Diversity Rules Magazine

3 Diversity Rules Magazine September 2015 David-Elijah Nah- mod is a film crit- ic and reporter in San Francisco. His articles ap- pear regularly in The Bay Area Reporter and SF Weekly. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter. David developed Post Traumatic Syndrome Disor- der (PTSD) after surviving gay conversion therapy as a child and has found that many in the LGBT community suffer from severe, often untreated emotional disorders due to the extreme anti-gay traumas they endured. This column chronicles his journey. I was impressed and moved when I first met Rev. Megan Rohrer. Megan is the Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in San Francisco. Megan, who prefers to use gender neutral pronouns, is the first openly transgender pastor to be installed at a Lutheran congregation- -Megan always specifies that she's "openly" trans- gender, as not all trans people are out. It's impor- tant, they feel, to respect people's privacy. I covered Megan's installation at Grace Lutheran for Bay Area Reporter, then did a follow-up interview with her for South Florida Gay News. Every time I hear Megan's voice, every time we meet, I felt a sense of peace. Megan is a person who's filled with love for the world. Obviously their congregation agrees, as Grace Lutheran's membership has seen a sharp increase since Megan took to the pulpit. Megan is also involved in homeless outreach. ey have many years experience of working with San Francisco's Night Ministry, hitting the streets of the City during the after-midnight hours in order to offer prayer and counseling to the homeless, and to help people on the streets find shelter and food. One of Megan's personal projects is to help homeless people suffering from vi- sion loss obtain free eyeglasses. "Be the change you want to see in the world," said Gandhi. Few people I've encountered in my life- time live up to this phi- losophy more than Rev. Megan Rohrer. So naturally I was shocked, in late June, when Megan needed to contact the San Fran- cisco police to ask them to keep an eye on Grace Lutheran. Megan had re- ceived threats of violence which came from within the LGBT sphere. "Someone needs to track this dude down and beat the shit out of them," stated the Tweet which Megan screen-grabbed and posted on her Facebook page. e tweet, from an account called " no name Wiener", is owned by a transgender woman. As this and other threats directed at Megan came in the immediate af- termath of the church shootings in South Carolina, Megan took no chances. Megan was targeted due to her efforts to get Meagan Taylor, an African American transgender woman, out of jail. Taylor had been arrested at a motel in Des Moines Iowa on false prostitution charges. Megan was raising funds in order to get Taylor released. e people who threatened Megan wanted the money sent to them. Nahmod - Cont't on page 6 If You Could Read My Mind: A PTSD Memoir: Healing - Part I By David-Elijah Nahmod

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