Christian love: The Union Gospel Mission refused to feed a homeless transgender woman because she was wearing a dress.

In yet another example of the mean-spirited bigotry many transgender individuals face from conservative Christians, Isabella Red Cloud, a homeless transgender woman from Sioux Falls (South Dakota), was denied service at the Union Gospel Mission because she was wearing a dress.

Red Cloud, a Native American, identifies as Two Spirit, “a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans to describe certain spiritual people – gay, lesbian, bisexual and gender-variant individuals – in their communities.”

Currently Red Cloud is homeless, and is staying with friends after being released from prison for auto theft in February.

When asked, staff at the Union Gospel Mission openly admitted to KDLT that it is their policy not to provide services to transgender people.

In an attempt to justify the anti-trans policy, Fran Stenberg, executive director of Union Gospel Mission, told KDLT:

We need to, first of all, make sure that it is a safe place because we have women and children here. Sometimes certain situations bring about animosity and so we have to eliminate that and sometimes that causes us to have to make the decision to deny a service.

Commenting on the particular episode with Red Cloud, Stenberg told LGBTQ Nation:

I don’t know a thing about a woman being turned away. It was a man that was turned away.

Adding insult to injury, Stenberg told LGBTQ Nation that he understood what the term “transgender” means when informed Red Cloud identifies as a transgender woman, indicating that misgendering Red Cloud was not a mistake made out of ignorance, but a malicious slur meant to insult and demean.

In addition, Stenberg admitted to LGBTQ Nation that Red Cloud’s gender expression was the only reason she was denied service:

We try to keep a safe place and if there’s any disruptive action of anybody, no matter what it is about, we ask them to leave and come back at some other time. [Being out as a trans woman] creates an animosity and we try to keep a safe place for others.

Speaking with the Argus Leader, Stenberg confirmed that mission staff had asked transgender women to leave for wearing dresses on multiple occasions in the past. At one point an obviously confused Stenberg declared:

It’s not about transgender, it’s about what’s in the heart and soul of a man. God created you as a man…

Commenting on the story, Lawrence Novotny, chair of Equality South Dakota, said:

Unfortunately, the protections do not exist for transgender people. This is what the community is trying to change.

Kendra Heathscott, of TransAction South Dakota, said she hopes to start a dialogue with the mission to address the issue of transgender access to the soup kitchen.

Currently South Dakota has no state-level protections against discrimination for LGBT people.