What happens when transgender people form a gospel choir in order to stand up and make their voices heard The Believers is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, gender, and religion. Built around the world's first transgender gospel choir, the film portrays the choir's dilemma - how to reconcile their gender identity with the widespread belief that changing one's gender goes against the word of God.

As the film unfolds, we meet a range of complex individuals and watch as they relate their stories of gender confusion and religious fervor. Shot over the past three years in San Francisco, The Believers follows 15 core members of the choir as they learn what it takes to sing professionally; capturing the funny, often chaotic experience of rehearsals and performances at high profile events as well as the sometimes dangerous, painful world of being a transgender performer. We also watch as the choir makes history by changing long standing church policies in mainstream institutions like the United Church of Christ.

The individual choir members' stories are as diverse and extraordinary as the choir itself, beginning with Ashley, the choir's founder. Ashley, a professional sound engineer for rock bands like Third Eye Blind, left his wife of 12 years and Hollywood life to become a woman in San Francisco. We follow her struggle to find a place for religion in her life and her dedication to forming the choir under seemingly insurmountable odds.

We meet Joan, a male-to-female transsexual and professor of biology at Stanford University. A prolific writer and researcher, Joan has published several books on the biology of gender makeup. We watch as she tells the incredible story of becoming a woman with the help of Condoleeza Rice, Stanford's provost at the time of Joan's transition.

We meet Tom, a once radical lesbian feminist. Tom, now fully transitioned into life as a man, tells his story of being a computer programmer who passes on a daily basis as male.

We meet Bobby, a recovering drug addict and ex-prostitute who was convicted of murder as a man and sentenced to 10 years in prison. We follow her home to Memphis as she confronts her family for the first time as a HIV positive woman.

Set against the larger theme of the choir's founding and growth these are just a few of the amazing personal stories that unfold in Transcendence.

The voices in The Believers are not only rarely raised in our society but also are commonly thought to be non-existent in religion. When they are raised in churches all over the country, the story that unravels is unprecedented, controversial and most importantly one that begins the process of unraveling religious stereotypes and slowly dissolving the mystery of what it means to be transgender in our society.