MARQUETTE (WWJ) -- Michigan's Upper Peninsula is home to a catholic diocese that has instructed its pastors to refuse several sacraments to transgender and non-binary individuals.
The Catholic Diocese of Marquette is denying baptism, confirmation and other sacraments to individuals whose gender identity doesn't "match" with their biological sex assigned at birth -- unless they have "repented."
The guidance, "An instruction on some aspects of the pastoral care of persons with same‐sex attraction and gender dysphoria," states that transgender people may not receive communion, which Catholics believe to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
They also cannot receive the anointing of the sick, in most cases, which is meant to provide physical or spiritual healing to those seriously ill.
“The experience of incongruence in one’s sexual identity is not sinful if it does not arise from the person’s free will, nor would it stand in the way of Christian Initiation,” reads the document. “However, deliberate, freely chosen and manifest behaviors to redefine one’s sex do constitute such an obstacle.”
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The guidelines were released in July, but recently sparked debate after a prominent priest and an LGBTQ catholic advocate shared his thoughts on Twitter.
"It is not a sin to be transgender," wrote James Martin, a Jesuit priest in New York City.
While other dioceses have released guidance on transgender people, several experts said they believe Marquette is the first to deny access to baptism and confirmation.
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