Megan Rohrer

Megan Rohrer (born 1980) is an American activist for homeless and LGBTQ+ rights and former Lutheran bishop. Rohrer is the first openly transgender minister ordained in the Lutheran tradition and a successful author and finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 2012 for "Letters For My Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect." As an historian, Rohrer has written the book San Francisco's Transgender District. Following their reception as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 2010, they served the church as bishop of its Sierra Pacific Synod from 2021 until June 2022.

Rohrer has been profiled in international and national outlets including CBS News, BBC, and the San Francisco Chronicle. His 2025 book on San Francisco’s Transgender District was described as a significant contribution to preserving trans history and cultural memory.

Rohrer was born on April 3, 1980, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1998, they graduated from high school and enrolled at Augustana University to study religion. In college they came out as gay, and became president of the gay–straight alliance. They encountered resistance, threats, and attempted "cures" by fellow students for their sexuality. Rohrer graduated from Augustana in 2001.

Rohrer moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002 to continue their studies. By this time they had come to identify as transgender. Rohrer attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary before transferring to the Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in Berkeley, California, earning a Master of Divinity degree from PSR in 2005 and a Doctor of Ministry degree in 2016. In 2024, Rohrer successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled "Trans The*logy Without Apology." His Ph.D. is in transformative studies through the California Institute of Integral Studies and his dissertation was later published through Wilgefortis Press.

In 2000, Rohrer worked at the Children's Home Society in Sioux Falls.

Rohrer formed the San Francisco LGBTQ Meetup to organize support for the homeless. "We can’t cure homelessness," said Rohrer. "But we can still be present and be visible out in our community. That was a big part of why we wanted to start having these gatherings." Rohrer has helped the homeless in San Francisco, serving as the executive director of The Welcome Ministry, since 2002, which programs serve the homeless and hungry by distributing sandwiches, and has participated in a night ministry with other local pastors. Rohrer has also helped to grow and distribute thousands of pounds of free food from community gardens.

Feeding people, especially seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS, has always been part of The Welcome Ministry. Rohrer managed the hot meal program and food pantry of the historic St. Francis Lutheran Church, near the Castro, in San Francisco. In 2013, the city was actively working to gentrify the Duboce Park and Castro neighborhoods, and began by attempting to close down the food program as a means to reduce homelessness.

Through Welcome, in 2015, Rohrer supported efforts in Kona, Hawaii to benefit homeless people and other low-income people with their vision needs, by making gathering resources and providers in the area to sponsor and support the initiative. At the event, three generations, Megan Rohrer, his mother, Peggy Heard, and grandmother, Darlene Audus, bathed the feet of the homeless at a washing station and applied lotion to the often cracked and ragged feet.