Article By Jon Brown
A small church in South Carolina affiliated with the mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) recently hired a pastor who identifies as a transgender lesbian.
North Anderson Community Church Presbyterian (PCUSA) in Anderson, South Carolina, called the Rev. Laura Bethany Buchleiter last month to lead their congregation as its stated supply pastor, according to Qnotes Carolina. The LGBT outlet noted that the church averages 20 to 30 attendees each Sunday.
Buchleiter, who studied at Moody Bible Institute, previously made headlines in 2021 for becoming the first trans-identifying person to be ordained by a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated congregation, according to Baptist News Global. Buchleiter was ordained that year by University Baptist Church in Bloomington, Indiana.
During a 2021 interview with The Christian Post, Buchleiter pushed back against those who would argue that transgenderism is unacceptable for clergy and incompatible with Christianity in general.
“I believe that to accept the complex expressions of gender we have seen throughout human history is not an affront to God’s sovereignty, but a testimony to God’s immense creativity,” Buchleiter said at the time.
“In my case, this was further demonstrated when I was diagnosed with an intersex condition, having been born with both male and some female organs,” Buchleiter continued. “I either had to view my body as a mistake … or allow for the fact that God is truly the master Creator — operating outside the boundaries of gender binaries.”
During an interview earlier this year on the “Gay With God” podcast, Buchleiter claimed his wife divorced him in part because of his trans identity, and discussed coming to terms with identifying as a lesbian because of continued attraction to women.
In the same interview, Buchleiter claimed to have chosen the name “Laura” in reference to its Latin etymology of the laurel wreath symbolizing victory. The name “Bethany” was chosen in reference to the town where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, which Buchleiter likened to transitioning.
“I was reading in the New Testament the story of Lazarus; Jesus calling Lazarus back from the grave. And it just says he came up to the town of Bethany, and that hit me,” Buchleiter said. “So, yeah, Laura Bethany together is my victorious new life.”
In April, the PCUSA’s Facebook page posted a video featuring Buchleiter discussing “religious trauma.”
“Our journeys to understand ourselves and who God created us to be are often winding with unexpected detours or sharp turns,” the PCUSA’s post said.
The PCUSA has grown increasingly liberal over recent decades, most recently making headlines for an internal debate over the morality of polyamory and affirming the castration of minors at its General Assembly in July.
Though still the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., the PCUSA lost more than 26,000 members and 128 congregations in 2025, according to a report released in June. Its membership overall has cratered over the past quarter-century, dropping from more than 2.5 million in 2000 to just over 1 million as of last year.
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