The Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (AWAB) is proud to release Viewed & Voiced 2026, our annual digital publication created in honor of Trans Day of Visibility.
The Why
Each year, Trans Day of Visibility invites us to celebrate the lives, gifts, and witness of trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people. This year’s edition of Viewed & Voiced offers a powerful collection of stories, sermons, poems, reflections, visual art, music, and testimony from contributors across the AWAB community. Together, these offerings remind us that visibility is not just about being seen. It is also about being heard, honored, and affirmed.
This year’s edition carries special spiritual weight. In 2026, Trans Day of Visibility falls during Holy Week, and that connection shapes the heart of this publication. In her foreword, Rev. Erica Saunders reflects on the sacred overlap of these two moments, naming trans life as a site of prophetic authenticity, audacious joy, holy resilience, and resurrection hope.
What’s New This Year
As in previous years, the submissions in Viewed & Voiced are shared as they were received from each creator. AWAB has not edited or altered these works, honoring trans, nonbinary, and gender-diverse expression in its most honest and authentic form. Contributors’ names and pronouns are included exactly as provided, as an expression of dignity, identity, and self-definition.
New this year, contributors were also invited to respond to a powerful question: If you had a microphone and the whole world could hear you, what would you say? That prompt helped shape a publication that is not only deeply personal, but boldly public. Viewed & Voiced 2026 is filled with truth-telling, witness, and sacred imagination. This is the “Voiced” in Viewed & Voiced.
This year’s collection features work from ten tenacious creators, including sermons on being known and named by God, poetry and prose on transition and belonging, visual art rooted in faith and nature, interactive media, music, and reflections on church, community, and survival. The publication also includes an in memoriam tribute to Elaine Stephens, whose contribution to last year’s publication continues to bear witness to the power of being fully seen in the life of the church.
Whether you are clergy, a lay leader, a parent, a longtime ally, or someone still learning what affirming faith can look like, we invite you to spend time with this collection. Read it slowly. Share it widely. Let it challenge you, comfort you, and deepen your commitment to making Baptist spaces safer, braver, and more loving for all.
We also invite you to follow AWAB on Instagram, where our very first content is dedicated to uplifting our trans and nonbinary siblings through Viewed & Voiced 2026. This new platform is one more way we are expanding the reach of radical welcome and affirming witness.
Take the Next Step
Share this publication with your church, small group, or ministry team
Use the pieces as reflection prompts in your congregation
Follow AWAB on Instagram and help amplify these voices
Invite someone in your community to submit next year
At AWAB, we believe LGBTQ+ people are created in the image of God and worthy of being seen, heard, and affirmed. Viewed & Voiced 2026 is one expression of that truth.
Read it. Witness it. Share it.