Last Tuesday in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana House Committee on Education held a hearing on House Bill 542, entitled “Fairness in Women's Sports.” Under the banner of “fairness” it proposed to prevent trans women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports in public schools. Earlier in the week, a Senate version of this bill (SB 156, identically titled) was unanimously voted out of committee and is awaiting consideration by the Louisiana senate. The House version, however, failed to advance on a vote of 5-6. It was a significant victory in the midst of very difficult days for the trans community across this country, as a wave of anti-trans bills targeting trans youth, and particularly trans girls, continues to build in at least thirty-three states. In this moment it is so important for Christians to affirm the human dignity, agency, and belovedness of trans and nonbinary people. It is critical for us to resist and refuse barriers that others – all too often in the name of God – put between us and the spaces and activities that allow us to fully flourish as the people God created us to be and become. Particularly in dioceses where anti-trans bills are pending, we ask Episcopalians to come forward in support of our communites, and we thank all who are already doing this crucial work.
 
We thank The Right Reverend Kathryn Ryan, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Texas, who wrote on her blog this past Friday about anti trans legislation pending in Texas. “Week after week this spring, trans youth and their parents and other members of the trans community have had their dignity attacked as state lawmakers and others have debated their humanity and rights publicly as if they are not real people and faithful families with their own stories,” she wrote. In the testimony of trans community members and allies, Bishop Ryan observed, “I heard the core of Jesus’ message: All people are loved by God. Full stop. All are made in God’s image and are worthy of the protections and opportunities afforded by our state and country. The Episcopal Church affirms this claim when it calls upon the baptized to ‘respect the dignity and freedom of every human being’ and to ‘seek and serve Christ in all people, loving [their] neighbor as [themselves].’ 
 
We thank the Reverend Tommy Dillon, Rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, who shared testimony opposing HB 542 last Tuesday. “As part of the leadership of Inclusive Louisiana, the LGBT Ministry in the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, and as a priest of the Church, I am here to speak to oppose House Bill 542 because it would harm trans young people across the state,” he said. “We have several congregation members where I serve as a priest here in Baton Rouge who have children and grandchildren who are transgender, and they have expressed concern about this legislation with me. We believe that as part of our Baptismal Covenant we should respect the dignity of all of God's children.” Read more about the hearing in this article from The Advocate.
 
In his testimony, the Rev’d Dilon also referenced a story from the book of Acts about an Ethiopian eunuch, who is the first person baptized into the body of Christ in Acts (Acts 8:26-40). The story occurs along the “wilderness road” running from Jerusalem to Gaza. The Apostle Philip meets the Ethopian Eunuch whom we are told is a “a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ehiopians” (Acts 8:27). The Ethiopian eunuch would have been seen as an outsider, and occupied a marginal status based in what today we refer to as their gender and sexuality. What struck the Rev’d Dillon was the role of the Apostle Philip. During their conversation, the eunuch declares, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” In fact, nothing was to prevent the full, flourishing membership of this child of God in the beloved community. Philip, prompted by the Spirit, made sure of that. The Rev’d Dillon concluded his testimony: “I invite you to have a spirit-filled conversation with our trans siblings like Philip did two thousand years ago and see if the Spirit of God will move you to help break down barriers to help do no harm to God's beloved trans community.”
 
Indeed, that is the question: What is to prevent us from supporting the full flourishing of trans and nonbinary young people in our communities? Plenty of things can, especially when motivated by fear and hatred. These bills across the country purport to support the equality of women and girls. Their supporters often say they seek merely to “create a level playing field” for girls. But as this article importantly points out, these bills assume that bodies assigned male at birth “are born with an innate biological athletic superiority”— an assumption both androcentric and false. In addition, the article continues, these bills are being supported with “messaging that classifies young trans girls as ‘biological boys,’” messaging that “is scare-mongering and unfair, and only seeks to reinforce ugly stereotypes about trans girls and women to an uninformed public.” However vocally their supporters claim such legislation to be about “fairness,” in fact these bills are yet another effort in a longstanding pattern of stigmatizing and dehumanizing trans women.
 
What is to prevent us? What is to prevent us from standing together in full, loving support of trans women and girls, trans femme nonbinary youth, and indeed people of all genders, races, and ages in our communities? What is to prevent us from manifesting together the liberating love of the God who came among us to heal us and set us free? 

Tuesday, Nov. 20, brings in many places the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). One might legitimately wonder at the need for such a remembrance. I would have been in that condition just five years ago. Although I have been transgender all my life I was "in the closet" for much of that life. That meant for me not being in touch with other trans people, not in touch with trans issues, and not really in touch with myself very much. I also grew up in a rather privileged white middle class environment and did my undergraduate education at the University of Rhode Island and graduate work for two masters at Yale University. I worked as a parish priest for many years in the "elitist" Episcapal Church and then for many more years made good money in the computer industry.

Five years ago it barely dawned on me that I might be in jeopardy of social violence for being transgender.  I have learned much in the last five years! Last night I attended a public service for TDOR in Springfield, Massachusetts. I will be unable to attend the services in Hartford on Tuesday. I experienced many feelings during the service, extreme sadness, much concern and fellowship with the others there. I also was shocked and horrified at the stories of those whose lives ended so prematurely at the hands of others. You see, this day of remembrance is for those transgender people who have been murdered (eleven in this current year alone.) In the service people read some of the stories of those murders. It was all horrifying and shocking to hear of people being stabbed to death with twenty or thirty knife wounds or being killed and then having their bodies mangled. It is all so far from my personal experience, yet somehow all too personal.

What shocks me the most, though, is the general indifference and acceptance in the general population of this treatment of transgender people! One of the stories recounts the fact that a bunch of bystanders cheered as a trangender woman was beaten to death. Another story tells that the police recorded a transgender death (murder) as being accidental (she was actually killed and then run over four times-- accident?) Many of the murders are listed as unsolved. Even the solved ones often show light sentences for the murders. If you don't believe me visit the Remembering our Dead Web site. 

Being a religious woman I could say to you pray for the dead. That certainly would be fitting. I am however going to say to BE OUTRAGED! Don't accept this violence. Being transgender isn't bing less than human. All these transgender men and women who were murdered were people worthy of their right to life. Fight with me and those like me for justice and the right to life without terror and violence. By all means please pray but do more. Tell your doctors, your police forces and your legislators that you will not accept discrimination and violence against any one! Don't accept violence against your Transgender siblings!

God's Love to you all,

The Rev. Michelle Hansen, S.T.M., M.Div

About two hours ago, mourners gathered in San Francisco in memory of Ruby Rodriguez, a transgender
Latina woman who was found murdered in the city's Mission District. Ruby died one week ago today, one
of at least three transgender women of color to be murdered in the Bay Area over the past six months. And this is the Bay Area, one of the most—if not the most—open, supportive places in this country to live if one is transgender. A press release from Community United Against Violence asks, "Let us not forget Ruby. She was an exceptional woman who was intent on improving her life. Ruby participated in various support groups and language classes, and idolized Chicana singer Selena." You can read more of the press release at
http://americansexuality.blogspot.com/.

This news takes me back to the death of Gwen Araujo in 2002. As it so happened, that year my partner and I were living in the Bay Area. It also happened to be the year I was transitioning. The murder hit me pretty hard. The day of Gwen's funeral I drove over and participated in a vigil outside the church. I'd heard that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church had threatened to come and protest outside the funeral, and I wanted to be there in support of Gwen's family and friends. The crowd was a mix of students from Gwen's school (Newark Memorial High), neighbors, and transgender community members. As it turned out, the Newark high school drama crew was putting on a production of the Laramie Project, a play by Moisés Kaufman about the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepherd, a young gay man killed in Laramie Wyoming in 1998. One of the most moving scenes in the Laramie Project occurs when mourners shield Shepherd's family from members of Phelps's Church. They achieve their shield by wearing angel costumes with huge wings: standing side by side, the wings block the protesters from view. That day at Gwen Araujo's funeral in Newark, California, I was stunned to see the high school's angel cast members in full winged regalia, ready to shield the family from any foes. Thankfully, none showed up. 

I pray that the memorial vigil earlier tonight also took place in peace. As Chris Daly of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco has said, it isn't clear if the number of hate crimes against trans people has increased or whether we're simply able to identify better them now. I pray for all impacted by these murders, and for an end to the practice of violently writing our dominant culture's norms of gender, race, immigration status, sexuality and class on the bodies of those who transgress them.

The Rev'd Cameron Partridge