New 'With Love' video series launches, highlighting trans Presbyterians

The Communications Ministry within the Interim Unified Agency of the PC(USA) is launching a new series of short videos in honor of Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place on March 31 each year. The series, called “With Love,” features nearly a dozen individuals who identify as either trans, nonbinary or gender nonconforming, sharing about their journeys, their identities and their relationships to the church. The people featured include clergy, congregants, seminary students, IUA staff and leaders at various levels of the church.

The series is part of a larger ongoing project to tell the stories of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming Presbyterians. The project is a collaboration among staff within the IUA's communications ministry — including the author of this piece, other IUA staff who work on LGBTQIA+ issues, and several volunteers. In addition to the “With Love” series, the team is putting together a longer-form piece that profiles a few transgender Presbyterians and their faith communities in further detail.

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The footage for “With Love” comes from a recording booth that was set up during the National Queer Presbyterian Conference in November 2025. Participants were given the chance to enter the booth and be interviewed on film, sharing about their identities, their faith journeys and their relationships with the church. While the content of each interviews varies, each conveys a clear love for the church, from which the series takes its name.

The first video features Cassandra Dowty, who — in addition to giving her own interview — stepped in as volunteer interviewer for the others who recorded. Dowty describes herself as “a 47-year-old woman of transgender experience” who first became connected to the PC(USA) through her former spouse. She has also worked with National Capital Presbytery for over a decade, producing film projects about new life and new ways of worship in the Presbyterian Church. Elsewhere, she is active in transgender and broader LGBTQIA+ activism through her online platforms as @CassOutOfTheBag.

Dowty initially got connected to “With Love” when she participated in a focus group organized by the project team early in the planning process. She was excited by the idea and — with her film background — saw an opportunity to lend further support. At the conference, she reached out to other conference-goers she encountered and encouraged them to participate in the story booth, then provided a familiar and friendly presence as she conducted the interviews.

“I am truly thankful to have had the opportunity to sit with many of my gender expansive and queer siblings to talk about our shared experiences, celebrate our joys, and sit in the discomfort of the hardships that we face, especially in this time we find ourselves in,” Dowty said.

In her video, which can be viewed below, Dowty shares how her own church has provided support and genuine community throughout her transgender journey over the past three years.

“The church has been welcoming — I never felt like I was the token trans person, but I was just able to be and accepted as me, as Cassandra,” she said.

The genesis for this storytelling initiative came about last summer from a conversation between members of PC(USA) advocacy committees’ “Comms Squad,” a cross-committee team dedicated to communication strategy, consisting of committee support staff member Hayley Scheir and communications strategist, the Rev. Layton Williams Berkes. Comms Squad members were wondering if a Presbyterian News Service story might raise awareness about the dangers transgender youth were facing after the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, a ruling which allowed similar restrictions in more than 25 other states to remain in place.

While safety concerns for the youth involved and other limitations kept that particular story from coming to fruition, the conversation evolved to focus on longer-term project ideas and ways to utilize storytelling to support transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people within the PC(USA).

Scheir brought in her committee support colleague, Mel Tubb, while Williams Berkes reached out to the multimedia team within communications, particularly Melody Smith and Randy Hobson. These staff formed the initial project team, consulting with Comms Squad member Zayn Silva, and the Rev. Lee Catoe, the editor of Unbound, a digital publication produced by the Interim Unified Agency that focuses on the intersection of faith and justice and recently produced a Trans Advent devotional.

Scheir and Williams Berkes reached out to a number of people who had previously responded to a survey on LGBTQIA+ people and the church and organized several virtual focus groups. Participants were asked what stories they had heard from the church about trans people, and what stories they would like to see told. Most said they hadn’t seen many stories about people like them from the church, but emphasized a desire for stories that offered hope, rather than only struggle.

“Listening to these groups talk to one another, swapping stories with the familiarity of shared experience was deeply compelling,” Williams Berkes said. “As they shared the challenges they faced, as well as the community and joy they’ve found within the church in the midst of that, I knew that these were, actually, some of the exact stories that needed to be told. Their love for the church — as messy and flawed as the church is — was beautifully evident. It felt holy.”

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An idea began to take root. Team members decided they wanted to create more opportunities for transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming Presbyterians to share stories with one another and with the wider church, speaking honestly about their experiences and why they stick with the church and choose to love it. The 2025 National Queer Presbyterian Gathering provided the perfect opportunity.

This is not the only time the communications ministry of the IUA has lifted up LGBTQIA+ stories. In fact, last year, members of the communications staff released a three-part series on the PC(USA)’s “Journey to Inclusion.” However, the team behind “With Love” believes it is also important to tell stories that focus exclusively on transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, instead of including them under the larger LGBTQIA+ umbrella.

The second video in the “With Love” series will release on PC(USA) social media on Friday, and team members plan to release two videos each week — on Tuesdays and Thursdays — throughout March and into early April. They also plan to meet again soon to discuss their ideas from a longer-form video storytelling project. They hope this new “With Love” series may even provide a model for future series, featuring other communities within the church whose stories are underrepresented.

As for Dowty, she’s hopeful too. Hopeful that the “With Love” project will reach people who need it. Hopeful to remain involved in the church’s trans storytelling efforts going forward. Hopeful for herself and her trans siblings as the church hears their stories and the love that keeps them faithful.

“I am hopeful for the future, because I know we are resilient and we have this community that loves and supports us,” she said, directing her message to viewers of the “With Love” series. “Thank you all for joining us as we share our stories with you.”