to believe that this world, as messed up as it is, does make mistakes, and that often when souls are sent to occupy a certain shell, something within this world goes awry, and that shell doesn’t develop in the way it was supposed to, so thus, many of us are born Transgender through no fault of our own, but rather through a twist of nature that we had no control over. So when I’m told that God made me the way I am and I should be happy with that, I am happy that my soul is female, I’m just not happy that this world twisted things around with my shell, and has forced me to endure prejudice, bias, bigotry, and persecution that so many Christians find so easy to levy down upon me just because I’m different. But you know what? Jesus would have never treated me in this fashion, he would have opened his arms to me with love and compassion, and he would invited me into his house at any time. Do you think that I’ve ever been invited by a so called “Normal Society True Christian” to come into their house for worship or just for fellowship?

Jesus taught me to “Love Thy Neighbor”, and to treat everyone with the same dignity and respect that I would expect to be treated with, whether they be Christian, Jew, Arab, Buddhist, etc. But the greatest lesson Jesus taught me, was simply to love everyone for who they are, irregardless of anything else.

I’ve always maintained that I have the simple faith of a child, in that I don’t need physical proof in the existence of my Lord and Savior, and I don’t need someone to throw a Bible in my face and tell me that it is written, so let it be done. I just simply believe, because Jesus is always with me, and has always protected me from harm at times when I most certainly thought the end was near. And when I often feel like I can’t go on living anymore — when I feel like I don’t have a single friend in this world who I can confide in — when I don’t want to have to face another person or group of people because I’m afraid that they will chastise and persecute me, I know I can turn to the one who will listen to me, and who has always loved me without reservation: Jesus Christ.

Because I maintain this simple faith, nobody has any right to condemn me, because Jesus hasn’t. After all, he died for any sin of mine and the world’s 2,000 years before I was born. Maintaining this simple belief and loving Jesus is often all I have to comfort me from day to day.