Kansas megachurch pastor running for U.S. Senate has a message for Republicans: Stop bullying trans people

A megachurch minister running for the U.S. Senate in Kansas is defending transgender people from Republican attacks.Adam Hamilton, the Democrat challenging GOP Sen. Roger Marshall in the Sunflower State, denounced the political targeting of marginalized groups, including transgender people.“I don’t understand everything there is to know about transgender people. What I can say is this: I don’t think we should take a small group of people and bully them, pick on them, and hurt them,” Hamilton told Kansas City news station KMBC. “I look at people, and I understand one thing really clearly when it comes to transgender, and that is Jesus told me I was to love my neighbors.”Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, described his defense of transgender people as an expression of his faith. His opponent has sought to restrict federal recognition of transgender identities.Related: Transgender Kansans won’t let their mismatched IDs stop them from voting in the midtermsMarshall filed legislation in 2024 to “codify legal definitions of male, female, and sex to ensure they are based on biology rather than ideology.” The bill would enshrine a binary definition of sex in federal law.Republicans have also targeted Hamilton’s leadership of the church. At a campaign rally for Marshall, Vice President JD Vance recently attacked the church for being among dozens of sponsors of Kansas City PrideFest and falsely called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence devil worshipers.Hamilton’s comments offered a different view of religious obligation: loving others as you would love yourself.“I'm going to love the trans person as well as the straight person, as well as the, you know, male or female,” Hamilton said. “I just think we have to do better than picking on small groups. And what's happened is we've turned a group of people into a campaign issue because it polls well. I just don't think that's okay. I think we have to treat peopl