​TransEpiscopal celebrates the successful conclusion of #GC80 and gives thanks for the inspiring work of this Convention. All of the resolutions we came to Baltimore supporting ultimately passed both houses, becoming acts of this Convention, and we are both grateful for and proud of all the effort and allyship that contributed to that outcome. This includes the following five resolutions on which we particularly focused:

• D029 Affirming Nonbinary Access and Leadership
• D030 Develop Resources and Training for Welcoming and Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Persons and Families
• D066 Addressing Restrictions on Access to Gender Affirming Care
• D072 Resolution on Gender and Sexuality Training
• A063 Creation of a Director of LGBTQI and Women’s Ministries

 
We are moved that all of these resolutions passed in the context of a Convention that actively extended the crucial work of racial justice, truth telling, and reparations through resolutions, presentations, and testimony. These included A125 (“A Resolution Extending and Furthering the Beloved Community”), which establishes and funds a voluntary Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice among dioceses and congregations. Another key resolution, A127 (“Resolution for Telling the Truth about The Episcopal Church's History with Indigenous Boarding Schools”) sets aside funds over the next biennium for investigating The Episcopal Church’s role in Indigenous boarding schools. We heard powerful testimony on the first day of Convention from Indigenous Episcopalians who themselves or whose family members experienced horrible denials of their personhood in boarding school and other racist, anti-indigenous ecclesial settings. We appreciate as well that resolution A126 (“A Resolution Supporting a Comprehensive Review of the Book Of Common Prayer, The Hymnal 1982, and other approved liturgical material”), proposed by Committee 12 (Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music), commits the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to thoroughly review all of The Episcopal Church’s approved liturgical and musical sources for colonialist, racist and white supremacist, imperialist and nationalistic language and content.
 
Speaking of liturgical resolutions, we were very pleased that this Convention ultimately voted to support A059 (“Amend Article X of the Constitution of The Episcopal Church (First Reading)”) the pathway proposed by the Task Force on Liturgical and Prayer Book Revision (TFLPBR) for liturgical renewal, broadening the definition of the Book of Common Prayer to mean “those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention.” This new process will allow for the development of liturgies with inclusive and expansive language as well as liturgical marriage equality to receive authorization as part of the BCP, and not be designated as “second class” rites within The Episcopal Church. We are very glad that the TFLPBR-sponsored resolution A060 (“Endorse Guidance for Inclusive and Expansive Language”), which lifted up concerns about binary language in liturgical texts, also passed.
 
Among the resolutions on which we focused our advocacy, we were especially gratified that the House of Deputies concurred with the bishops on resolution A063. We very much look forward to the hiring of the Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries, and we would love to be part of a community that can gather around this person, supporting and dialoguing with them as they make their way into this important work. 
 
We were inspired by the eloquence of those who spoke in support of this resolution, especially in the House of Deputies. As time ran out in debate, there were others who did not have the chance to speak, like the Reverend Isaac Martinez of the Diocese of Massachusetts. He shared his testimony in a series of Tweets. His witness poignantly speaks to the need for this position:
 
As an Episcopal church planter, my embryonic ministry has been blessed to have professional and prayerful leaders in the office of church planting and redevelopment. This resolution and the draft budget accomplish what other General Conventions before us have failed to do. It provides real and valuable support, in the form of a new DFMS staff position, for the vital and interdependent ministries of combatting the lingering sexism and misogyny in our church and ensuring that every corner of our church fully includes queer and trans people. Yesterday, our Presiding Bishop gave us a good word about closing the gap between the Jesus we know and how we act. The gap isn’t just a product of other Christians’ belief and behavior – we Episcopalians still have a wide gap between what we preach and what we practice when it comes to inclusion and equality for women and queer and trans people. Closing the gap will take clear vision, strong trust, and good, hard work.
            The Gospel reading for last Sunday from Luke chapter 10 – the sending of the 70 disciples into the Lord’s harvest – is a favorite of church planters for obvious reasons, but it has a verse that I particularly love to remind my bishops and canons about: ‘the laborer deserves to be paid.’ My siblings in Christ, the labor of equipping each Episcopalian to fully celebrate the image of God in women and queer and trans people finally deserves the investment of a churchwide director. Without a shadow of a doubt, I know this resolution will bear fruit for my QTPOC church plant and for all of our dioceses, congregations, and ministries – I urge your full support.
 
Thank you, Isaac. 
 
As we close out the 80th General Convention, we give thanks for the many whose labor, both seen and unseen, shapes our church. We celebrate the historic election of Julia Ayala Harris, the House of Deputies' first Latina President, and the Reverend Rachel Taber-Hamilton, the HOD's first Indigenous Vice President. We honor all who offer themselves to serve in the committees, task forces, advisory councils, boards, and yes as deputies. Today we celebrate, and tomorrow we will go back to work committed to walking the way of love. 

​TransEpiscopal celebrates the passage of resolutions D030 and D072, which address the urgent need for gathering and developing faith-rooted training and formation resources, and equipping people across the church, particularly at the congregational level, to engage this formation.
 
As we reported in our overview post on our strategic focus at this General Convention, we came into #GC80 with an emphasis on developing, collecting and equipping the church to do training and formation in support of trans and non-binary members and our families at all levels of the church, particularly the congregational level. Resolutions D030 and D072 respectively support faith-rooted formational and secular training resources to be gathered and/or developed – with staff support (see A063) from the Church Center. 
 
A number of people testified at hearings in support of both D030 and D072 at Committee 14 (Christian Formation and Discipleship). D030 received a hearing in May at which a number of people spoke in support. One was a member of the General Convention’s official youth presence from the Diocese of Dallas who is gender fluid. This was their first time testifying at a legislative hearing, and they did a fantastic job! We also heard testimony from several members of the TransEpiscopal Steering Committee including AJ Buckley from the Diocese of Oregon, Kit Wang of the Diocese of Maine, Rowan Larsen of the Diocese of Massachusetts, and Iain Stanford, Cameron Partridge, and Sarah Lawton of the Diocese of California. In June when Committee 14 held another open hearing, a number of these same people again testified in support of D072, joined by additional supporters, including LGBTQ Caucus leaders Charles Graves and the sponsor of D072, Jan Grinnell. 
 
Committee 14 received all of us warmly and strongly supported these resolutions. They recommended them unanimously to be put on the Convention’s consent calendar and shifted to the budget request amount for D030 from $30,000 to $50,000. Unfortunately, the proposed budget did not include this or any other funding for LGBTQ resolutions with the exception of A063, the staff position for LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries which was funded at $300,000.
 
Our hope is that even though unfunded, these resolutions can be supported by the staff position, should the House of Deputies concur with the small amendments that the House of Bishops made to A063 this morning. 
 
We thank all who made the passage of D030 and D072 possible, from their proposers and endorsers, to all who testified in the resolutions’ support, to the members of Committee 14 who made clear to all of us that they believe strongly in the urgent need for this work.

TransEpiscopal celebrates the passage of D066 “Addressing restrictions on access to gender affirming care” by both houses of General Convention making it an official act of the Convention. This resolution, proposed by Deputy Evangeline Warren of the Diocese of Ohio, expresses The Episcopal Church’s baptismal call to honor the dignity of trans and non-binary people, made in God’s image, by advocating for our access to gender affirming care “in all forms (social, medical, or any other) and at all ages.” We thank Deputy Warren and all who spoke in favor of the resolution not only on the floor of the Houses of Deputies and Bishops but also last month when it was heard by Legislative Committee Eight (Social Justice and United States Policy). 
 
In the current political climate, the trans and non-binary community is being targeted. In 2021, there were over 290 anti LGBTIQ bills introduced in various states across the county, twenty-five of which became law. Eight of those laws targeted trans and non-binary people. 2022 is on track to surpass this number.
 
Much of this legislation is aimed specifically at trans and nonbinary youth. For example, Texas Governor Greg Abbot in late February directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents for child abuse who supported gender affirming care to their trans and non-binary children. While Texas courts have issued restraining orders on these investigations, it is far from clear that trans and non-binary youth will have access to care.
 
At the committee hearing for D066, several people testified in support, including trans and non-binary people and our family and friends. Molly Wills Carnes, who lives in Texas, offered testimony as the parent of a trans daughter:
 
Even growing up in an affirming household, by the time our daughter was a teenager and still living as a boy, she was depressed, anxious, and finally suicidal.  Experiencing the wrong puberty often triggers suicide so access to gender care for minors is critical. After coming out as transgender, the healthcare she received saved her life. The results have been lifechanging for our family. I didn’t know how much of my child I hadn’t met yet. She has blossomed into a person with a peace in her countenance and a light in her eyes we haven’t since very early childhood. She is hopeful. She is funny. She is ambitious. She is kind.  
 
The Very Rev. Amy McCreath, Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, testified as the parent of a trans son: 
 
As a parent, I come to you as the mother of a transgender young adult, who began his gender affirmation process in middle school. Although I have long sought to be an ally to LBGTQ youth, until MY child was wrestling for a blessing from laws and insurance policies restricting the age at which he could access various forms of medical care, I had no idea of the power of the forces threatening their emotional and physical health. Like most transgender youth, my son experienced extreme dysphoria - a feeling of being ill at ease in one’s body, and anxiety so strong that it led to periods of suicidality. …
 
Thanks be to God we were able to get him the psychiatric and medical care he needed to make a transition, and his belovedness was affirmed when his new name was blessed using an authorized liturgy from our Book of Occasional Services.
 
We thank The Episcopal Church for standing up for gender affirming care, especially when many of the voices who speak against such care do so as people of faith. 

​TransEpiscopal thanks the House of Deputies for its vote today in support of A063 “Create a Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries.” We very much appreciate the powerful testimony from the deputies today, as well as the work of many over these last months to support this resolution. Thank you! 
 
As the resolution moves to the House of Bishops we wanted to reiterate why this resolution is urgently needed. As Deputy Tieran Sweeney Bender of the Diocese of Olympia shared so eloquently, The Episcopal Church has “done important work in support of women and LGBTQ people at past conventions,” including many resolutions TransEpiscopal has supported, listed here. “Yet these important past resolutions can only go so far. In the face of systematic attacks on the right to bodily autonomy and attacks on queer and trans people, especially trans kids and youth, we must add to the important statements we have made and take action.” 
 
Action is needed now that can represent the best of The Episcopal Church’s commitment to stand in solidarity with women and LGBTQ people. As Deputy Cynthia Black of the Diocese of Newark said in her testimony, which Susan Russell has quoted in a blog post: “Here’s the deal with this resolution. It may not be the ultimate in perfection. But the time is NOW. It has been now for a long time, but it is especially time NOW as women’s and LGBTQ rights are at risk.” 
 
TransEpiscopal is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff and a bare bones budget. We are asked on a weekly basis to assist individuals, congregations, dioceses in everything from training to pastoral care. Outside the church we advocate against the many laws limiting civil rights and bodily autonomy. While all that we do is a labor of love and solidarity, we cannot keep up with the ever-growing need. We need staff support from our church. Not to do everything, but a point person who can help us gather in a network of people to develop resources that are faith-rooted, multilingual, and culturally appropriate for our diverse
communities. We need help connecting with people across various networks and organizations within the church so that we can address issues of gender equity, civil rights, and health care access in a coherent and systemic manner. This position can stand alongside various volunteer networks—not just ours – supplementing and assisting their goals, not supplanting them.
 
This position may not do everything that everyone would want, nor is it a finished job description – indeed, it is not the work of General Convention to perfect job descriptions. A063 represents a first step in supporting the church in the work it is called to do. It is funded in the proposed budget. The church has long needed such a position, and urgently needs one in this moment.
 
In the words of 2 Corinthians: now is the acceptable time (6:2).
 
We urge the House of Bishops to concur on A063 “Create a Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries.” 

​TransEpiscopal joins its voice with the LGBTQ Caucus in congratulating Julia Ayala Harris on her historic election as President of the House of Deputies. President-elect Ayala Harris, a first generation Mexican American, will be the first Latina to serve in this role and the first deputy of color to serve as President since Charles Lawrence who served from 1976-1985. Her election also marks an important generational shift in the leadership of the Episcopal Church, made possible, as President Jennings emphasized in her sermon this morning, by the fact that this role has finally become a compensated position. In candidate forums leading up to today’s vote, President-elect Ayala Harris spoke strongly of her commitment to being an ally to the LGBTIQ community. We ourselves experienced that allyship when several members of TransEpiscopal’s steering committee presented at the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council last January. We look forward to working with her in the years to come, as the Episcopal Church takes up the work ahead of it to fully support trans and non-binary people at all levels of the Church’s life. 

​TransEpiscopal strongly supports A063 as substituted by Committee 16 that creates a funded, full-time position at the Episcopal Church Center: “Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries.” As Episcopal News Service reported last week, a line for that position has been included in the budget voted on by the Committee on Budget, Program and Finance at $300,000 over the coming biennium. This position will bring much needed support to LGBTIQ and women’s ministries and programs in a systemic and coherent manner as they seek equity for women and other gender and sexual minorities.
 
We want to emphasize: this is an historic moment. To our knowledge, never before has any position at the Church Center been charged specifically with supporting the ministries of and with LGBTIQ people. There haspreviously been a Director of an Office of Women’s Ministries, a position that was cut in 2009 and has not been restored since, despite an unfunded resolution that passed General Convention in 2015, Establish a Women’s Ministries Staff Position, 2015-A032, proposed by the 2012-2015 Executive Council Committee on the Status of Women (a committee that no longer exists). We are also aware that educational resources supporting and equipping congregations to embrace LGB and especially trans and non-binary people have also not historically been funded (e.g., 2018-C054 and 2018-C022). In fact, this year both D030 and D072 also have budgetary implications and are on the consent calendar but have not been funded. 
 
Deputies Cameron Partridge and Sarah Lawton (California; Steering Committee members of TransEpiscopal; members of Legislative Committees 16 and 9 respectively) collaborated closely with Deputies Laura Russell (Newark; Chair of the 2018-2021 Task Force to Study Sexism in TEC & Develop Anti-Sexism Training, which proposed the original A063, and Chair of Committee 7) and Devon Anderson (Minnesota; Chair of Legislative Committee 16) to construct this new staff position and advocate for it through the budget process. We thank all who listened supportively to our testimony in Committee 14 (where a similar resolution D096 was sent). We particularly thank Devon, who supported A063 as a substitute in Committee 16 when it became clear Committee 14 was taking a different strategic approach to D096 and would not put it forward at this Convention. 
 
We celebrate this opportunity for the Church to approach the equipping of LGBTIQ and women’s ministries in an intersectional way, especially in a time when the civil rights and health access of both groups are under attack, particularly in terms of bodily autonomy. We also see this position as supportive of the crucial work of racial equity across our church, and one of the key reasons we need a staffed position for this work is to have someone who is focused on and accountable in creating and gathering, in cooperation with communities that have this knowledge, resources that are multilingual and culturally appropriate for the many cultures and peoples who are part of the Episcopal Church. 
 
To be sure, we would have loved to see two positions in this budget—one focused on women’s ministries and the other, in connected ways, supporting LGBTIQ ministries. But, as the ENS article underscored, the addition of this one staff position is a very big deal: “Executive Council’s draft budget had recommended freezing churchwide staff positions at 152 [but] the Program, Budget and Finance committee made one exception in its proposed spending plan, to add the position of women’s and LGBTQ+ ministries director.” 
 
We look forward to the hiring of this position and welcome a strongly intersectional community of support to gather around whoever is called to this crucial ministry. Thank you, again, to all who have supported our communities in this historic opportunity. 

​TransEpiscopal eagerly anticipates the 80th General Convention in Baltimore, shortened though the convention is in response to the pandemic. This is our sixth consecutive General Convention, with Donna Cartwright having represented us at our first in 2006. Summaries of our previous General Convention efforts can be found here: 2009, 2012, 2015, 2018. Stories from these efforts as they unfolded can be found on this blog, a multi-voiced archive of our ongoing collective endeavor together with many allies toward the full embrace of trans and non-binary people in and through The Episcopal Church. 
 
We come into #GC80 with a sense of urgency about formation and training for support and advocacy in congregations, particularly amid the wave of anti-trans, trans-misogynistic legislation that has been growing across the United States, increasingly targeting trans girls and non-binary youth and their families. For years members of our community have lifted up the importance of education in support of trans and non-binary members at all levels of the church, from churchwide to diocesan structures, from seminaries to congregations. This year, resolutions D030 and D072 seek funding to support faith-rooted formational resources to be gathered, developed, and staffed by the Church Center. We have testified in support of both resolutions and are glad they have been added to the consent calendar. Resolution A063, as substituted by Committee 16, would add a staff position to the Church Center, “Director of LGBTIQ and Women’s Ministries,” to support training, leader networking and data collection. It, too, has been added to the consent calendar. Never has there been a staff position that directly supported LGBTIQ ministries in this church, and we are thrilled that it has been added to the proposed budget with full funding.
 
Responding to that anti-trans legislative wave is also energizing our support of D066 “Addressing Restrictions on Access to Gender Affirming Care.” Several of us who are trans or non-binary, as well as several of us who are parents or other family members of trans and non-binary people testified in its support. We will share some of that testimony in a forthcoming blog post.
 
And because non-binary people continue to struggle with discrimination within the Episcopal Church, we strongly support D029 “Affirming Non-Binary Access and Leadership” which underlines that the language of our nondiscrimination canons does indeed include people with non-binary genders, and not only those who are male or female. 
 
In this curtailed General Convention, we have been hard at work, and we are pressing forward to complete the work before us in Baltimore.