Round Two

I wrote this post for TransEpiscopal-- to read the posts of other TransEpiscopal members at General Convention this July, please see the TE blog.

It’s nine a.m. in Anaheim— do you know where your TransEpiscopal representatives are? Most are at Denny’s, enjoying a well-earned breakfast after testifying before the committee on National and International Concerns in favor of two resolutions on transgender civil rights. This was our second round of testimony in twelve hours, and we’re tired! But, as with last night, our testimony appears to have been well received.

This time we had even more people testify—seven—and once again no one testified against the resolutions.

One difference between last night’s experience and this morning’s is that people on this committee appeared to be somewhat more familiar with transgender issues. More than one committee member knew of specific instances of anti-trans hate crimes; a Deputy from Colorado was aware of the Angie Zappata murder, for instance. I distributed the same list of terms that we shared with the World Mission committee last night, however, and it seemed to be helpful.

This morning, in addition to all those who testified last night, Donna Cartwright weighed in. Her long history and expertise in the history of the movement for trans equality, as well as its links to the legal gains made by previous movements, helped her respond to some technical questions asked by the committee, which is populated by several lawyers.

Michelle Hansen spoke of her experience of discrimination in a secular job. Vicki Gray spoke of people she has met on the streets in the Night Ministry that she does in San Francisco, as well as her experience at the funeral for Gwen Araujo in Newark, California. Jim Toy again spoke of how we all are impacted by what he terms “the rules of gender,” rigid gender norms that get imposed on us from the moment we make our way into this world. Tom Fehr spoke again of his friend who is a transwoman, and how she was subject to discrimination in her secular job. Dee Tavolaro shared stories of enduring hate-based violence. Gari Green shared how she has sought to avoid discrimination in her secular job by continuing to work as male; although Wisconsin was the first to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1982, it still does not have similar laws for transgender people.

Nor yet does Massachusetts. I told the story of how the International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) started because of the murder of Rita Hester in 1998 around the corner from my congregation, St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s (aka “SLAM”), and how last year, for the first time, the planning committee for the TDOR asked SLAM to host it. I conveyed how powerful it was to me to help host this event, and to see the church packed with people who have been so alienated by communities of faith over the years.

I went on to say that right now in Massachusetts, a bill that would add “gender identity and expression” to the state’s non-discrimination laws; on July 14th there will be a hearing at the Massachusetts State House on this bill. And I shared that when I spoke at a rally in favor of this proposed legislation and said that the Diocese of Massachusetts had voted at its diocesan convention to support it, people broke out into applause. I expressed how this applause had taken me by surprise—I certainly imagined that it would be meaningful for people in the trans community to know of this support, but I didn’t anticipate the sense of emotional impact. And so what has really come home for me is what an impact we can have, not only potentially on public debate and in legislative deliberation, but on the hearts of trans people who come to know that we truly care and are willing to stand up and make our caring count.

After the hearing, we were approached by several committee members and other visitors who expressed how much they appreciated our testimony. One was Louie Crew, who has done so much for social justice concerns in the Episcopal Church over the years, not least by founding Integrity in 1974.

Now the committee needs to deliberate on these resolutions, along with the numerous others under their care. We hope and expect that they will send them to the House of Deputies so that they have a chance for debate and passage there. In the meantime, we are listening in on these open deliberations, ready to be of help if questions should arise along the way.

CP

One Down, One to Go

I wrote this post for TransEpiscopal-- to read the posts of other TransEpiscopal members at General Convention this July, please see the TE blog.

What a day! This evening six of us testified before the Committee on World Mission in favor of the three resolutions that would add "gender identity and expression" to the ministry nondiscrimination canon of the Episcopal Church. Five of us spoke in favor of Resolution C001, which originated from Newark, and I spoke in favor of C061, which came from my home diocese of Massachusetts.

The hearing began at 7:45 p.m., and included testimony on another resolution on the support for foreign missionaries, a subject about which the Committee was more accustomed to hearing.

Meanwhile, yesterday I learned that the committee needed a glossary of basic terminology related to trans issues. So late last night I put one together-- a very basic trans 101 type document, a half page long, with terms like "biological sex", "gender identity", "gender expression" and the difference between these concepts and "sexual orientation." That distinction, it seems, was the one that people in this group most needed to think about. The committee got the document early in the day and had it before them during our testimony.

I couldn't help but feel for them; this group was so not accustomed to thinking about such matters-- not even those related to sexual orientation, and they are dealing with a deluge of such resolutions. Our three resolutions seem tiny compared to the sixteen or so that seek to repeal or move beyond the infamous "B033" which was passed at the last minute of the 2006 General Convention. That resolution called on the Episcopal Church to refrain from consecrating any bishops "whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church." In other words, don't lift up any more Gene Robinsons, so as not to offend others in the Anglican Communion. But, as far as I can tell, the feeling of the Convention this year-- particularly among the lay and clerical members of the House of Deputies (akin to the U.S. House of Representatives) is to move forward in the basically progressive direction the Episcopal Church is headed, and move beyond the language of B033. This committee, World Missions, appears to have been given the B033 related resolutions, as well as ours, in order to place these matters in the context of the Anglican Communion. There are so many resolutions on this topic, that they are holding a huge hearing on them tomorrow night.

So that's part of the context in which our hearing this evening took place. We met prior to the hearing and then walked over as a group. We arrived early to sign up and then waited. Slowly, more people filled the room, though it was not completely full. The committee sat in a U shape, with a podium at its head for testifying. All of us who testified will hopefully be sharing that testimony here in the days to come, but in the meantime, I will try to convey the gist of their remarks. Michelle Hansen, who blogged the piece before this one, spoke first about her thirty-eight years as an Episcopal priest, who transitioned several years ago from male to female. Dee Tavolaro then spoke about the resolution, putting it in the context of the five points of mission, about which the Deputies had reflected in their afternoon legislative session. Vicki Gray, a deacon and transwoman from the diocese of California, spoke about the Baptismal Covenant and how all are empowered by their baptism into ministries of all sorts. After Vicki, Gari Green, a priest from the diocese of Milwaukee, spoke about her years of ministry and how being a transwoman has helped her in to be a better priest. Then Tom Fehr, an Integrity volunteer, spoke about a friend of his who is a transwoman, and how she should be able to be known and respected for the fruits of her work and ministry, regardless of her trans identity and history. All six of these speakers testified in favor of C001. Jim Toy of the Diocese of Michigan, a strong ally and member of TransEpiscopal, spoke of how rigid gender norms restrict all of us, regardless of whether we identify as transgender Nevertheless, he continued, trans people are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence. After each speaker, the committee had a chance to ask any questions, but they never did. As the co-chair of the committee kept asking for questions, and as she was met with silence, I couldn't help but get the sense that the group was overwhelmed, just trying to take us in. Finally the co-chair, the Rev. Gay Jennings of the DIocese of Ohio, said she herself had a general question which any of us could choose to answer, namely whether we knew of any trans person who had had a difficult time specifically because the canon does not currently mention "gender identity and expression."

There was a pause. I then got up and shared that I knew of people who came out as transgender after their ordinations and who had been asked to leave their ministerial positions for that reason. In terms of the ordination process itself, I said that while it was difficult to show definitively how many might have been ordained but for that canon, I do know from many conversations I have had over the last several years that there are a number of trans people out there who experience a sense of call to ordained ministry but who are afraid they will not be fairly considered simply because they are trans. Rev. Jennings seemed to find the answer satisfactory. She then invited me to give my testimony for C061.

I explained that I feel fortunate to be able to work with my bishops, the Commission on Ministry and the Standing Committee of my diocese while I was in the ordination process, since I came out as a transman prior to my ordination. I also shared how helpful it has been to me to be in conversation and community with other trans Episcopalians and Anglicans, including lay and ordained people both in the United States and the Church of England. I made certain to say that, since I had the sense that some committee members may have wondered if this resolution could be construed as an instance of the American church charging ahead of the Anglican Communion again. The C of E is not the whole Communion, obviously, but it is significant to note that they have had transgender priests since at least 2000. I went on to note that in my priesthood, one of the most significant facets of being transgender is that people can know that much more clearly that whoever they are, they are welcome in this church. That when we say all, we mean all. They don't have to be transgender themselves for it to be a big deal that a transgender person could be a priest in this church. I concluded by saying that I really did hope that people would feel free to ask questions.

And then a few people did. Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island asked me to define "gender identity and expression" again, as she had heard more than one definition over the course of the testimony. Deputy Michael Barlowe of the diocese of California invited me to share again how sexual orientation is different from gender identity and expression. There may have been one or two other questions; I can't remember at the moment.

After me, a man from the diocese of Michigan, whom I do not know, testified in favor of C046. He basically said that no one should be barred from access to the ordination process because of their gender. When asked how he thought the resolution related to B033, he said that the resolution impacts all the orders of ministry, not just lay people, deacons and priests; if called, anyone should be able to become a bishop.

No one testified against any of the resolutions.

At that, the hearing ended, and the committee began deliberating on other resolutions. We gathered for a quick debrief in preparation for tomorrow: our next hearing is tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. This early morning stuff is killing me. But it's certainly for a good cause! So in the world of trans committee hearings at General Convention, one down, one to go. Then we'll hope these resolutions get to the floor of the House of Deputies; they deserve a fair shot.

CP

Two Hearings in Twelve Hours

I wrote this post for TransEpiscopal-- to read the posts of other TransEpiscopal members at General Convention this July, please see the TE blog.

Tomorrow marks the official start of the General Convention, but already legislative committees are holding meetings to sift through the resolutions allotted to them. This year there is an unprecedented five resolutions on transgender inclusion and equality. We had thought there would be four, but we just learned of a fifth.

Two transgender resolutions call on the Church to support secular civil rights legislation:

1) C048, originating from the Diocese of Michigan
2) D012, lead sponsor Byron Rushing of the Diocese of Massachusetts (cosponsored by Sarah Lawton of the Diocese of California and Dee Tavolaro of the Diocese of Rhode Island)

These resolutions have been allotted to the Committee on World Mission, where they might have been overshadowed by a slew of resolutions addressing “B033”, an infamous resolution passed in 2006. But this evening the committee separated these two resolutions from the B033 pack and they will now be considered in a hearing tomorrow (Wednesday) evening between 7-9pm.

An additional three resolutions call on the Episcopal Church to include “gender identity and expression” in its ministry nondiscrimination canon:

3) C001, originating from the Diocese of Newark
4) C061, originating from the Diocese of Massachusetts
5) C046, originating from the Diocese of Michigan

These resolutions are currently under the care of the Committee on National and International Affairs. Today we learned that they will be considered at a hearing Thursday morning from 7-9 a.m.

That means that there will be two hearings on transgender matters within twelve hours.

After these hearings, the committees will decide what to do with the resolutions—whether to combine them, send them to other committees, table them, or send them to the floor of the House of Deputies. If the House of Deputies passes them, the legislation goes to the House of Bishops (remember "how a bill becomes a law?" it's like that).

At the last General Convention three years ago, there was one transgender themed resolution. There was a hearing on it, at which TransEpiscopal's Donna Cartwright testified. Ultimately the resolution got tabled, which means it died.
One person, one resolution.

But this year: five resolutions (thus far), eight TransEpiscopal members. Three of us flew in on the 4th of July, and this evening we arrived at our full compliment. Another huge difference this year is the amazing support we of TransEpiscopal have around us, from the volunteers of Integrity (for which three of us are also official volunteers), to Deputies who are actively working with us from within committees and deputations. One deputy in particular has already been amazing: Sarah Lawton of the Diocese of California. Another is Dee Tavolaro of Rhode Island, who is, as far as we know, the first out transgender Deputy in the history of the Episcopal Church. Go Dee!

Last night, Dee, Gari Green of Wisconsin, and I co-led a trans 101 type workshop last night for the folks working toward LGBT inclusion here at Convention, and it went really well.


Meanwhile, Gari and Jim Toy have also been meeting people at the booth that Integrity is sharing with us in the Convention's exhibit hall.

So here we are, just before everything begins, and already so much has happened. I'm incredibly grateful to be here and while we don’t know what lies ahead, and we know the road may yet get very hard, I just have to say right now: what a difference three years makes.

CP

Narrating a Transgender Presence at Episcopal General Convention

I wrote this post for TransEpiscopal-- to read the posts of other TransEpiscopal members at General Convention this July, please see the TE blog.


Three years ago, TransEpiscopal had one representative who could attend the Episcopal Church’s General Convention (GC). Donna Cartwright, then of the Diocese of Newark, NJ, went for about a week and testified at a committee hearing in favor of the one transgender-related resolution that had come to Convention. The resolution never made it to the floor.

Last summer, I attended the Lambeth Conference, joining Rev. Dr. Christina Beardsley along with three other transgender people on a panel called (appropriately enough, given the ongoing Anglican Communion “listening process”) “Listening to Transgender People.”

But this July, I will join several other members of TransEpiscopal in Anaheim; indeed, we are hoping that as many as eight of us will be present for part or all of the nearly two-week span. This is truly an unprecedented representation.

We come with such numbers this year to support an equally unprecedented number of transgender-related resolutions: four of them call on the Church to support transgender people both in its own life and in the civic arena. As we draw nearer to Convention, we will report more details on those resolutions, and on TransEpiscopal’s presence at GC.

In the meantime, from where I sit, two plus weeks from Convention’s start, I wonder how our presence will be received, not simply in person but in communications about the Convention. I wonder because it is not clear to me how, or even whether, those who write about the Episcopal Church – whether official Episcopal communicators, bloggers, or secular media representatives – will incorporate transgender people and concerns into well-entrenched narratives about the debates of the Episcopal Church.

Narrative is a particularly interesting lens through which to look at the Convention this year because GC is actively inculcating the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Public Narrative Project during its two weeks. What I wonder is how much this narrative project will interface with—perhaps offer insight into, complicate, or disrupt -- the already existing narratives about human sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular that have roiled the Anglican Communion for years now.

Meanwhile, the Episcopal Church itself is preparing for GC with a series of narratives about what is coming up. If your congregation included an insert about the Convention in its bulletin this Sunday, you may have noticed that nothing to do with sexuality was listed anywhere among the Convention’s work (at least, the one in our bulletin only briefly mentioned resolutions that seek to get "Beyond B033" and never actually used the word “sexuality”). As the Convention nears, my guess is that Episcopal communicators around the country will be under pressure to emphasize anything but Anglican Communion conflict over the Episcopal Church’s increasingly progressive consensus on human sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular.

On the other hand, I imagine the secular press may be keen to report exactly that aspect of the General Convention, and not always in the most thoughtful, nuanced manner. Which is, of course, why ecclesial communicators will be working hard to open the media’s eyes to the many other stories of Convention.

I admit that as an academic as well as a priest, I’m wary both of sound bites and of the avoidance of stories, especially of people, that need to be acknowledged. Narratives can have a way of overly smoothing rough edges. The truth is often complicated – sometimes more than words, or indeed narratives, can convey – but it’s worth trying to articulate, even if it takes time. And as a transgender man, I’m also highly aware of how sensationalistic and objectifying media (including new media) stories on trans-related topics can be (though I do think there have been major improvements over the last few years).

And so, as I look out over this emerging Episcopal intentionality about narrative, and as I take in the familiar, frustrating dynamic of stories about — and in avoidance of — the sexuality debates, I wonder how to productively incorporate transgender people into the mix. Will our work be completely overshadowed by the secular-ecclesial media cycle of endless, narrow focus on sexuality debates, on the one hand, and determined aversion to anything sexuality-related, on the other? Will we be patched into that narrative cycle, sensationalistically reported as the latest emblems of church schism? Will people truly listen to some of the amazing stories of faith and resilience, as well as of heartbreak, that we have been sharing with one another on our communal listserve since 2004? Will people listen as we seek to clarify how, as trans people, we are distinct from and yet also connected to what is at stake in the current sexuality debates?

We cannot simply add transgender to the same old stories. We must tell our stories anew.

But, you know, I look forward to the telling, because as wary as I can be of narrative, I also love it. I am, after all, a person “of the book” in more ways than one. And so I look forward to the give and take of listening and telling. I pray that the anxiety that has long accompanied our Anglican/Episcopal conflicts might not overwhelm us, trans or cisgender, that we might truly find ways to open our hearts to one another, and that the Spirit —whom the Gospel of John pointedly calls the Spirit of Truth — might blow us where it will, telling (and, as the hymn puts it, "singing") a new Church into being, and inspiring people beyond its borders.

Cameron Partridge

An Act of Faith: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights

Last evening, about a hundred people gathered at the Edwards Church in Northampton, MA for "An Act of Faith: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights." After the first Act of Faith in Newton, MA this past January, several leaders of faith in Western Massachusetts organized an event to bring together communities of faith there in support of trans civil rights. I was honored to be asked to speak at the event, along with Mycroft Masada Holmes, with whom I am a co-chair of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE). The evening featured speakers (sixteen in all) from a wide range of faith traditions-- Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Unitarian, Buddhist. The event was punctuated with exhortations, stories, song, prayers, and blessings. Below is an excerpt from my remarks:

This past November, my congregation, St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Allston/Brighton, MA, was honored to host Boston’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. We had been asked to do so because the murder of Rita Hester in 1998, which sparked this now international movement of remembrance, took place mere blocks from the church. I have always found it both moving and sobering to come together with the trans community every year on November 20th, but this time the experience was for me, as a transgender priest serving in that context, truly profound.

But the story I want to tell you tonight took place three years earlier, at a different juncture in my life.

When my partner and I decided to get married in 2005, we had already been together for twelve years. We had each come out in the lesbian community of our women’s college, and had come to the Boston area in 1995 for graduate school. Over the years, we went through a number of changes, not the least of which was my coming out as trans between the late ‘90s and the early years of this decade. Throughout this time, our community of faith-- Christ Episcopal Church in Somerville, MA-- was a tremendous source of support. And so when we decided to get married a few years after my transition from female to male, doing so at our church felt completely fitting. We wanted to get married in a context that recognized and celebrated our journey as much as our arrival at that particular point in time, even as we looked forward to journeys yet to come. Massachusetts’s then recent attainment of equal marriage—indeed, the first such legalization in the U.S.—created a yet more fitting context for acknowledging and celebrating our history, even though we would not be married as members of the same sex. With the day of the wedding nearing, the service and reception planned, the invitations long out, we went to the city hall of our town to apply for a marriage license.

In the time-honored tradition of people about to be married, we were nervous about any number of things that could go wrong, little or big. My slightly less generalized anxiety circled around the procurement of our marriage license: my secret fear was that the clerk at city hall might find some reason not to recognize me as legally male. And while I knew that if that happened, here alone in the U.S. (at that time) we could still have been legally married, the event would not have reflected the journey we had taken.

So there we stood at the clerk’s office counter, each of us in turn filling out the two required sheets of paper. Amid the various questions they might ask, I was concerned about one type of question, more common than one might think, that can come up and cause trans people difficulty in all sorts of contexts: "have you ever had another name, and if so what was it?" If a person has a former legal name that is unambiguously gendered, revealing that name can instantly expose your trans history -- perhaps even an aspect of your medical history -- in contexts where you have very little, if any, control over its reception and dissemination. As is so often the case, documents or decisions with huge impacts on the lives of trans people can be decided on the whim of someone behind a desk. If s/he is having a bad day, so might you, and then some.

After I finished filling out my half of the first form, I looked over my partner’s shoulder. With horror, I noted that she had written out my former first name. After she finished filling out her side of the sheet and we switched, I looked more closely at the form. But it asked “what are your parents names?” and what I had seen was her mom’s first name, which is the same as my old name. Sigh of relief.

So we finished filling out the forms and slid them across the counter to the clerk. She went down the list making sure we'd answered everything... and then, pointing to the “profession” line on my side of the form, she asked, "what does that say?" She had pinpointed the word next to “graduate student”, which I then read aloud: “priest.” "Then you can't get married," she responded. After a shocked pause, I explained that I am an Episcopal priest, not Roman Catholic, and that we can in fact get married. With evident annoyance, she took our paperwork to finish her part. The moment had felt teachable enough as it was, so I kept my thoughts to myself. But I will now report that at the very least, the following sequence flew through my head. Thought #1: you can't make this stuff up. Second thought: what was a city employee thinking telling me what my religion would or would not allow me to do? Third thought: being a married priest hadn't previously struck me as a particularly challenging concept-- at least, not in the context of my life. But hey, you never know.

The end of the story is that the license was issued and we went on to have a fantastic wedding. Our church community warmly and enthusiastically welcomed our friends and family from around the country. The service was beautiful. And although it was late October, with balmy seventy-degree weather the days before and, on the day itself, it snowed, just enough to dust the ground and wow our West Coast guests. As we gazed out the picture windows of our reception hall, beautiful fat snowflakes fluttered to the ground. Fittingly, it was a day out of time — a sacred, holy day.

This evening, too, is a holy one: a night in which we have come together to lift up a people who have traveled far and seen much, and who wish to be recognized as the people we are, the people we have been, and the people we are called to become. We come together to celebrate our humanity, both common and distinctive, blessed by unique opportunities but also regularly thwarted by challenges we should not have to face. We gather to galvanize one another and all those who care about peace and justice to do more to make the world a truly welcoming place for all of us. We must pass transgender civil rights legislation right here and right now. We should not have to worry about whether our identities or histories might prompt someone to deny us opportunities of livelihood-- whether in housing, credit, the workplace, schools, a hospital or a doctor’s office-- or even, as our litany of tragedy continued this week in Memphis-- of life itself. May we leave this gathering more committed than ever to doing our part, to supporting one another particularly in our faith communities, to make our world a place where all can be truly free to become the people we are called to become. Thank you.

Transgender Faith Leaders in Support of Inclusive Federal Hate Crimes Bill (HR1913)

Earlier this week I signed the following letter, written by Rev. Malcolm Himshoot, which was released this week during the National Transgender Lobby Day in Washington, D.C. You can also find it online here.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Dear Decision-maker,

We the under-signed support an inclusive federal hate crimes bill (HR 1913) because we think it is good for the community to take seriously crimes such as the brutal murder of Angie Zapata in Colorado this past year. Reflecting upon the past weeks of Allen Andrade's court trial, we are grateful for responsible investigators, prosecutors, and a jury who invalidated a harmful and re-victimizing "trans-panic" defense. No one is responsible for their own beating, bashing or killing. When some people are especially targeted for being different or for being queer, it makes sense that the community will act to especially protect them.

We wish that such a law could have protected Angie before her death. But in reality a great number of supports in a community are needed to reduce our vulnerability – namely, social and economic justice for all.

The `guilty' verdict reached in a court of law dignified, but could never repair, the value of Angie's life and the gravity of her loss. Yet, our experience in ministries that work toward nonviolent alternatives, reintegration and rehabilitation of offenders does not allow us to believe we can achieve safety by disposing of people behind bars. They are still with us. They are still part of us. We will be praying for the gay men and transgender inmates who face violence while they serve their time, who may even be serving their time in the same facilities as Allen Andrade. We will be praying for Allen as well, now cut off from the prospect of wholeness and reintegration with his community.

We who lead faith traditions hold to a story of justice that does not end with retribution, but rather with restoration. In the struggle against violence and deprivation, we applaud not only the work of the National Center for Transgender Equality to raise specific issues like hate crimes law, but also the work of Senator Webb (S.714) in raising a commission to address a general issue: criminal justice reform. It is high time.

We support legislation today that honors human dignity and possibility. Diversity is a fact of God's creation -- except for poverty, which is our own creation. Where there is personal or systemic hate and disregard, we urge lawmakers to respond. Not only with indignation but with moral imagination.

Sincerely,

•The Rev. Malcolm Himschoot (Commerce City, CO)
United Church of Christ

•Nicole Garcia (Louisville, CO)
Transgender Representative, Lutherans Concerned/North America

•Mr. Barb Greve (Hamden, CT)
Co-Founder, Transgender Religious Professional Unitarian Universalists Together

•Rabbi Levi Alter (Malibu, CA)
President, Female-To-Male International (Human Rights Gender Non-Discrimination Organization)

•The Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge (Allston, MA)
Priest, St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Co-Chair Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality, TransEpiscopal

•The Rev. Dr. Julie Nemecek (Spring Arbor, MI),
Co-Director of Michigan Equality

•Chris Paige (Philadelphia, PA)
Founder, TransFaith Online

•Seth Donovan (Denver, CO)
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Full Inclusion Committee

•The Rev. Sean Parker Dennison (Salt Lake City, UT)
South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society

•Barbara Satin (Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN)
Executive Council, United Church of Christ and Institute of Welcoming Resources and Faithworks Associate of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

•Noach Dzmura (Berkeley, CA)
Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity

•Senior Minister Carmarion D. Anderson (Dallas, TX)
Living Faith Covenant Church

•Minister Monica Joy Cross (Berkeley, CA)
Pacific School of Religion

•Angel Celeste Collie (Chapel Hill, NC)
Metropolitan Community Church

•Rabbi Elliot Kukla (San Francisco, CA)
•The Rev. Megan Rohrer (San Francisco, CA)
Director, The Welcome Ministry

•Richard Juang (Cambridge, MA)
Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality

•Rebecca Anne Allison, MD (Phoenix, AZ)
President-Elect, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, United Church of Christ

•The Rev. Pat Conover (Silver Spring, MD)
Minister, United Church of Christ
Steward, Seekers Church

•The Rev. Allyson Robinson (Gaithersburg, MD)
Associate Director of Diversity, Human Rights Campaign, Alliance of Baptists

•Jakob Hero (Berkeley, CA)
Pacific School of Religion

•Kate Bowman (Denver, CO)
Board Chair, The Gender Identity Center of Colorado

•The Rev. Vicky Kolakowski (Berkeley, CA)
New Spirit Community Church

•The Rev. Paul Langston-Daley (Glendale, AZ)
Minister, West Valley Unitarian Universalist Church

•The Rev. Michelle Hansen, S.T.M., M.Div. (Waterbury CT)
Episcopal Priest (Retired), TransEpiscopal, Treasurer and Moderator of the Twenty Club

•Aidan Dunn (San Francisco, CA)
Stanford University

•Joanne Herman (Boston, MA)
Old South Church, United Church of Christ

•The Rev. G Green (Kenosha, WI)
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

•Ari Lev Fornari (Boston, MA)
Rabbinical Student

•Diane DeLap (Wilmington, MA)
Co-Spokesperson, Affirmation: United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns

•The Rev. Sarah J. Flynn (Burlington, VT)
All Souls Ministry, American Catholic Church of New England

•The Rev. Dr. Erin K. Swenson (Atlanta, GA)
Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, Presbyterian Church, USA

•The Rev. Sky Anderson (San Jose, CA)
Minister of Community Life, M.C.C. (Metropolitan Community Church)

•The Rt. Rev. Dr. Lynn Elizabeth Walker (Brooklyn, NY)
Orthodox Catholic Church of America

•Kelli Anne Busey (Dallas, TX)
Metropolitan Community Church

•Dr. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott (Paterson, NJ)
Professor Emeritus at William Paterson University and founding memer of the Evangelical and Ecumenical Women's Caucus

•Mycroft Masada Holmes (Boston, MA)
Co-Chair, Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality
Chair, Keshet Transgender Working Group (TWiG)

•The Rev. Rik Fire (Warminster, PA)
Ecumenicon Fellowship

•The Rev. Laurie J. Auffant (Lowell, MA)
Unitarian Universalist Association

•Reuben Zellman (San Francisco, CA)

•Stephanie C. Battaglino (Cliffside Park, NJ)
Commissioner, The Oasis - the LGBTi Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ

•Donna M. Cartwright (Baltimore, MD)
TransEpiscopal

•Kate Bornstein (New York City, NY)
Buddhist

•Woody Camacho (San José, CA)
The Metropolitan Community Church of San José

•The Rev. Jay Wilson (San Fransisco, CA)
The Welcome Ministry & Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries

•Jeremiah Gold-Hopton (Atlanta, GA)
Worship Ministry, Northwest (Atlanta) UU Congregation

•Randall E. Klein (Walnut Creek, CA)
Founder, Light in the Closet Ministry, Hillside Covenant Church

•The Rev. Jake Kopmeier (St. Petersburg, FL)
King of Peace MCC

•Jake Nash (Cleveland, OH)
Minister of Worship, Emmanuel Fellowship Church
Executive Director, TranFamily of Cleveland

•Lauryn Farris (San Antonio, TX)
Lay Leader, United Church of Christ
President, San Antonio Gender Association

•Joni Christian (Kent, OH)
Visionary Kent UCC

•Elder Andrea' V. Boisseau AIS (Waltham, MA)
First Presbyterian Church Of Waltham

•Elder Sara Herwig (Waltham, MA)
First Presbyterian Church Of Waltham

•Elder Alanna Block-Butler (Waltham, MA)
First Presbyterian Church Of Waltham

•The Rev. Drew Phoenix (Baltimore, MD)
Ordained MInister, The United Methodist Church

Institutions are included for identification purposes only.

a Holy Trans Week

Earlier this week I got an email from the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) detailing "Transgender Rights Week in New England," an amazing confluence of events: in Connecticut today there was a Gender Identity and Expression Lobby Day in support of their non-discrimination bill; in Rhode Island this evening there was House Judiciary Committee hearing about their hate crime definition; tomorrow (April 8th) New Hampshire is possibly holding a second vote on its transgender non-discrimination bill. And at the State House in Boston MTPC held a rally in support of the Massachusetts non-discrimination bill, "An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes".

And as if the stars weren't already apparently aligning, Iowa's supreme court unanimously legalized equal marriage last Friday (April 3), and this morning, Vermont's legislature overrode it's governor's veto, making Vermont the latest state to claim equal marriage.

I arrived with fellow members of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality(ICTE) at 10am. What an amazing sight it was to emerge from the main stairs and see so many people gathered-- at least as many as last year, and likely more. MTPC has now put up a number of photos from the event (source of the photos in this piece).

I was honored to briefly speak as one of the co-Chairs of ICTE (the other being Mycroft Holmes) and to introduce two other clergy speakers, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin (photo, left) of Temple Israel in Brookline, and Rev. Will Green, Pastor of St. Nicholas United Methodist Church in Hull. I'm hoping to be able to reprint their remarks in the coming days. In the meantime, what struck me about Rabbi Stephanie's comments was her strong claim that the work we are all doing is holy work, and that the place in which we were standing was a holy place. Pastor Will (photo, below right) passionately underscored how supported we are in our struggle by communities of faith-- much more than we know.

In our own ways, each of us reflected our convictions that religious traditions and communities of faith *should not* be assumed to be anti-trans, despite the terrible reality that many transgender people have been betrayed by communities of faith. Nevertheless, some of our strongest wellsprings of support can, do, and should come from precisely communities of faith and the rich traditions they sustain.

One particularly firey speaker-- whom I had to follow directly (!)-- was the Honorable Byron Rushing, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He spoke of how we weren't gathered to gain the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, because we already have those rights. Massachusetts has failed to live up to its obligation to guarantee those rights, he said, for which the state has no excuse. We were there to hold the state to account. Amen!

We heard several speakers who shared stories of discrimination and extreme difficulty. One such story was told, haltingly, by Ken Garber, the father of a transgender son, CJ, who died a couple of months ago. I remember Mr. Garber speaking in support of his son at the hearing last Spring, and it was so devastating to hear of CJ's death. I attended this young man's funeral a couple of months ago, and my heart has been with the Garber family ever since. Even incredibly supportive parents cannot finally protect trans young people from the pervasive toll of the cruelties that lie outside a home's door.

As I look back on this incredibly long day, the overall pattern is of border walking, crossing in and out of contexts and communities that often misunderstand one another. As a clergy person at the trans lobby day-- and quite visibly clerical at that-- I felt like an emblem, a living, breathing progress report on how far religious traditions in general and my own in particular have come in their support of transgender people, and the distance they still have to travel. And so it was important to me to state quite clearly the truth for which the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality stands: that people and communities of many faiths support transgender people, and that transgender people come from and claim many faith traditions. I talked about how proud I am that my own diocese, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts passed a resolution in support of exactly what we were doing at the State House today. The audience interrupted me at that point to clap, which really moved me. I was reminded of moments at Trans Day of Remembrance and Diocesan Convention last November, when the intersections of my particular faith and gender journeys felt not only present but in some sense uplifted.

I then said that for Christians, this week is Holy Week, the most significant, and indeed holy, week of the entire liturgical year. And I said that, for me, being at the State House and doing what I was doing right then was a spiritual practice, a fitting complement to the several other spiritual practices of prayer and worship that I will be doing as this week continues. These practices are of a piece for me, I explained, because of the narrative that propels the events of Holy Week: the movement from bondage to freedom, from fear to hope, from death and despair to transformation and newness of life.

After the conclusion of the event, a parishioner and I made our way first to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul where a service of "the Blessing of the Holy Oils" was in progress, and then to the university department where I am teaching a one-on-one course ("Junior Tutorial") this semester. When we got to the cathedral, Bishop Tom Shaw was in the midst of his sermon, sitting in the central aisle. As we stepped into the cathedral, directly opposite him, he was in the middle of saying, "gay, lesbian, bisexual..." I felt like something of a transgender jack-in-the-box, with my "trans rights now" sticker still stuck to my lapel from the rally. I imagine Tom was saying something celebratory about the Vermont override, the announcement of which had elicited prolonged cheering during the rally.

The theme of the service was healing-- the various ministries of healing, lay and ordained, taken up by people throughout the diocese. There was a moment in the service when people in healing ministries were invited to come forward for the anointing of the palms of their hands. I walked forward with my parishioner, who recently started a queer, non-sectarian spirituality group at my church (called "BEND"). I loved seeing people with whom I work in the diocese in this context, in the middle of this intense week. And particularly after being at the rally, it felt good to walk across the Boston Common and into the cathedral. I felt both a sense of difference between how I spent my morning and how I imagine most people in the cathedral spent theirs, and a sense of affirmation that I was indeed walking from one holy space and activity to another.

From the cathedral, I made my way to a coffee shop, where I finished preparing for my class. Somewhere between the Statehouse and the classroom, I divested myself of both the "trans rights now" sticker and the clerical collar, aware of myself crossing into yet another communal space, this one academic. The course, "Thirty Years of Trans Studies" is a blast to teach, and also very much of a piece with the morning's activities.

What a day it was. And the holiness of the week continues.

Bay Windows on "An Act of Faith"

Today Boston LGBT paper Bay Windows published an article by Ethan Jacobs on last week's Interfaith Coalition for Trans Equality event "An Act of Faith." I'm pasting it below, and you can also find it here.

Faith leaders strategize for transgender rights at Newton forum
by Ethan Jacobs
staff reporter
Thursday Jan 29, 2009

Somerville state Rep. Denise Provost told attendees at a Jan. 21 forum organized by the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) that they could make a powerful case to lawmakers in favor of transgender rights by appealing to their faith. The forum, held at Hebrew College in Newton, was the first major event organized by ICTE, which is part of a coalition advocating for the passage of legislation this session to add trans-inclusive language to the state’s non-discrimination and hate crimes laws. Provost said she was moved to watch how warmly her own church, an Episcopal congregation, embraced a transgender man who had originally joined the congregation as a woman, and she said she believes stories like these can move her colleagues.

"In my message part of it has to be the story of how wonderfully easy it was and how beautiful it was to have a transgender person in our community of faith, and how not an issue it was when a female member of the congregation went away and came back as a male person, and all the church ladies in their seventies and eighties were happy and twittery and accepting," said Provost. The man in question, the Rev. Cameron Partridge, has since become a priest at St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Allston and is one of the founders of ICTE.

Provost, who was joined at the forum by the bill’s co-sponsor, Medford state Rep. Carl Sciortino, said people of faith have a particularly persuasive message to share in support of transgender rights.

"I’ve been thinking about our religion, all of Christianity, and the Old Testament, too, and it’s full of transformations. And God’s usually behind them," said Provost, prompting laughs from the crowd. "In the Old Testament you had sticks turning into snakes and disobedient women turning into pillars of salt, and you had a recalcitrant guy like Jonah turning into a prophet. And then you get to the New Testament and you’ve got water turning into wine and God turning into human form, and it’s so full of transformation. It makes sense to me, thinking about it, that the church ladies and the Sunday school should say, no big deal."

ICTE formed in 2007, and its goals and structure are similar to the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry (RCFM), an interfaith coalition that worked in support of marriage equality during the debates over same-sex marriage. One of RCFM’s core advocacy tools was a declaration of support for marriage equality signed by more than 1000 clergy, congregations and lay people from many faiths. ICTE is currently collecting signatures for its own declaration of support for the transgender rights bill, and currently more than 100 clergy, along with about 200 laypeople, have signed the declaration.

Rabbi Daniel Judson, a member of ICTE and a former member of RCFM, told attendees that the forum was an historic moment in the local campaign for transgender rights.

"As far as any of us can gather this is the first time in Massachusetts history that a group of people of faith have come together specifically around transgender issues. So this is that moment, this is that moment when things change," said Judson, an administrator at the Hebrew College Rabbinical School.

Several speakers at the forum shared their experiences as transgender people of faith. For many of them their faith has been a vital source of support. Sean Delmore, an ICTE member and candidate for ordination in the United Methodist Church, credited his church with helping him come out as a transgender man.

"As I was coming out as a transgender man through the fellowship and the love of one congregation, one community of faith, they really helped love me into being when I could not have the faith and trust to be myself," said Delmore. "Those private conversations, they helped me bring those out into a personal public being."

Matt O’Malley, political director for MassEquality, said that the transgender rights bill currently has 41 co-sponsors. Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), the lead organization in the coalition working to pass the transgender rights bill, is planning a lobby day for sometime this spring.

Judson told Bay Windows that ICTE has been reaching out to clergy across the state urging them to support the declaration in favor of the transgender rights bill. He said the group has framed its argument as a question of fairness and justice.

"We’re talking about this as a matter of rights, and we’re framing this to other clergy people that in some ways just as you supported equal marriage out of a conviction that it was the right thing to do, that people are created equal, so too in this case," said Judson. "They are people who are created equal, people who are deserving of rights. God creates all of us as equal and as who we are meant to be. It’s just simply saying allow people to be treated under the law equally."

RCFM attracted the support not only of rank-and-file clergy but of local religious leaders, including the Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), which has its national headquarters in Boston; the state’s three Episcopal bishops, Tom Shaw, Bud Cederholm, and Gayle Harris; and Rabbi Ronne Friedman, senior rabbi at Temple Israel Boston, New England’s largest Reform Jewish congregation. Judson said ICTE is working to win the support of the state’s religious leaders, and Friedman has already signed onto ICTE’s declaration.

Neither Sinkford nor the Episcopal bishops had signed the declaration as of the evening of the ICTE forum, but all signaled support for the legislation when contacted by Bay Windows. The Rev. Mally Lloyd, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, said she did not know whether ICTE had reached out to the bishops, but she said the diocese as a whole supports the passage of trans-inclusive non-discrimination and hate crimes legislation; last November the diocese’s annual convention passed a resolution supporting such legislation. Janet Hayes, spokesperson for the UUA, said she was not aware of any conversations between Sinkford and ICTE, but following Bay Windows’ inquiries Sinkford sent a letter to all Massachusetts UUA clergy Jan. 27 announcing the UUA’s support for ICTE’s declaration and urging all clergy to add their names to the declaration.

Judson said he believes the voices of people of faith will be essential to winning over support for the transgender rights bill in the legislature, as it was during the marriage debate.

"What we discovered during the struggle over marriage equality was that, lo and behold, the religious voice was really needed because the folks who were saying they were opposed were often doing it on religious grounds," said Judson.


Ethan Jacobs can be reached at ejacobs@baywindows.com