WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Pastor Kicks Transvestite Out of Uncle's Funeral

Pastor Kicks Transvestite Out of Uncle's Funeral

A Denham Springs man showed up at his uncle's funeral only to be kicked out by the pastor of the church. The reason? The man was wearing a dress. The pastor says he did the right thing. The transvestite insists he's heartbroken. WAFB's Caroline Moses reports on Dermaine and his dress.

Dermaine Johnson says he feels more like a woman than a man, and has for a while. He is attracted to men, and on most any day, he looks more like a woman. Johnson says, "This is who I am. I can't change that, that's me. Take me or leave me."

Dermaine put on a black dress and headed to his uncle's funeral earlier this month, only to be told he would have to leave. He says, "There wasn't no doubt they were judging me." Dermaine says both the pastor of New Zion Baptist Church in Denham Springs, and the pastor's wife, kicked him out of the church. He says, "He's like, 'Cause of the way you dress.' I was like, 'Hmmm, the way I'm dressed.'"

A woman says, "I was mad 'cause that's my best friend. I was mad." The woman did not want to give her name, but she says it was her father, Randolf Johnson's funeral, and he would have wanted his entire family to be there. She says, "I felt hurt, you know, it wasn't right and humiliating to us 'cause we are so big and people be trying to hate on us."

Johnson says he was close to his Uncle Randolf, too close not to go to his funeral. He says, "There is no way in heaven that God would want somebody to do this to somebody, just hurtful. I didn't like it at all."

Before Reverend Leroy Alvin Taylor of New Zion drove away from our cameras, he told us he did ask Dermaine to leave because he was wearing a dress. The reverend said, "You got to do what you got to do." Johnson says, "It made me feel like I was an infant baby, just left alone in the world with nobody to care for me." He says, "I came back home and I felt so bad, I just cried probably for like two hours."

He adds, "I wanted to be strong, so for my family, so I didn't hold my head down. I held it up." "I say, 'Come as you are, not to be judged when you get to the door,'" says Johnson. 

Reporter:  Caroline Moses, WAFB-TV