TransEpiscopal adds our voice to those (including fellow Episcopalians) who stand against the strategic attempt by the Trump administration, which emerged earlier this week, to sharply narrow the federal definition of sex (and of “sex discrimination”) under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The proposal limits the definition to “a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.” This position flies in the face of the reality that sex/gender is biologically as well as socially and culturally complex. It also undermines and perpetuates our community’s lived reality of discrimination and oppression. We consider our complexity a gift to be celebrated and embraced, not a threat to be denied, stigmatized, and eradicated. 
 
At its highest levels, the Episcopal Church has affirmed trans/nonbinary people as made in the image of God. The Church has affirmed our presence and our leadership, lay and ordained alike, at all of its levels. Because we know that laws and policies that define and administer gender can facilitate or undermine our lives in very real ways, the Episcopal Church has been working at the churchwide level for over a decade to open the Church’s own canons and policies. The Church took further steps in that work at its triennial General Convention this summer, and our work continues. 
 
Should it be fully realized, the Trump administration’s proposal could have serious and far-reaching implications for trans and/or nonbinary, intersex and broadly gender non-conforming people in access to health care, education, housing, employment, travel, public accommodations, and basic safety. Its most detrimental impact could be felt by people who experience transphobia combined with racism, misogyny, xenophobia, classism, and/or ableism. We think of how this news has emerged in a week when President Trump has also been vilifying a group of migrants making their way north to seek asylum, having been displaced by dangerous situations in Honduras and Guatemala. As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches next month, we grieve the disproportionate loss of far too many transgender women of color, including Roxana Hernandez who died in May while in the custody of ICE. We are mindful of the trans/nonbinary community in Massachusetts whose protected access to public accommodations is being put to a statewide vote next week (please vote #YesOn3). We deplore the exploitation of various marginalized groups as wedge issues to stoke fear and hate. We stand with all who are oppressed and used for political gain. No one can erase our basic humanity. No one can define us out of existence. Our light cannot be put out. As the queer slogan declares, we are everywhere. 
 
In the Acts of the Apostles, an angry mob in Thessalonica, reacting to the ministry and teaching of Paul and Silas, declared, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also” (Acts 17:6). The Good News they were proclaiming declared the casting down of the mighty from their thrones, the uplifting of the lowly, the release of captives, the freeing of the oppressed, the recovery of vision. Then and now, this vision threatens to turn the world of those at the center power upside down. As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus Christ in this work. God calls all of us together, across lines of identity and embodiment to be a transformative people, to join in manifesting God’s vision for the world (basilea), the divine dream of justice poured out and peace that passes all understanding. 
 
All of us are called to stand up in concrete ways for trans/non binary people, and indeed for all who are struggling against structural injustice and oppression. In this election season, where we can stand against direct efforts to undermine us, please do: vote, and do whatever you can to resist voter suppression. At your places of employment, in your cities and towns, in your congregations, make sure your trans/nonbinary neighbors have a voice. Reach out to one another, refuse isolation or attempts to pit us against one another, and build or strengthen relationships. Join in what our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has called the Way of Love.
 
#WontBeErased #TransformTheVote #YesOn3 #WayofLove

One of the resolutions that TransEpiscopal was particularly following at the 79th General Convention was A064 “Authorize the Book of Occasional Services, 2018” which included “A Service of Renaming.” As explained in this post from 2015, the 78th General Convention had called for the inclusion of such a service in the Book of Occasional Services (BOS) in resolution 2015-D036. Although some renaming rites already existed (including in the resource Changes: Prayers and Services Honoring Rites of Passage, Justin Tanis’ recently re-released book Transgender: Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith, and now also in Christina Beardsley and Chris Dowd’s book Transfaith: a Transgender Pastoral Resource) nothing was specifically authorized for use throughout the Episcopal Church as services in the Book of Occasional Services are. 
 
Convergences and Differences: Renaming in The Episcopal Church and the Church of England 
 
At the 2015 General Convention we noted that this call for an official renaming service marked an important convergence with the Church of England. (The Episcopal Church has its roots in the Church of England and continues to be connected to it and other churches of the Anglican Communion through four “instruments of communion” but decisions in the Church of England do not bind the Episcopal Church.) In 2015 the C of E’s General Synod was slated to hear “the Blackburn Motion” calling for the creation of a rite to welcome transgender people in congregations by liturgically honoring their name changes and transitions. During the 78th General Convention the Reverend Dr. Christina Beardsley wrote a post for this blog about the then-upcoming C of E vote. In it she asked, “Will the General Synod have the courage to invite the House of Bishops to explore and commend forms of prayer for Church of England parishes that wish to celebrate with and affirm their transgender congregants and parishioners?” 
 
The answer was yes: In July of 2017 the General Synod overwhelmingly passed this motion by a combined vote of 284-78 (here is an overview article and here is a detailed account of the proceedings, including an attempted amendment).
 
Unfortunately, that overwhelming yes did not mandate the creation of the service. In accordance with Church of England rules on the creation of official liturgies, the General Synod asked the House of Bishops to authorize the creation of this service by the Liturgical Commission. Disappointingly, this past January news came out that the recently formed Delegation Committee of the House of Bishops had declined to do so. They officially commented in this statement, released January 23, 2018, “On the matter of whether a new service is needed, the House of Bishops has decided that the current service that is used to affirm baptism can be adapted. Clergy always have the discretion to compose and say prayers with people as they see fit." Trans people in the Church of England were deeply disappointed by this decision, as Dr. Beardsley responded in this op ed for Church Times. "It is simply not good enough for the Church to claim that it is welcoming when it clearly isn’t," Dr. Beardsley wrote. "If the Church really wants to be a welcoming place for trans people then it has to be prepared to learn and to change."

Given this turn of events-- and given the Episcopal Church’s own call to continue turning, learning and changing-- the approval of a name change rite in the Book of Occasional Services took on added significance. 
 
The Book of Occasional Services
 
Originally published in 1980 shortly after the then-new 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the BOS is, as the proposed 2018 volume described, “a collection of liturgical resources related to occasions which do not occur with sufficient frequency to warrant their inclusion in The Book of Common Prayer.” Intended as “a companion volume to The Book of Common Prayer,” its rites “are to be understood, interpreted, and used in light of the theology, structure, and directions of The Book of Common Prayer.” The most recent revision of the BOS is from 2003. The current proposed BOS revision was first authorized in 2012 and continued in 2015. You can find the mandate for and description of that revision process on pp. 153-158 of the 2018 SCLM Blue Book report, Vol. 1.
 
As part of this revision over this past triennium and, again, specifically in response to 2015-D036, a subcommittee of the SCLM created a new naming rite. This subcommittee drew on already existing resources (including the rites in Changes and Tanis’ book mentioned above) while also drafting new language. The SCLM gestures toward this subcommittee’s work in the conclusion of its introductory/overview essay here.
 
General Convention on the Renaming Service
 
As things unfolded at the 79th General Convention, Committee 12 on Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music decided that part of the BOS was ready to be released to the wider Church while other part of it was not. Episcopal News Service reported on this development here. Rather than hold the whole project back until 2021, they created two new resolutions, one of which (A218) released a large chunk of the BOS to the Church and the other of which (A219) sent the rest back to the SCLM for further work. The Renaming Rite was included in the approved chunk, so it has been approved for use throughout the Church by the General Convention. Once the whole BOS is completed and approved (presumably as of the 80th General Convention in 2021) it will be published in a physical, bound format. In the meantime, the released portions, including the renaming service, are to be made available in a digital format, as this article explains. For now, you can find the service itself in this supplement to the SCLM Blue Book report here (please note: the pages are not numbered). When the new digital format is released we will share that link as well.
 
Bottom line: the Episcopal Church now has an official renaming rite available for use across the church.  Thanks be to God!

On this final day of the 79thGeneral Convention TransEpiscopal has so much to celebrate. Everything we came to this convention supporting has passed, and more. We had many connecting conversations with people from across the church, and we also felt the support of the wider church in various ways even when we didn’t have direct conversations. It really felt like the church had our back. We felt it at the Revival on Saturday when the Presiding Bishop said “my brothers, my sisters, my siblings.” We felt it in testimony, especially on the floor of the House of Deputies. We felt it in resolutions where trans and nonbinary concerns got added to resolutions in committee, at times when we weren’t even aware of it. We may yet discover more legislation impacting us in specific ways among the record number of resolutions passed this convention. At over 500 resolutions, this convention dealt with the largest such number in its history, and while we did our best to go through all of them, the lack of a keyword search function on the General Convention website meant that we probably missed some. But several that we discovered along the way join with others we were advocating for, making the gains at this Convention arguably the most significant we have ever experienced.

Nondiscrimination Canons Augmented and Extended to Employment

Early in this convention we became aware of resolution A091. It sought to take the nondiscrimination categories, including ‘gender identity and expression’ whose addition we supported and celebrated in 2012, and to apply them to clergy appointment and hiring processes. We were disappointed when this resolution did not make it out of Committee #15 on Ministry. But then later we learned that a similar resolution had been assigned to Committee #2 on Constitution and Canons. It was not only similar, it was stronger. It had also made it out of committee. In fact, when we learned about it, it had already passed the House of Bishops (we don’t know if it was discussed or if it passed on their consent calendar). It was resolution A284 (originally D026), sponsored by the Reverend Beth Scriven. As of last night it was on the consent calendar, but this morning it was removed along with several other resolutions, forcing it to come up for a floor vote. We scrambled in the midst of packing to help alert folks to please testify in support and were elated when it passed.

A284 does several things:

• It addresses two places in the canons, the “Rights of the Laity” Canon, I.17.5, and Canon III.1.2. The latter canon (previously only) addressed access to the discernment process toward ordination.

• In both canons it adds to the list of protected categories, specifically “family status (including pregnancy and child care plans).”

• To both Canon I.17.5 and Canon III.1.2 A284 adds the context of employment. In the latter canon the existing language that read “No person shall be denied access to the discernment process” now also has “or to any process for the employment, licensing, calling, or deployment.” The canon’s final sentence also has some slight additions: “No right to employment, licensing, ordination, call, deployment, or election is hereby established.”

This resolution was inspired in important ways by the #MeToo movement as it has been playing out in the Church. Testimony in its support included stories of how in interviews women have been asked questions that men are typically not – questions about family, children, pregnancy, and child care plans. We have heard testimony at this convention about how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or trans and nonbinary people have been asked additional questions about their relationship status, or have been let go from their positions once they have come out or begun transition. Earlier this week our own steering committee member and newly elected President of the Episcopal Rainbow The Reverend Gwen Fry, shared her story of losing her rector position in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas in the wake of her coming out as trans. We recommend reading it here in the Issues blog of the Consultation (the peace and justice coalition of which TransEpiscopal is a member). This Convention has also devoted considerable energy to the work of dismantling racism and renewing the Church's commitment to that work. Sexism, racism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia -- all of these forms of oppression in all their permutations and intersections need to be dismantled. Our communal life together, embracing difference, is poised for renewal. This resolution makes an important new statement about our commitment to this process as a Church.

Studies of Employment, Compensation, and Career Development

D069 calls for the gathering of statistical information and stories about employment and compensation for LGBTQ clergy. Today the House of Deputies voted to concur with the Bishops who had passed it earlier this week (again, we don’t know if there was discussion or if it passed on their consent calendar). We were glad to connect with the statistician of the Church Pension Group Matthew Price along the way about the possibility of it becoming a report like one he worked on a decade ago, “Called to Serve.” Deputies the Reverend Vanessa Stickler-Glass and the Reverend M.E. Eccles, its respective sponsor and endorsers, spoke powerfully and movingly in its support this morning.

We had contributed to the construction of D069 and were glad to observe the passage of its sibling resolution – its inspiration, in fact – D005. It called for similar statistical information to be gathered on the basis of race and ethnicity. As we embrace difference across axes of oppression in the church, we need to take stock of where bias persists and gaps remain. Another resolution we learned about late in the game was A143. It acknowledges “that there has not been adequate investment in the career development of women, transgender, non-binary, and racial/ethnic minority clergy at multiple levels” and “that an appropriate interim body be assigned the task to study these concerns and make a report, including analysis and recommendation for improvements, to the 80th General Convention.” We very much appreciate our inclusion in this resolution and we look forward to being among those contributing to this study, and collaborating on its recommendations and outcomes.

Name Changes, Liturgy, Access and Advocacy

C022 Originating from the Diocese of California, this resolution calls upon Episcopalians to “support legislative, educational, pastoral, liturgical, and broader communal efforts that seek to end the pattern of violence against transgender people in general and transgender women in particular, calling attention especially to the rising violence against transgender women of color and gender non-conforming people.” It further calls congregations “to remove barriers to full participation in congregational life by making their gender-specific facilities and activities fully accessible to all, regardless of gender identity and expression.”

C054 Originating from the Diocese of Virginia and Province III, this resolution asks the Church to work with the Office of Formation in partnership with organizations such as Integrity (now the Episcopal Rainbow) and TransEpiscopal to establish “Guiding Principles for the Inclusion of Transgender and Non-Binary People in Dioceses, Parishes, Missions, Schools and Camps.”

A088 This resolution affirms trans and nonbinary people, as well as cisgender people in various life circumstances, in our ability to have our names and gender markers amended in Church records and to have certificates such as baptism and ordination reissued. The guidelines for doing so could be out as early as this year, or no later than the end of 2019.

A064 As of this writing we are aware that the Name Change Rite in the Book of Occasional Services is among a portion of that book slated to be released to the wider church soon, while other portions of that book receive additional attention.

A068 Prayer Book Revision ended up passing in a significantly modified form. A task force is slated to be created to begin that process, though it will receive significantly less funding than had originally been indicated. Gender expansive and inclusive language received more attention at this Convention than we have ever heard before, and it is clear that such language is a priority heading into this triennium.

B012 As we have reported in previous posts, the 79th General Convention took an important step forward in ensuring that sacramental marriage equality is accessible across the whole church. Several TransEpiscopal members testified at this Convention in its support.

The passage of these resolutions truly sends us out from the 79th General Convention with a sense of elation. We are all making our way forward together in what Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has called the Way of Love.

The Reverend Cameron Partridge, Diocese of California and TransEpiscopal Steering Committee Member

Earlier this week it was a hard couple of days in the hearing rooms of Committee 13 (idiosyncratically titled “Committee to Receive the Report of Resolution A169”). This committee was charged with hearing a range of topics from comprehensive prayer book revision (A068)  to more narrow resolutions on marriage rites and their availability to all couples (A085, B012), including same sex couples. The committee considered how the various resolutions might or might not operate together. 
 
On Thursday, July 5th, the committee had open hearings on two resolutions. First, A085, designed to add the two marriage rites available to all couples to the Book of Common Prayer, and to require all bishops to make the rites available with “reasonable and convenient access.” Second, B012, designed to continue to allow access to the marriage rites under the official banner of “trial use” but also leave open the possibility for diocesan bishops to prohibit their use within their diocese while providing an alternative access point for same sex couples. Over the last triennium the vast majority of the church has been able to access these rites, but in the case of eight dioceses, bishops have prohibited their use. 
 
In the hearings, trans Episcopalians brought unique perspectives to the table, highlighting the absurdly implicit focus on body parts that often pervades opposition to marriage equality. My own testimony revisited a point (and blog post) I made at the 2015 General Convention. I asked the committee to consider the contradiction embodied in my life. For the first 46 years of my life, the church happily would have allowed me access to marriage with a man, while denying me access to marriage with a woman. After becoming Iain the opposite could now hold true. Now that I have a receding hairline and beard, no one would be troubled if I marry a woman. When I contemplate my reality, I have to wonder what sacred truth is being upheld. It would seem what matters to the church is the visual and outward representation of heterosexuality. In this way, the church has made an idol of heterosexuality. To move forward, we need to realize – to truly realize— that marriage is not about body parts, but rather about the love between the couple. 
 
The Reverend Gwen Fry, President-elect of Integrity, stood up and challenged the committee to act now:
 
“As a trans queer priest I know the importance of resolutions that make real and substantive change in the church in concrete ways. A085 does that. If the church is serious, really serious about full inclusion of all the children of God and full access to all the sacraments of the church, this resolution is the only one that will accomplish that. We have been waiting patiently for decades to have what every straight person has enjoyed and never had to think about because the sacrament has always been available. No one wants to take that away. We are simply asking for what the majority of the church already has.
 
Separate but equal is not equal and it is not inclusive. If we don’t make these revisions in the Book of Common Prayer when will we? The time is now.”
 
Julianne, an alternate deputy of Iowaand trans woman, offered a powerful witness, telling the committee that she is part of a 45 year marriage: half in an opposite sex marriage and half in a same sex marriage. She recommends both! She also asked the committee to not hold 20 plus years of her marriage as second class to the other 20 plus years. 
 
As our words joined others in favor of adding marriage rites for all into the Book of Common Prayer, others rose in opposition. The committee deliberated. It ultimately put together a compromise version of B012. The Reverend Canon Susan Russell, who helped hammer out the compromise, describes it in this post. The result was that a changed version of B012 went to the House of Deputies. If passed, it will continue the use of marriage rites under the rubric of “trial use” until comprehensive revision to the Book of Common Prayer is complete.It also limits Episcopal oversight regarding marriages to its intended area, namely, marriage after a divorce. 
 
With this turn of events, attention has turned more acutely to the larger question of Prayer Book revision, which we have written about in two previous blog posts this Convention (here and here).
 
At the end of the day yesterday, June 6th, the House of Deputies decided to extend its deliberation into today’s morning session. The Deputies made several amendments were made to A068, the resolution setting forth a plan for comprehensive Prayer Book revision. Yesterday comments about this resolution seemed evenly split in favor and against Prayer Book revision. It was not at all clear which way the House would go. But right around noon they finally took a vote. By a measure of almost two thirds, the House of Deputies voted in favor of A068 (read more about it here). Now the resolution heads to the House of Bishops. Liturgical marriage equality is very much tied into this vote which only adds to our keen interest in it. Stay tuned.
 
The Reverend Iain Stanford, Priest of the Diocese of Oregon & TransEpiscopal Steering Committee member 

​I believe that it is past time for full revision of the Book of Common Prayer 1979 (BCP), and therefore support A068, the resolution supporting Prayer Book revision. The 1979 BCP was a stunning move forward in terms of liturgy and theology as enacted in the worship of the Episcopal Church. At the same time, however, it was behind in terms of what was then known as inclusive language. In 2018, it is still lovely and venerable, but it fails to adequately express a theology of the ministry of the laity, and the church’s mission of reconciliation. 
 
The BCP falls short of the call “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being” which is clear in our baptismal covenant, by making maleness and whiteness normative. (BCP, p. 305) Maleness and gender binary normativity are exemplified as follows: 
 
Strengthen, O Lord, your servant N. with your Holy Spirit;
empower him for your service; and sustain him all the days 
of his life. Amen. (BCP, p. 309)
 
And certainly in the marriage service as well.
 
Whiteness is exemplified and made normative by the way language is used. An obvious example is this:
​
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy
great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this
night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. (BCP, p. 70)
 
While it is true that we also have supplemental materials with more expansive language for God and broader theological scope around marriage, the BCP is what is in our pews, and is the canonical, practical representation of who we are as the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement. What folks see when they come to visit on a Sunday morning, or drop by the church in search of a quiet place to pray, may be the first and formative impression received.
 
The notion of “common prayer” is that it is a unifying device. I am exhausted by the constant translation and transliteration in my head that is required when leading worship with text based on scripture translations designed to uphold the power of the English monarchy, and theology that supported the subordinate role of women and the holding of African-Americans as chattel property. It’s hard to evangelize or even talk about reconciliation with folks whose ears are attuned to the language of oppression. We can do better.
 
The Reverend Kit Wang
Episcopal Diocese of Maine and TransEpiscopal Steering Committee Member

This morning TransEpiscopal attended its first hearing of this General Convention: Legislative Committee #13, scintillatingly titled "Committee to Receive the Report of Resolution A169." Its topic was the possible revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. For a tradition that strongly emphasizes the phrase lex orandi, lex credendi, loosely translated "praying shapes believing," this hearing was highly significant. The Episcopal Church rarely revises its prayer books -- the current one was issued in 1979 after several years of trial use, while the prior prayer book was issued in 1928. Given all that, and given the significant media coverage the issue of gender and prayer book revision has received recently, surprisingly few people attended the hearing. Sixteen people testified. Of those sixteen fourteen spoke in favor of Prayer Book revision while three spoke in favor of embracing the Prayer Book as it stands, or revising it in a more limited, piecemeal manner.     

We spoke in support of three (out of eight resolutions): A068 ("Plan for the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer"), C031 ("Minimize Gendered Language in the BCP"), and D036 ("BCP Revision: Inclusiveness and Expansive Language").

C031 was originally passed by the Episcopal Church in Connecticut at its 2017 Diocesan Convention. It asks that the Prayer Book revision process "amend, as far as is practicable, all gendered references to God, replacing them with gender expansive language." As its explanation stated, the mandate from the 2015 General Convention to present a plan for comprehensive Prayer Book revision (which resulted in resolution A068), opened "an unprecedented opportunity to further our commitment to equality of all genders." The title of the resolution is misleading: this resolution does not call for the minimization of gendered language for God so much as an expansive approach to such imagery. 

D036 begins by emphasizing the "urgent pastoral and evangelical need for revision of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, particularly regarding the use of inclusive and expansive language for humanity and divinity." It also notes right off the bat that this work "began even as the 1979 BCP was being developed." The resolution's explanation gives a fuller description of how this "pastoral and evangelical need" was recognized and addressed by several General Conventions from the 1970s well into the 1990s after the 1979 BCP was released. It calls for the development of a new BCP "to meet the contemporary needs of The Episcopal Church, including employing inclusive and expansive language for humanity and divinity." A proposed revision of the BCP for trial use is to be ready no later than the 81st General Convention -- two GCs (six years) from now.  
 
A068 is one of two resolutions proposed by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. A069 called for embracing at greater depth the Prayer Book we already have, while A068 calls for its full revision. Three speakers spoke in support of A068 from a trans and/or nonbinary point of view. We referenced the long-recognized androcentric and eurocentric imagery and language that pervades the 1979 BCP and we emphasized how binary its language remains. Gratifyingly, several other speakers also referenced the problem of how binary language erases the lived reality of nonbinary identified people.
 
We also acknowledged the beauty and reverence of Prayer Book language. I, for one, spoke of having grown up in a parish that was strongly opposed to the 1979 Prayer Book and continued to use the 1928 Prayer Book at its principal worship through the 1980s. As a result of that experience, I grew up steeped in the deep significance of patterned, common prayer, aware of how profoundly language matters, how it can touch people at a very deep level. I was aware that changing liturgical language can be fraught. At the same time, given how deeply impactful liturgical language can be, I was also aware that when the language of worship feels like it is missing the mark, its reverberations can be alienating. There were aspects of the 1928 BCP that I grew to love (e.g. the post communion prayer reproduced in Rite I, p. 339). Yet I also grew to feel strongly constrained and alienated by its androcentric language, particularly (though not only) its he/him/his pronoun usage. I have known a number of students over the years, particularly in my previous divinity school context, who loved the Rite I language of the BCP. On the whole, in the campus ministry and divinity school contexts I served previously, and even more so in the parish I serve now, Rite II and the supplemental texts developed after the '79 BCP, Enriching Our Worship, resonate much more strongly. Yet in almost all of our authorized texts some sort of language revision is necessary to keep the language from being exclusively binary. Regularly our worship language reinforces the idea that there are only men or women and that anyone who identifies as neither male nor female simply does not exist. Too many times I have heard the frustration, the deep pain, of nonbinary identified Episcopalians, their sense of being erased by the language of our worship. Our worship language matters in ways we may not fully realize.
 
Let me also add here: I have heard this pain from nonbinary lovers of Rite I, from Evensong enthusiasts, from devotees of the daily office. The call for Prayer Book revision need not oppose such facets of Episcopal worship. In several comments from those opposed to BCP revision I have heard a concern that Rite I in particular would necessarily be removed. On the whole I'm not a huge fan of Rite I at this point in my life, but I have no need to see it removed from a revised BCP, knowing that many people highly value it. I also appreciate the daily office and would love to see it further developed within the continued principal emphasis on Eucharist. I would especially love to see a revised Prayer Book do more to elevate the seasons of the Christian liturgical year.
 
Prayer book revision is a very expensive undertaking, and for many this factor will be where the rubber meets the road. Yet it's not going to get less expensive as time goes on. Nor do I believe that declaring we will embrace the Prayer Book now will make us any more resolved to revise it in three, six, or even twelve years, as one commentator seemed to suggest this morning. It is past time we got on with thoughtfully and prayerfully revising this critical source of our ongoing formation as Christians, as followers of Jesus, as members of Christ's body in this world.

- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge
Diocese of California and TransEpiscopal Steering Committee Member 

The Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention is starting in Austin, Texas this week, and for the fourth General Convention in a row a small team from TransEpiscopal will be there, supported from afar by our Steering Committee. General Convention has much in common with the U.S. Congress. It considers and votes on legislation in two houses—the House of Bishops (elected by their dioceses) and the House of Deputies (with elected lay and ordained people from each diocese of the Church). Although our team mainly consists of non-deputies, anyone is able to attend and testify at a resolution hearing, and we look forward to doing that for legislation we are particularly following. That includes:
 
• a commitment to safeguard the access of trans and non-binary people to physical spaces and  activities within the church (C022)

• a call for the Convention to oppose legislation in the wider world that would limit our access to restrooms and other gender-marked facilities (C022)

• a new Book of Occasional Services that includes a (trans and non-binary inclusive) renaming rite (A064)

• making certain that church records accurately and respectfully reflect our names and genders and protect our privacy (A088)

• the creation of gender expansive language in our worship (C031 – originally from the Diocese Connecticut) and the revision of the Book of Common Prayer (A068)

• a call for the collection and publication of employment and compensation statistics on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation (resolution number TBD) as is already collected on the basis of gender for non-transgender people, and building upon resolution D005 which calls for the collection of such data on the basis of race and ethnicity 

* a call for equity in clergy hiring and appointment (A091) which would add new canonical nondiscrimination language (including gender identity and expression) that would extend beyond access to ordination and lay participation in church governance (which are already addressed) to cover the hiring and appointment of clergy. 

• support for trans and non-binary youth in the Episcopal Church, particularly in our schools and camps (C006)
 
Our team on the ground includes the Reverend Iain Stanford of the Diocese of Oregon, the Reverend Gwen Fry of the Diocese of Arkansas (and newly elected President of IntegrityUSA—congratulations!), and the Reverend Cameron Partridge of the Diocese of California. We are so glad to have as our floor leader Deputy Sarah Lawton, co-chair of the Diocese of California Deputation, strong trans ally, and longtime TransEpiscopal member. The Reverend Deacon Vicki Gray of the Diocese of California will be joining us later in the week, and as in years past we look forward to making new friends on the ground at Convention. Trans and nonbinary people are much more present in the Episcopal Church than many people realize, and General Convention provides a key opportunity to both lift up that reality and build it up within the wider church. The Episcopal Church has much work still to do to fully embrace trans and nonbinary people at all levels of its life, and we are at General Convention to help the church move forward in that process.

On January 27th the Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington passed two resolutions that have received much public attention of late, particularly from reactionary, conservative news sites. We of TransEpiscopal applaud and appreciate the resolutions and recognize them as new additions to a theological and ecclesial conversation that has been ongoing for years.
 
The first of the Washington resolutions echoes in part a resolution the Diocese of California passed in October, entitled “Supporting Transgender Access." Both resolutions call for “educational, pastoral, liturgical, and legislative efforts that seek to end the systemic violence against transgender people, calling special attention to the rise in violence against transgender women of color.” Both resolutions also encourage congregations “to remove all obstacles to full participation in congregational life by making all gender-specific facilities and activities fully accessible, regardless of gender identity and expression.” The DioCal resolution also asks the churchwide General Convention to endorse similar language at its convention this summer.
 
If it passes this resolution, the General Convention would build on work TransEpiscopal began supporting more than a decade ago. After a first attempt in 2006, the Convention passed resolutions in 2009 supporting trans justice, particularly regarding employment discrimination and hate crimes. In 2012 it got more serious about trans justice within our own ecclesial life by passing resolutions committing the church to nondiscrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in access to the discernment process for ordination as well as to all levels of church life and governance. In 2015 the Convention called for a name change rite (for all, including trans people) to be incorporated into the upcoming revision of the Book of Occasional Services. General Convention also committed to examine how we can better facilitate name changes in our records and forms. Follow-ups on both of these resolutions are coming to General Convention 2018. For a complete list of General Convention legislation supportive of transgender and nonbinary people, as well as recent statements from the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Officers, click here.
 
What received the most attention out of the Diocese of Washington Convention was a resolution entitled “On the Gendered Language for God.” It goes to General Convention this summer and asks simply that “if revision of the Book of Common Prayer is authorized,” that revision should “utilize expansive language for God from the rich sources of feminine, masculine, and non-binary imagery for God found in Scripture and tradition and, when possible, to avoid the use of gendered pronouns for God.” Distortions of that last clause seem to have inspired headlines that the diocese of Washington, or even the Episcopal Church as a whole, has now prohibited the use of he/him/his pronouns for God. That is not accurate. Similar reporting leaps have been made on a recent move toward gender expansive language by the Church of Sweden, a Lutheran body. A blanket prohibition isn’t mandated there either, as this report emphasizes. Both Sweden and Washington call for an expansive approach to language for God, and ask for particular care about pronouns. Both underscore that God is ultimately beyond gender. This is not a newfangled, politically correct cultural capitulation. It’s old theological news.
 
The call for a more gender expansive approach to language of God and of prayer has been happening for a long time. Feminist and Womanist theologians in particular have been intervening in this conversation since at least the 1970s and 80s. See, for example, Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Sexism and God Talk, Delores Williams’ Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, or Elizabeth Johnson’s She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. The trans theological interventions that started in the late 1990s and early 2000s—for instance Virginia Ramey Mollenkott’s Omnigender and Justin Tanis’s Transgender: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith – continued this conversation in a new vein. Today theologians such as Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Justin Tanis, Christina Beardsley, and Susannah Cornwall are among those continuing the conversation.
 
Fundamentally, these Washington resolutions seek to fulfill the church’s mission to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ and our baptismal promise to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being (Book of Common Prayer, 855 & 305). This is the same spirit that inspires the first resolution passed by the Diocese of Washington on January 27th: "On Becoming a Sanctuary Diocese." "In faithfulness to the baptismal covenant," it invites people of the diocese to stand together in opposition to "policies that target undocumented immigrants for deportation while also placing undue restrictions on refugees seeking safe haven in the U.S."  Each of these resolutions in different ways extends an invitation to communal "places of welcome and healing." 
 
The conversation these resolutions kicked off may be newly intensified and reactionary but it isn’t new, either in the wider worlds of theology or the Episcopal Church. We’re glad the conversation is becoming more widely known, and we want to see it accurately reported and understood. We also want to see it deepen, not only at General Convention but on the ground in congregations.

August 2, 2017
 
While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”
-- Luke 9: 34b-35
 
We are in period of intense focus on transgender people in the United States, used along with other marginalized groups as political tools for others’ agendas. Most recently, we have seen the highest office in the U.S. target transgender military personnel. As we write, legislation that would undermine the rights of transgender and gender non-conforming people in Texas continues to hang in the balance. As members of both The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the transgender community, we reject all efforts to deny human dignity. We greatly appreciate the leadership of TEC for their steadfast support of transgender people.
 
This Sunday is the Feast of the Transfiguration, a day that highlights the transfiguration of Jesus and invites the disciples to move through their fear and listen to him. It is a day that reminds us of our lifelong call to be transformed, to grow toward God as plants grow toward light, and from out of that spiritual growth to become partners with God in transforming the world. We are struck that in Luke’s version of this story (Lk 9:28-36), a cloud suddenly rolls over Peter, James, and John after they have witnessed the glory of the transfigured Jesus. It doesn’t just hover over them. They enter the cloud. But as their sight is foreclosed, they hear a divine word inviting them to let go of their fear and to listen.
 
In 2017, the trans community stands amid an onslaught of anti-transgender legislation that seeks to use us as a political wedge. This pattern also follows similar trends in 2016 and 2015 (see this legislation tracker for more information). These bills are diverse in their approaches, seeking to keep us from being able to update our identification; to restrict access to healthcare; to curtail the rights of trans students in schools; to carve out limits to anti-discrimination laws, often on the basis of “religious freedom;” to override previously passed non-discrimination law in municipalities and counties; and most infamously to keep us from being able to use the restrooms with which we identify. In the name of privacy protection, these laws make it difficult to be trans in public. They also particularly target transgender women, as so much transphobia does.
 
In addition, amid this legislative onslaught, a rising pattern of violence against trans people has also been unfolding across this country, combining currents of trans-misogyny with racism to disproportionately impact transgender women of color. Already this year at least sixteen transgender people have been killed in the United States, all of them trans women of color (see here and here for more information). Just yesterday we learned of the sixteenth woman, Tee Tee Dangerfield, who died from multiple gunshot wounds in College Park, Georgia. These patterns of dehumanization—one legislative and one criminal – are deeply intertwined.
 
In its special session, the Texas Legislature is considering legislation that would deprive transgender and gender non-conforming people of basic safety as they participate in public life. As it did in the session that ended in May, the state Senate has passed this legislation but thus far the House has declined to debate it.
 
We want to thank the many faithful Episcopalians in Texas, cisgender and transgender, who are working so hard to oppose this legislation. We appreciate as well how Texas Episcopalians are standing against the anti-immigrant Senate Bill 4. Episcopalians are speaking at hearings, organizing, writing and recording op eds for the news, signing petitions, doing pastoral care, working behind the scenes to safeguard the dignity of all people in Texas. This work is powerful and inspiring.
 
We also want to publicly thank Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and President of the House of Deputies Gay Clark Jennings for their steadfast support of transgender people in Texas and far beyond. We have so appreciated the letters they have sent to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, urging him to remain steadfast in refusing to consider legislation that uses transgender people as political bait. When President Trump announced last week that trans people will no long be allowed to serve in the military, we were also gratified to see so many statements in support of the trans community issued by leaders across The Episcopal Church—a great cloud of witnesses, including the Presiding Bishop.
 
We very much concur with both President Jennings and Presiding Bishop Curry as they wrote in February and July that no one wants to move the General Convention. In our own months long discussion and prayer about this issue, we have continued to believe in “the call of The Episcopal Church to leverage its power to help transform unjust structures,” as we wrote our presiding officers in a letter dated April 4th (and have published on our blog). If Texas enacts legislation dangerous to the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming people, we believe that The Episcopal Church should move the General Convention. With our presiding officers, we hope such a decision does not become necessary. If it does, however, we believe that moving the Convention could have the greatest impact not only in the context of Texas but also upon the wider pattern of anti-transgender legislation across the United States.
 
For now, we continue to monitor the situation. We continue to listen and, as always, we pray for transformation. 

​- The TransEpiscopal Steering Committee

by the Revd Dr. Cameron Partridge

What a whirlwind the last couple of days at General Convention have been. Friday the news of the Supreme Court’s decision blew through Convention like wildfire. People are absolutely jubilant. And then yesterday Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina was elected the next Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church on a landslide, first ballot vote. He follows Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as a pioneer: she has been the first woman elected to this position, while he is the first African American. He is an firey, articulate preacher and evangelist, the kind of inspiring leader you want to get up and follow to the ends of the earth. Yesterday the House of Deputies also discussed C019 “Establish Response to Systemic Racial Injustice”. As Deputy Jennifer Baskerville Burrows wrote, “To hear a white member of the [Social Justice and U.S. Policy] committee say words to the effect of, “we have the chance to make race the centerpiece of the next triennium” signals a shift.  If funded, resolution C019 will put real muscle (to the tune of $1.2 million) behind the work of racial reconciliation for both justice and mission strategy.”

Amid this intense, spirited movement, two of the resolutions that TransEpiscopal has been particularly tracking have also made their way through the open hearing process.

D037 came first. This is the resolution that calls for a study of the canons to clarify that and/or how people who have legally changed their name(s) can have their names amended in church records and registries and church certificates reissued. It came to the committee on Governance and Structure last night amid several other complex resolutions on the possibilities of restructuring aspects of our Church’s governance. To begin, the chaplain of the committee lead us in prayer and a hymn, one of my favorites: “God is love and where true love is, God [Godself] is there.” When our resolution came up, something like six or seven of us testified in support of it. No one testified against. We told stories of how we or people we know have been impacted in our full access to the life of the Church by not being able to change records in a consistent way, or to have certificates reissued. After we were finished, a number of deputies and bishops came up to us, thanking us for our testimony. As the Structure committee sifts through all the complexities of the restructuring resolutions, our stories were, as one committee member later related to me, very straight forward and incarnational. We hope it moves out of committee and to one of the houses quickly.

Then twelve hours later, at 7:30 this morning, we gathered again to testify in support of D036. This resolution, on “Adding a Name Change Liturgy to the Book of Occasional Services”, came to the Committee on Prayerbook and Liturgy. Once again we began and ended with prayer and song, and once more we had a great group of people prepared to testify. I am hoping that some of these folks will write about their experiences as well. I lead off my own testimony by recounting an experience I had in 2001 when I first claimed my name. I described how I passed a difficult night, sharing the name Cameron with loved ones. When I went to church the following morning and was asked to do the first reading, I had been stunned to find myself standing before the congregation reading the story of Jacob wrestling with the divine stranger who then gave him the name Israel. Flash forward several years, my testimony continued, to my years in parish ministry in which I had a trans parishioner who wanted to take on his chosen name in the context of the congregation. And so I put together a rite as a component of the Sunday liturgy, drawing in part upon the name change rite in Changes: Prayers and Services Honoring Rites of Passage that is the subject of D036. To be able to take up one’s name in the midst of one’s congregation, to be named and seen in that way, can be a profound recognition of the deep spiritual significance of embodying one’s name, I concluded. I was also struck that in addition to the other trans folks who testified—and, again, there were several powerful speakers – there were non trans ones as well, lifting up the flexibility of this resource to be used by many people. These were folks in a religious order who talked about the possibilities of claiming a new name in connection with religious life. This rite is additionally applicable to situations like adoption or divorce/remarriage. I especially appreciate that this resource came out of indigenous Episcopal congregations, communities that have long recognized the spiritual significance of names and particularly of taking on a new name later in life.

We now wait for D036 and D037 to go to their houses of origin. The name change liturgy resolution should first travel to the House of Bishops, while the name change canon study resolution should head to the House of Deputies. Meanwhile a number of resolutions related to liturgical marriage equality are coming forward to the Houses of Bishops and Deputies as well. Stay tuned on all of these fronts.

Amid all of this, the hymn from the beginning of the D037 hearing continues to echo in my ears: God is love and where true love is, God Godself is there.

As TransEpiscopal celebrates today's Supreme Court decision honoring marriage equality, and as we join in supporting efforts toward full liturgical marriage equality in The Episcopal Church here at General Convention, we offer this essay from Iain Stanford who brings a trans angle to this conversation.

by Iain Stanford

Over the last several weeks, the blogosphere and Facebook have been alive with different opinions, questions and concerns about the various resolutions regarding  marriage equality in The Episcopal Church. As I read the various arguments, I keep wondering if people realize that we already have same sex couples in The Episcopal Church who were married using the service for Holy Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer. Let me explain.

At the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2012, the church spoke loudly in support of transgender people as full members of our Church by adding gender identity and gender expression to the non-discrimination canons. As a trans person, though, the canons for marriage and the use of the BCP can become a bit, well, surreal.

Take for example the fictional couple of Jim and Francine. On their day, they walk through the red doors and up the aisle, the celebration begins with the words from the BCP, “Dearly Beloved: We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony.” (BCP 423) And a little later, the priest pronounces, “they are husband and wife.”  (BCP 428) Now several years go by, and Francine slowly acknowledges all those feelings when it comes to gender. All her life, people have asked, “are you a girl or boy?” She talks to friends, therapists, and yes, even her priest. Eventually, she knows that God is calling her to move forward, to become Francis. She does! After transition, they are now Jim and Francis. They live into what it means to be a same sex couple in society. And yes, they are still married in the eyes of the Church.

I can hear some people say, “But they came to the altar like any other heterosexual couple.”
​
Which begs the question: what is the connection between the outward and visible sign or signs of gender and marriage?

by the Reverend Gwen Fry

Every time I look at the photo with me in the background on the TransEpiscopaal Facebook page and blog I remember how important it was for me to be there at GC 2012. You see, at that time I wasn’t what you would call an active member of TransEpiscopal, working on important legislation or volunteering at the TransEpiscopal booth in the exhibition hall. No, I was more of a lurker on the list serve and had been for a number of years. I was there to track legislation, however, and I was there to attend a very special Eucharist. And as it turned out, I was there to attend the triennial family reunion of the church. I attended General Convention 2012 in Indianapolis for very personal reasons.

Having no responsibilities at the convention as a visitor I was free to go from house to house observing our church at work. The first day I was there I immediately took note of the gender neutral bathroom facility strategically placed between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. I know, you’re thinking bathrooms? But for me that was an incredible statement my church made. The church that I grew up in, in a very tangible way, supported me and all gender non-conforming children of God.

Sitting in the galleries of both houses listening to the discussion on resolutions D019 and D002 filled me with hope for my church. The bishops and deputies who stood up in support of these resolutions was a powerful witness to the broad, inclusive church I was proud to be a member of. Even those who stood in opposition of these resolutions filled me with hope because we are not a monolithic tradition here in The Episcopal Church. It reminded me that the tent is indeed big and it reminded me that even with these nondiscrimination clauses added to the canons, we have much work left to do to gain true acceptance throughout the church. As the votes were cast and tallied in both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies there was a deep sense of gratitude, joy, and acceptance that washed over me. It was quite surreal actually. With this monumental decision (at least in my eyes) the Episcopal Church gave me the “cover” I thought was necessary for me to come out and live authentically after 21 years as a priest in the church.

The evening before I left the convention and headed for home, I attended the TransEpiscopal Eucharist. It was a perfect way to rejoice with others the incredible gains achieved at GC2012. It was also the first time I was in a room, worshipping with others, who knew me. Fully knew me. At that Eucharist I began a journey that brought me out of the shadows of lurking on a list serve. I was no longer on the sidelines of my community and stepped onto the playing field, simply by being known. 

And so every time I see that banner across the top of TransEpiscopal’s blog or Facebook page with me standing in the background I am reminded of how far we have come as a church and how much I have grown. It hasn’t all been pretty or easy the past three years. There have been many losses and disappointments. There has also been resurrection and new life, in the church and personally. 

Legislation is never antiseptic and removed from the lives of people. It is deeply personal and affects the lives of many whether we can see them or know them, understand them or even agree with them. Individuals like me are always held in the balance of the decisions we make as a church. Even as individuals like me are held in the balance by GC decisions, at the same time GC decisions do not necessarily prevent individuals from encountering difficulty. That experience certainly held true for me. It was most difficult to seek the dissolution of the pastoral relationship with a parish and people I deeply love and who loved me. We need to live into GC decisions, to engage and embrace them in our congregations and dioceses. What we do at GC truly does matter because of the connections between the layers of our church.

 I look forward to joining my colleagues and friends of TransEpiscopal in Salt Lake City to continue our work in the church. I am attending this General Convention because it is personal. Because there will be others attending this year who are just like I was three years ago, desperately looking for a place to call home, feel the support of their church, and experience the transforming power of the love of God.

As the 78th General Convention approaches this week, here is a brief review of trans legislation that has come before the Convention in years past. As you can see from the shift between 2006 and 2012, and as previous blog posts narrate, we have come an incredibly long way. The five resolutions listed under 2015 begin to point to much work that we still need to do.

2006 

1)    C030 -- The Diocese of California referred a resolution to General Convention calling for the addition of “gender identity and expression” to the list of non-discrimination demographic categories in Canon III.1.2. The Committee on Canons took it up as resolution C030 (“On the Topic of Amending Canon III.1.2 [Of the Ministry of All Baptized Persons]”). As the legislative history reports, the committee recommended discharge and re-referral to the Committee on Ministry. As far as we know, that referral never happened, or was never acted upon by the Committee on Ministry. As the legislative history reports, “Resolution Died With Adjournment.”

2)    The Diocese of New York passed a resolution calling on TEC to come out in support of fully gender inclusive secular civil rights resolution (e.g. ENDA) but it got lost in the shuffle and somehow was never considered at this GC.

2009

1)    D090— encouraged inclusive self-identification on all church forms, creating flexible options for people to identify their gender, names, and preferred pronouns. A question that lingered for us was the problem of amending registries and having certificates reissued (e.g. baptismal, confirmation or ordination) upon request after someone has changed their name (which is why a resolution addressing that has been submitted to GC 2015)

2)    C048 put TEC on record in support of a fully trans inclusive version of the Federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act 

3)    D012 put TEC on record in support of fully trans inclusive nondiscrimination and hate crimes laws at the local, state and federal levels 

4)    D032 (Nondiscrimination protection for lay employees in TEC) – declared that lay employees in TEC are not to be discriminated against on the basis of several demographic designations, including gender identity and expression

5)    C061 Canon Change re: Access to the Ordination process passed the HOD but failed in HOB (HOB actually amended it and sent it back to HOD, which declined to concur) 

2012

1)    D002 added “gender identity and expression” to Canon III.1.2 re: nondiscrimination in access to discernment for the ordination process 

2)    D019 amended Canon I.17.5 (aka “the Rights of the Laity”), clarifying that “No one shall be denied rights, status or access to an equal place in the life, worship, and governance of this Church” on the basis of “gender identity and expression,” among a number of other demographic categories

3)    D022 called for a church wide response to the epidemic of bullying based on a number of categories, including gender identity and expression  

which brings us to 2015

by the TransEpiscopal Steering Committee 

As we come to the 78th General Convention, TransEpiscopal looks forward to building on the major strides our Church has made over the last decade on behalf of trans people. We also come with a sense of urgency about the gaps that remain between what our Church has done and what remains to be done.

We celebrate tremendous legislative gains between the 2006 and 2012 General Conventions, particularly the addition of “gender identity and expression” to our canons for access to lay ministry and to the discernment process for ordained ministry. Those votes, as many of our blog posts from those Conventions have witnessed, were exhilarating to experience. We also celebrate the stories we hear and tell about congregations that lift up trans people across the church. We are lectors, greeters, Eucharistic ministers. We are in young adult and campus ministries. We serve on vestries and search committees. We serve on diocesan committees, as Deputies to General Convention, on nominating committees, on task forces. Several of us are ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood. Others are in various stages of the ordination process in several different dioceses. Some are in seminary.

Yet at the same time we also know that this progress is not uniformly felt across the Church. Different people in the same Church can have widely different experiences. This should not be the case.

by the Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge

This post forms the second in a series about the history of TransEpiscopal’s legislative efforts at the General Convention of The Episcopal Church, as we head to the 78th General Convention at the end of June. 

After our first effort at GC legislative advocacy in 2006 (described here) we realized that we needed to bring a team. We also experienced the power of working in coalition. In 2007 we had become members of the Consultation, “a collaboration of progressive organizations within the Episcopal Church that partner to work for social justice.” Even as we attended GC with our own focus, we also collaborated with the nine other member groups of the Consultation. The key to TransEpiscopal’s work lay not in lifting up any one particular voice or having any one specific spokesperson, but rather in operating collectively and intersectionally. We chose to work this way out of respect for the varied experiences and identities within our own communities and in recognition that we are not alone in being impacted by oppressive social structures. Thus far we have emphasized collegiality, respect, shared resources, variously offered gifts and talents, and collective determination. TransEpiscopal has never had a president, has never had elected positions. Perhaps someday a different structure will make more sense for us. Perhaps not. 

Coming into the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, we were expecting four transgender-themed resolutions amid a much greater number related to liturgical blessings for same sex couples and overturning the (ambiguous) moratorium on openly gay bishops. Some of our targeted resolutions sought to put the Episcopal Church on record in support of secular transgender nondiscrimination legislation, while others sought to amend our own canons in support of trans equality within TEC. Never before had a group of trans Episcopalians organized ourselves to testify at the committee hearings to where these resolutions had been directed. Never before had there been an openly trans Deputy to General Convention, which we gained in Dante Tavolaro of Rhode Island. With growing excitement, we made our way through Convention. To get a flavor for our energy, see this early blog post about the intense opening days of Convention or this one in which I raced up and down the escalators between the House of Bishops and Deputies meetings; this testimony from Dante Tavolaro from the floor of the House of Deputies; this progress report from Michelle Hansen; this recorded testimony from Gari Green or from Vicki Gray.

After all was said and done, the 2009 General Convention passed four trans-themed resolutions: 

by the Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge

TransEpiscopal looks forward to being at the 78th triennial General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City June 25-July 3. There, as in the past several years, we aim to collaborate with several groups and individuals to continue being agents of transformation in and through the Episcopal Church, that trans folks – and indeed all people--  might be empowered in and by this Church to be the people God is calling us to become. Already we have come a very long way, even as significant work remains to be done.

As we turn toward Salt Lake City, we wanted to take a moment—a few posts—to recall the history of TransEpiscopal’s legislative advocacy at GC. 

TransEpiscopal’s first such effort was about a year after our founding, in 2006 at the 75th Convention in Columbus, Ohio. This was an especially intense, emotional Convention. The House of Bishops elected The Episcopal Church’s first ever woman Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. The Convention rejected a resolution that intended to place a moratorium on openly gay bishops, three years after Bishop Gene Robinson had been consecrated in New Hampshire (A161 which can be found here). And then, not long after that rejection, the Convention passed a slightly different version of that resolution (B033) which essentially sought to do the same thing with vaguer language (which was later essentially overturned at the GC of 2009). The GC of 2006 was incredibly difficult, especially for LGBT people. 

Amid all this, there wasn’t much awareness of or advocacy for trans people in The Episcopal Church or, really, much specific language to help name our experiences and identities. Take, for instance, the difficulty of even locating a digital record of the one resolution touching on trans people in the life of the church that did, in fact, come before the 2006 General Convention: resolution C030. This resolution, which originated in the Diocese of California, sought to do what the 77th General Convention eventually did in 2012: to add “gender identity and expression” to the nondiscrimination language in Canon III.1.2, on access to the discernment process toward ordained ministry. You can find its legislative record here.  Here is an image of it as well. 
​

Once recognized by the General Convention, and given a number (C030), the resolution got referred to the Committee on Canons. When that committee held a hearing on this and its other resolutions, TransEpiscopal’s founding member Donna Cartwright testified in its support. Donna had driven on her own to General Convention and was a lone voice speaking out in support of this resolution. As the legislative history reports, the committee ultimately “presented its Report #14 on Resolution C030 (Amend Canons: Title III, Canon 1, Section 2) recommending discharge, and re-referral of the resolution to the Committee on Ministry.” This decision was communicated to the House of Bishops. But this sentence really tells the story: “Resolution Died With Adjournment.” Or better, as the abstract of C030 puts it, “The 75th General Convention rejects a resolution to amend Canon III.1.2 regarding access to the discernment process.”

The funny thing about this is that for years several of us have been trying to locate a digital record—or, really, any official record—of this experience that Donna Cartwright had shared with us as it was happening. It felt important, a kind of signpost saying we were there. But none of the key terms – words like “transgender” or “gender identity” or even just “gender” – were generating anything in the digital archives. What ultimately did lead to its location, finally, was an advanced search targeting the year 2006 and typing the word “rejected” under “Action taken.” Among the sixty-six other rejected resolutions, C030 was easy to pick out. In other posts, narrating other encounters at later GCs, we have commented on the importance of naming, of specificity. Without that naming, even as language can still so often fall short, it can be easy to lose traces of our histories, to forget aspects of our journey. 

But, in the person of Donna, we were indeed there, and we knew we needed to return in greater numbers. And so, in 2009, we did….

by the TransEpiscopal Steering Committee
​
TransEpiscopal is saddened by the news that Vivian Taylor and Samuel Peterson, the two full time employees of IntegrityUSA, have been let go due to a reduction of workforce. Taylor served as Integrity’s Executive Director from 2013-2015, and Peterson came on as Director of Development several months after Taylor began.

TransEpiscopal honors their pioneering ministries and contributions to furthering The Episcopal Church’s witness to God’s love for LGBTQ persons. Integrity announced Vivian Taylor on August 6, 2013 as “the first openly transgender woman to lead a major mainline protestant denominational organization in the US.” Taylor is a creative, charismatic leader who brought strong gifts in communications, entrepreneurialism and organization building. She recruited a powerful group of writers for Integrity’s blog and contributed her own moving posts. She also continued the spirit of collaboration that developed between Integrity and TransEpiscopal in the years after our founding in 2005.

In addition to his work as Development Director, Sam Peterson contributed to the Walking with Integrity blog, including two recent incisive pieces. One was about the Reverend Pauli Murray, a person of complex gender history who was the first African American woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. The other piece, on the Task Force’s Creating Change conference, emerged from the honor of Peterson’s membership in the Task Force’s “2015 Trans Leadership Exchange.”

As Taylor noted after one of her early visits to Integrity chapters across the United States, “the real power and energy of Integrity is in the people…Speaking with people about their own lives and experiences is an absolute treasure trove.” In that same spirit, we lift up and celebrate the power and energy of the unique humanity that Taylor and Peterson have brought to Integrity and far beyond. We recognize the significance of having had two openly trans people as the only full time employees in The Episcopal Church’s main LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. We are incredibly proud of them.

We are also disheartened at the financial strain that so often besets churches and other organizations that work for peace and justice. Unaware that Integrity’s own finances had reached such a critical juncture, we were surprised to learn of the decision to let these talented leaders go. We grieve that the financial hardship that Peterson and Taylor now personally face is one shared by trans people in staggering numbers across the United States.

Bringing to light the continued, multi-pronged broader pattern of vulnerability in trans communities is a key part of the witness that TransEpiscopal plans to bring to the 78th General Convention this June.

In light of our shared ministries as we head to into General Convention, we call upon the Integrity Board to recognize and respond to the deep pastoral impact this decision is having upon trans people in and beyond The Episcopal Church. We seek and invite a relationship of greater transparency and clearer communication. We look forward to reclaiming the trust that grounds our shared ministries to make explicit God’s love for LGBTQ persons.