La Pastoral Trans was born as a initiativ of the Costa Rican Lutheran Church, which has been widely supported by academics and students at the National University of Heredia, with the aim of generating tools of visibility, information and accompaniment for trans people.
La Pastoral Trans was created on 17 of July 2018 and the first meeting took place at the central office of the church. The session started with the welcome from Pastor President Gilberto Quesada, and Rodolfo Mena with the issue perspective and communication. This community of faith will be leaded by Alexa Araya, who has a diploma degree in theology.
This worshipservice was performed with the theme ”the discrimination of the trans population in religious spaces” and then the participants discussed on topics of their personal experiences. .
Regrettably, there are violent relationships and exclusions against people in the LGBTQ+ community in Costa Rica. Specially in the trans community who are more affected by great exclusions and socio-economic marginalization.
The Costa Rican Lutheran Church invites us to take on new forms of action, to integrate the vulnerable and excluded groups of society in pastoral actions of inclusion and from a contextual rereading of the bible to elaborate social projects that contribute with alternative changes to the traditional ones.
As long as the sexual gender continues to be conceived as a sociocultural norm, it will continue to cause more conservative and fundamentalistic positions becoming an oppressive actor. This conservative churches will find spaces to defend moralistic positions, with homophobia, causing the consequent distancing of the LGBTQ+ collectives, from any spiritual practice, especially the trans collectives, because of their non-normative body appearance.
La Pastoral Trans aims to form a collective where they can share common problems. where alliances that promote actions of political, social and economic impact are activated, but without forgetting the spiritual component.
It should be noted that La Pastoral Trans have an transversal line an inclusive communication, with the goal to promote its presence in the media. Furthermore, It is important to strengthen the creation of networks and advocacy activities, that only new information techniques can provide.
