Digital Transgender Archive

Interview with the Reverend Louis Mitchell

An interview with Reverend Louis Mitchell, a Black trans man, trans activist and advocate.At the time of this interview, he was the executive director and co-founder of TransFaith, a multi-tradition, multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-generational organization working to support transgender spiritual/cultural/energetic workers and their leadership in community. He currently serves as the Operations Director for the Ingersoll Gender Center in Seattle. In addition to his work with TransFaith, the Rev. Mitchell has also been involved with organizations such as the Oshun Women's Drop-In Center in San Francisco, The (Nitzah) Morris Home in Philadelphia, and Recovering the Promise Ministries in Springfield, Massachusetts. He also has served as the first out Trans member on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and as Officer of Religious Affairs for the Transgender People of Color Coalition. In this interview, Mitchell discusses his political development in the Black lesbian feminist movements of the 1970s, his decades of LGBT activism and community work, including his experience working at San Francisco City Hall and in various faith communities in the Bay Area and around the country, the importance of queer and trans faith communities and the changes necessary to make Christian faith communities more welcoming to Trans people, and his experience on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. He also discusses the founding, philosophy, and current work of TransFaith, the organization he co-founded with Mx. Chris Paige.