In May, representing the church, she stood before the Hatboro Borough Council to urge passage of an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Petro felt so at home at Love in Action that she not only joined the congregation but cofounded an LGBT support group based there. She didn't expect to find refuge in institutional religion, but as an LGBT person of faith, she wanted to try.
She was on the verge of divorce and plagued by thoughts of suicide. She left her teaching job, and lost her home. Two years earlier, Petro had come out as transgender, which upended her life. When Jennifer Angelina Petro walked into Love in Action United Church of Christ in Hatboro for the first time in early 2017, she sat in the place she felt most comfortable: toward the back, near the door, 'in the chair closest to getting out.'