MADISON, Wis. — As the world continues its celebration of Pride Month, one southern Wisconsin Christian leader and transgender-activist is ministering her faith while living openly now as a woman.
Vica-Etta Steele said she believes strongly in the values of her Christian faith, but she knows religious structure has not always been kind to the LGBTQ+ community.
“For all of us who are queer people marginalized in society, churches have been turned into a weapon. Words of faith have been twisted into a knife and held at our throat till we bleed,” Steele said.
Steele takes to the pulpit as vicar at downtown Madison St. John’s Lutheran Church. Here, she said she has found an understanding flock and can preach the Gospel with welcome words.
“So when they start seeing folks come out, this congregation, these people, the folks I know, they’re working their butts off. They’re here to learn, they’re here to be, they’re here to love,” Steele said.
For so many years, Steele said she felt so unloved and uncomfortable in her own skin, masking who she was just to fit in despite knowing her true self since before kindergarten.
“I was never socialized as a boy. I was socialized as the girl who had to go into the boys’ locker room. I was socialized as the girl who had to hide her entire identity,” Steele said.
After spending decades as a public school teacher, Steele left the profession as she faced negativity in her transition. She said through faith and her encouraging wife of 37 years, she found a way back. She said she was so thankful she could reclaim her long-dismissed Christian calling and hopes to help others do the same.
“So many people were pushed out of faith again and again and again despite trying so hard, and I get to follow the path they started and I get to hold that door open,” the proud seminarian said.
She said above all, her message has been about letting others who have faced discrimination know they aren’t alone.
“My message is always that you are beautiful. You’re wonderful. And we fall in love. We fall in love each day. We are called to fall in love in my tradition. It’s in the Bible. Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s two commandments in one. You don’t love your neighbor if you don’t love yourself and that’s falling in love each day. We have to do it.”
It’s why each week, with good weather, Steele holds her Farmer’s Market ministry on the square, spreading goodwill.
“No one is judging us against love. And we live in that language, the trees or words, the grass, a sentence, a chapter, a book and the language of God, right? In the language. All we have to do is listen,” she said of her “Queer Chaplain” community effort.