Earlier today I pointed my readers to a video and companion essay by transgender activist Joelle Ruby Ryan entitled “Casualties of Gender” in which she calls attention to the ongoing violence against those who defy society’s gender conventions.  Commenting on the piece, I decried the silence with which conservative Christian leaders have met these acts of violence, which I see as giving tacit approval to the use of violence to enforce gender norms.

Tonight I read a report in the Bowling Green State University News of a rally held at there to raise awareness of violence against gender-variant people.  Joelle, who founded the university’s transgender advocacy group, returned to speak at the rally.  But it was a comment from a participant at the end of the article that caught my attention:

Supporters from outside the group included Henry Koch, a Bowling Green resident, and David Ordorica, a campus minister at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, who both want to see the bigotry transgendered individuals face on a daily basis stopped.

Just because a person doesn’t agree with the way a person lives doesn’t mean that person should have to put up with violence against them, Ordorica said.

“I’m here to be a conservative Christian witness to the fact that we love LGBT people and stand against violence of any kind against them,” he said.

Thank you for listening, Mr. Ordorica.  You’ve given me hope.