About River

Welcome to the official webpage of River Needham! River provides many services in addition to offering musings here.

River (she/her/hers/herself) uses her background in the Christian and Pagan traditions to advocate for full inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual+, Trans+, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Ace+ people. She is particularly interested in the inclusion of people within the bisexual, asexual and transgender umbrellas, as those are the umbrellas under which River locates her gender experience, sexual and romantic orientations.

River’s writing has been featured on We Talk. We Listen., including everything from a primer on Transgender experience, to an exploration of grief and Jesus’ suffering, to a hospitality-based response to the proposed ban on transgender troops. Additionally, they regularly queery the Tanakh readings on Queerying the Text; some of their academic work has been published online as well.

In addition to writing here, and for various other publications, River offers listening/reading services to preachers and public speakers who want an audience to practice their sermons or want an extra set of eyes to check for queer inclusion and anti-oppression lenses.

She offers gender awareness trainings, gender exploration services, and anti-oppression trainings-focusing on gender and sexual minorities. Her offerings have been utilized by organizations including: The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago,  Lake Street Church of Evanston, aChurch4Me MCC in Chicago, and the boards of non-profit anti-oppression organizations (full list available on request).

River is an Ecumenical and Interfaith-oriented transgender woman, theologically trained in the Christian, Lutheran, and MCC traditions, and with extensive lived experience in Pagan and Christo-Pagan traditions. River is pleased to work with anyone or any group wanting to engage in queerness, transness, gender and sexual minority anti-oppression, or other related areas. Please be in touch with River, and she will be glad to talk details.