Greetings Matty!! And Welcome!
Let’s begin with your second question first….yes indeed!!….depending upon the student and their understanding of the UB. You will find the community of students generally very open minded and tolerant and embracing of personal experience and the expression of that experience. My opinion (and it is not uncommon an opinion) is that the UB says nothing or little on the topic because gender and gender identification have nothing to do with personal spirituality and personal relationship with God and the religious experience. We are all God’s beloved children and our spirituality depends upon many things….but sexual orientation and gender identification are not one of them. Unfortunately, but naturally enough, there are readers who do differ in such opinions regarding politics, morals, and other issues the UB declares to be human enough but not religious. So some are less tolerant of others….reading this book is not enough, apparently, to enlighten some beyond their ingrained prejudices….or not immediately so anyway.
We all come to this book with a set of preconceptions, many of which are misconceptions or concepts which we find contradicted in the UB. Some readers will reject the UB (or any other source of information) simply due to such disagreement with prior belief); some will read on in interest suspending or withholding judgment due to the interesting presentation – especially when they discover many other concepts presented which confirm their own preconceptions and beliefs; and others will discover a presentation of universe reality that immediately appeals to their sense of balance and wholeness and integration in profoundly harmonious and truthful ways which compels them forward in their continued reading. I believe that all who are patient enough and persistent in their reading of the UB will be rewarded with insights and many ah-ha! moments of understanding and illumination.
The UB itself recommends reading front to back…from the largest lens view of perspective to the smallest or furthest away to most local. Some readers even do that. I, and many others, did not. I started in the middle Paper 100 with the personal religious experience section…others often start at the Jesus papers and others the history of Urantia…and some science folk start in the creation and energy and matter stuff! We all have our passion and priorities!!
What matters most is that it is all read. And that, eventually, it is all read front to back. There are some peculiarities you will find in reading this book. It has a meter to its prose and when you find it, the book reads more quickly and easily. Reading tends to bring questions to mind which the book then so often answers soon after…eerily so. No matter how many times one reads the book or any of the Papers in the book, a re-reading often delivers new meaning, understanding, and an enlarged/expanded perspective of truth and reality. The Papers reiterate, integrate, harmonize, and weave together a resulting tapestry of totality that no single Paper or reading might reveal to the student….and as that portrait of universe reality begins to reveal itself, whole book becomes a symphony with so many instruments and notes combining to illuminate, inspire, and transform the reader.
Or so it is for many of us who have been blessed by this wonderful book. Again, welcome!
Bradly 
PS I was raised a Southern Baptist myself! You might be surprised how short a trip it is from there to being a Jesusonian!! Another topic! The Jesusonian Gospel…at the core of all Christianity, including the fundamentalist thumpers…is that God loves us all and that God is a kind, forgiving, and merciful parent and that we are, as his children, to love one another….also unconditionally…and to forgive one another and give mercy, kindness, and service to one another…not just as “neighbors” or even kin….but as children in the same family. This is the Good News of Jesus….even in the Bible!! And especially and specifically and exhaustively in the Urantia Papers!!
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
