Original version

BBC World Service News Internet

Heart and Soul

Documentaries

Religion & Ethics

Personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service East Asia

Heart and Soul: The transgender pastor

Factual

The transgender pastor

11/02/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, The transgender pastor

The Christian minister who had to choose between her gender and her church

The Christian minister who had to choose between her gender and her church.

June Joplin was born outwardly a boy, but at the age of 11, at a Christian summer camp, two things became very clear to her: that she was supposed to be a pastor, and that she was supposed to be a girl.

Becoming a pastor was the easy bit. June studied to become a Baptist minister in Richmond, Virginia, married and started a family. Yet the sense that she was really a woman never left her – and by her own admission, the struggles with her gender identity led to a depression which at times made her difficult to live with.

Eventually, by now living in Canada, she decided to come out as a transgender woman to her congregation and face the consequences.

In conversation with Mike Wooldridge, June Joplin tells her story and reflects on the cost of doing what she felt was the right thing.

Presenter: Mike Wooldridge. 
Producer: Rosie Dawson
A CTVC production for BBC World Service

(Photo: June Joplin)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Heart and Soul

The transgender pastor

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service News Internet

About BBC World Service