Category: Transphobia

It's Supposed to Be Safe Here

7/7/2023

I am a trans priest living and serving the Episcopal Church in a state that is supposed to be one of the “good ones” to be in as a trans person. It’s supposed to be safe here.

And yet. Like trans folks living in all but one state (New York, for the curious), the state I live in is not exempt from anti-trans legislation being introduced.

We are not exempt from politicians trying to hide behind “religious beliefs” as a way to give adults license to harm children. While the legislation introduced here this year has stalled in committee, and no one really believes the bills will pass, it still hurts to know that there’s politicians in my state who would vilify me and people like me to make a political point.

Parents here have approached school boards about banning LGBTQ books, the same kind of books that saved my life when I was in middle and high school.

But most cisgender and heterosexual people in my state don’t think any of that happens here… that anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ legislation and book bans and school board fights only happen in the “hard states.”

Here, transphobia is much more insidious, especially in the church. It’s an extra interview about my gender while applying for church jobs. It’s being assured that this diocese is fully ready to support trans clergy…but that many churches aren’t ready yet (or might never be) and that’s just the way it is. It’s diocesan leadership forgetting every year at clergy conference and convention that there needs to be a safe bathroom option for me and other trans and non-binary folks who might attend. It’s preaching a sermon on trans or broader LBGTQ issues and being accused of “only preaching about gay stuff” when it’s one or two sermons a year, sermons that also name the oppression of racism, classism, and ableism.

I know that compared to my colleagues and friends and trans and non-binary siblings in the hard states that I have it easy. But playing the oppression olympics produces no winners, only losers. It takes the attention off the fact that so many people are hurting, and distracts us, causing us to fight among ourselves rather than fighting the system that put us here. I am grateful that I’m living in one of the “better” states, that I don’t fear for my life every day if I don’t pass well enough, if I confuse too many people, or choose the wrong bathroom. But the constant misgendering, the micro (and macro) aggressions, and really just reading the news, is still painful. My heart still breaks and my soul is getting ragged around the edges. It’s supposed to be safe here, but it’s only somewhat safer–none of us are free until all of us are free. And there’s a whole lot of work needed to get there.

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Lambeth 2022 - a Reflection from TransEpiscopal

7/27/2022

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TransEpiscopal expresses its support and appreciation for the bishops and many others across the Episcopal Church and wider Anglican Communion who have stood up for the LGBTIQ+ community over the last several days as a late-breaking turn in both the process and content of the Lambeth Conference once again threatened to use our relationships and personhood as pawns in an ongoing struggle for power and theological influence.

We have remained confident in the heated lead-up to this week’s conference that its outcome will not change the commitment of the Episcopal Church to affirm and support the full human dignity of LGBTIQ+ people. We are also concerned about the pastoral impact of repeated archconservative attempts to proscribe queer sexuality, even as such efforts are thwarted and ultimately fall short–just yesterday conference planners pulled such language from a “Lambeth Call” on Human Dignity. We continue to decry the language’s inclusion in the first place in a process clouded by a lack of transparency and trust. This whole dynamic reminds us of how trans and non-binary people are being used in the United States and other countries around the world–not least in England–to drive political wedges in the body politic.

The Lambeth Conference has a fraught history when it comes to LGBTIQ+ people. Meeting once every ten years, it draws bishops from across the Anglican Communion. It is one of four “Instruments of Communion” in a tradition whose polity does not utilize a centralized form of authority in the manner of some other Christian denominations. Votes at this conference are not binding on the provinces of the Anglican Communion across the globe. Yet previous votes have reverberated over the years, and in particular, the controversial 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution I.10 that defined marriage in strictly heterosexual terms, also resting on considerable assumptions about defining “man” and “woman,” as well.

The 2008 Lambeth Conference did not include resolution or “call” votes, but its planners excluded the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, at that time the only openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Gene came to the conference anyway, supported by a coalition called the Inclusive Communion witness. Bishop Gene’s experience at Lambeth is included in the powerful film Love Free or Die.

TransEpiscopal members formed a small part of that Inclusive Communion witness in 2008. One panel discussion, “Listening to Transgender People,” was organized by the Reverend Dr. Tina Beardsley, an openly transgender priest of the Church of England and board member of the England-based LGBTIQ+ advocacy group Changing Attitude. The panel was an historic first for trans people in the Anglican Communion. Over the course of the conference we wrote a series of blog posts describing our experience of Lambeth as transgender Christians (July 2008, August 2008). We were struck then as now by the power of actually listening to the voices of LGBTIQ+ people, lay and ordained, from across the Communion, affirming our dignity, revealing the power of the Spirit lifting us up and connecting us in the body of Christ across all manner of differences.

This power of authenticity, connection, and true, transformative communion is what we pray will finally be fostered by this year’s Lambeth Conference, despite the last minute turns in process and content.

At this year’s conference several openly gay bishops were invited, but their spouses were not. Earlier this month, the Episcopal Church’s General Convention passed a resolution decrying this exclusion. And then last week one of the “Lambeth Calls” (or white papers) on Human Dignity inserted language at the last minute denying the theological validity of marriage equality, using language from 1998 Resolution I.10. Bishops also learned last week that they would be asked to vote on the various Lambeth Calls with an electronic device, after having been assured that bishops would not be voting on resolutions at this Lambeth Conference.

The inserted I.10 language in the Human Dignity Call paper was truly unfortunate, demeaning LGBTIQ+ people and undermining trust. Now, thanks to a cascade of public protest by supportive bishops and others, the conference planners have changed course. Two days ago an option to vote “no” was added to the previous voting options. Yesterday revisions to the Call language were released, removing the undermining I.10 language. We concur with the Rev. Canon Susan Russell’s reflection on these events that this pressure-influenced change is historic. It is important and at the very least high time to see recognition that the Anglican Communion is not in fact of one mind on the God-given goodness of LGBTIQ+ personhood and relationships and an acknowledgment that several Anglican provinces have already “blessed and welcomed same sex union/marriage after careful theological reflection and a process of reception.” Important too will be an affirmation that “prejudice on the basis of gender or sexuality threatens human dignity.”

Even as we recognize the significance of this shift in acknowledging the lived, affirmed reality of LGBTIQ+ people in various provinces of the wider Anglican Communion, we are clear that we continue to have much work to do. While the proscriptive language has been removed from the call paper on Human Dignity, we want to specifically name and reject a theology of gender complementarity as underlying Lambeth I.10’s restrictive definition of marriage as between a man and woman. It is not sufficient simply to decry this clause as homophobic and, indeed, implicitly transphobic. It is founded on a theology of the human person that is fundamentally binary in its understanding of gender, a theology with which we deeply disagree.

We decry the politics of division that created this turmoil and sought to preempt a time of discernment and learning across the communion by trying to force a vote against marriage for same-gender couples. We pray for a future time when the Anglican Communion as one voice can uphold the full dignity of LGBTIQ+ people, including our marriages.

We give thanks for the important, challenging work The Episcopal Church has engaged over the last 50 years to affirm the human dignity and sacramental equality of LGBTIQ+ people in the church and the world. We are grateful for the bishops, priests, deacons, and lay leaders who have tirelessly lifted up LGBTIQ+ people and have actively resisted insidious efforts to deny the God-given goodness of our genders and sexualities, inherent qualities of our humanity that refuse to be contained by binaries.

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Overwhelming Catch

2/8/2010

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As we near the end of Epiphany, season of illumination, the signs of God's presence among us begin to overwhelm. Two images from yesterday's readings for the fifth Sunday in Epiphany offer a strange combination-- one of abundance and the other of desolation-- that echo two major, recent events in the U.S. trans community.

In the gospel of Luke we had the improbable plenitude of fish pulled up by Peter and his companions upon the prompt of Jesus. So many were these fish that they threatened to sink the boats into which they had flopped. "Go away from me!" cried an unnerved Peter, knee deep in slimy muck, "I am a sinful man."

And in the Hebrew Bible reading, we had the fearsome scene of Isaiah's prophetic call, in which seraphim touch his lips with a live coal and God commands him to speak difficult truths to a people far from ready to hear them. The passage ends with successive images of desolation.

For trans people in the U.S., the last two weeks have brought an overwhelming combination -- to consider only two major news stories-- of grief and victory: a week of desolation in which the Houston trans community grappled with the murder of one of its own, followed by a precedent-setting decision by the US Tax Court in favor of a Massachusetts trans woman.

In July of 2007, a Boston area woman named Rhiannon O'Donnabhain decided to sue the IRS. At issue was the agency's denial of her tax write-off of expenses related to her transition from male to female. As the original Boston Globe article reported, she could have repaid "the approximately $5,000 she received in her tax refund, but decided to challenge the IRS because she believes the ruling against her was rooted in politics and prejudice."

O'Donnabhain declared, "'This goes way beyond money. If I were to give the money back, it would be saying it's OK for you to do this to me. It is not OK for them to do this to me or anyone like me."

You tell 'em, I remember thinking as I read the story. I never tried to write off expenses related to my own transition-- I remember thinking about it, and even discussing the possibility in a peer support group, but I didn't try. I sure could have benefited from it on my then graduate student budget (almost every insurance company explicitly denies coverage for any medical care related to transition).

Then last week we got the very good news that the US Tax Court ruled 11-5 in O'Donnabhain's favor in this first-of-its-kind decision. Not only is it a ruling that respects O'Donnabhain; it's also a decision that could begin to open the door for insurers to consider procedures related to bodily transition as medical, not cosmetic. See the National Center for Transgender Equality's report on the case here.

As Jennifer Levi, Massachusetts-based attorney for the Transgender Project at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), commented in last week's Boston Globe story:

“I think what the court is saying is that surgery and hormone therapy for transgender people to alleviate the stress associated with gender identity disorder is legitimate medical care."

GLAD senior staff attorney Karen Loewy added in a press conference, “It’s incredibly big to have a statewide court setting a national precedent. This is the first time a court that has jurisdiction nationally has reached this conclusion.”

As Chuck Colbert reported, "the tax court ruled that GID [Gender Identity Disorder, which is listed in the DSM] is a 'disease' within the meaning of the tax code. The court said the IRS’s claim that all the treatments were 'cosmetic' was 'at best a superficial characterization of the circumstances that is thoroughly rebutted by medical evidence.' The court said that the IRS must consider sex reassignment surgery in the same manner, for example, as an appendectomy or even heart surgery."

Not all procedures one might undergo would necessarily count as medical, for tax deduction purposes, but the fact that some clearly do is a big deal for those trans folks who medically transition.

I add that caveat about transition because it's important to remember that a) not all trans folks actually do medically transition, and that b) those who do change their bodies do so in a variety of ways, contra the assumptions underlying the oft-asked query, 'have you had the surgery?'. Plus, c) in addition to differences of embodiment, there are also a variety of ways that people narrate their experience. While plenty of folks resonate with statements such as O’Donnabhain's of feeling "trapped in the wrong body", many of us don't experience ourselves in those terms.

That said, this is a major victory that brings us a step closer to being treated with the dignity we expect and deserve.

And, frankly, the trans community really needed some good news last week. Because two weeks ago we began mourning the death of yet another trans person found murdered, this time in Houston, Myra Chanel Ical. Ical's death marks the seventh time a gender variant person has been murdered in Houston over the past ten years, as Chris Seabury reported for Edge Boston. Ical died, as the Executive Director of the the Transgender Foundation of America, Cristan Williams, put it in an interview with KHOU, "struggling for her life." “It’s personal," Wiliams continued, "I feel it on a personal level."

Ical was found at 2 in the afternoon in an empty lot. Local leaders feel strongly that given her proximity to a busy intersection, someone must have seen something. And given that the murder took place in Houston's Montrose neighborhood, an LGBT stronghold, witnesses (if there are any) could well be LGBT themselves. But relations between the LGBT community and the Houston police are not strong, Williams commented: "The LGBT community feels very isolated because of the Houston Police Department’s (HPD) often violent past towards LGBT Houstonians." She is calling for the appointment of an LGBT police liaison.

Ical's memorial service was held two weeks ago today. Featuring a moment of silence followed by a moment of noisemaking, the service aimed both to honor Ical's memory and to "encourage people to make noise about the violence that is inflicted on our community," as Kelli Busey reported on planetransgender.

The local news coverage of the memorial is below.

It is crucial to make some noise, not only in memory of those we have lost but also out of sheer determination to forge our way forward. Thank God for the community in Houston, for the ways in which they are clearly claiming their power. Thank God for the courage of Rhianon O'Donnabhain who was willing to make noise and say "this is not OK."

The catch of the trans community at this time and place is indeed overwhelming, a decidedly mixed bag. As we progress, we find ourselves still very much in the wilderness.

As we move toward my very favorite Sunday in the liturgical year, Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday in the season of Epiphany, I am mindful of the combination of glory and grief that are mysteriously incorporated in the image of the Transfiguration. The New Zealand Prayerbook's revision of the 1928 BCP collect for the Transfiguration says it particularly well:

God of life and glory,
your Son was revealed in splendour
before he suffered death upon the cross;
grant that we, beholding his majesty,
may be strengthened to follow him
and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory;
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.

- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge

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Do I Look Like Half a Human Being?

7/11/2009

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What follows is the testimony of Vicki Gray before the Committee on National and International Affairs on DO12 concerning transgender civil rights:

I have been shouted at by angry, threatening men in a shopping mall.

I have had rocks thrown at me from a passing pick-up truck on the Golden Gate Bridge.

With the San Francisco Night Ministry, I have repeatedly encountered my transgendered sisters and brothers on the corners of Polk Street or Larkin…selling their bodies at two o’clock in the morning, because they have no other way to support themselves.

And I know that my transgendered brothers and sisters are killed in this country at the rate of one a month.

A few years back I attended the funeral of a young teen, Gwen Araujo, who was killed in Newark, California just because she was transgendered.

Also at that funeral were the “Rev.” Fred Phelps and his followers, shouting through their bullhorns “Gwen is burning in hell!”

As fate would have it – God’s serendipity – the students at Gwen’s Newark High School were at the time in the midst of rehearsing “The Laramie Project,” which features a chorus of angels. The members of that chorus came to the funeral in their angels’ garb – white robes and wings – and formed a cordon from the street to the church entrance to protect Gwen’s mom Sylvia and the other mourners from Phelps’ haters.

I tell you all this to impress upon you how vulnerable transgender people are to hate, discrimination, and violence. We desperately need the added protection that would be afforded by our inclusion in hate crimes and employment discrimination legislation.

I come before you to urge your support for two resolutions before you that would put our church on record in support of such legislation.

For me, this is not an abstract issue. It is a matter of life and death.

In closing, let me say I have heard those who have told us to “wait your turn.” I have also heard those who have advised us to “accept half a loaf.” To them and to you, I ask: “Do I look like half a human being?”

- The Rev'd Deacon Vicki Gray

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Round Two

7/10/2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge

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Diocese of Massachusetts Passes Resolution on Transgender Inclusion

11/10/2008

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I’m sitting in the living room reflecting on the end of a long, long week, and listening to a cd called “Songs @ the Crossing” that I bought at diocesan convention yesterday. It has a chanting, soulful quality, kind of like Taizé, but with a jazzy feel-- a nice backdrop for sifting through a wildly intense week.

Between the death of a longtime parishioner, giving a paper at the American Academy of Religion meeting in Chicago last weekend, the elections, and the parishioner’s funeral Friday morning, it was already packed.

Then, with hands still dirty from casting earth on the coffin, I drove to Hyannis, Massachusetts, where the annual diocesan convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts was taking place this year. I was anxious to get there as quickly as possible, since I was co-sponsoring a resolution on transgender civil rights and inclusion in the non-discrimination clause of the national church canon on ministerial discernment.

(Eastern) Massachusetts is not the first diocese to consider such a resolution. Prior to us, the Dioceses of Newark, Michigan, Maryland, New York, and California have all passed similar resolutions, while the diocese of Connecticut rejected one about three years ago. The diocese of Michigan passed additional resolutions on October 24-25, calling for a transgender-inclusive federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and transgender inclusion in the national church, non-discrimination ministry canon. While previous conventions here have included resolutions on gay and lesbian people, including the question of blessing and/or solemnizing same sex marriages, trans issues have never before been on the table at the Diocese of Massachusetts' annual convention.

In addition to the resolutions from other dioceses that have gone before it, the MA resolution flowed naturally out of an evolving national and international context. This has been an extraordinary year for the transgender community in the United States, with a number of public conversations dovetailing on issues connected to our lives. I also sense a growing interest and ability within faith communities to talk about trans people in their midst and the implications of our presence and, conversely, within trans communities to talk about faith and spirituality (e.g. the For Such a Time As This event which was to take place in New Orleans this fall). Even beyond the United States, transgender topics have been increasingly emerging into public conversation (e.g. the ‘Listening to Trans People’ panel at the Lambeth Conference, and several posts re: trans African voices in July and August on this blog). The Employment Non-Discrimination Act debacle last fall has galvanized people in the trans community like never before. And here in Massachusetts, a non-discrimination and hate crimes bill was introduced last year. While it met an untimely death in a study committee, it will be reintroduced in 2009. It would be huge to be able to say that the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts supports the passage of such a bill.

Shortly after I arrived in Hyannis Friday afternoon, resolutions had to be introduced. I had three minutes to explain the resolution, after which there was time for discussion. Voting would happen Saturday. I began my explanation by talking about the murder of Rita Hester 10 years ago in Allston/Brighton, MA, where my parish is located. I talked about how trans women of color, in particular, are vulnerable to anti-trans violence. Bringing up recent cases of anti-trans discrimination that have been in the news, I explained that currently there is neither state (MA) nor federal protection against discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression, and I talked about how pervasive the stigma against trans people remains, even as we are now making amazing gains as a community. And I concluded by saying that although already there are trans clergy around the country, myself included, it would be helpful to name our intention that trans people, like all people, be free to take up their vocations to various ministries in the church. Then time was called and I stood back from the microphone.

Two people then stepped up to microphones in the assembly of about 800. The first was a young woman from the Diocesan Youth Council. She explained that she has friends who are trans as well as lesbian, gay, and bi, whom she has in the past assured would indeed be welcome in the Episcopal Church. She felt strongly that we as a diocese should pass the resolution; otherwise she felt she would have been lying to her friends about the wideness of our welcome. The next speaker was a woman who shared that she is the mother of a trans person. She talked about how it was hard to have a son or daughter who is trans (in my overwhelmed state, I didn’t catch details about her adult child’s identity), and how important it was for us as a diocese to support trans people and the families connected to them. As I listened, I felt overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude at the completely unexpected witness of these two people. And, particularly while listening to the mother, I felt a huge lump grow in my throat as I thought about a family member whom I lost when I transitioned. After those two comments, the convention moved on to the next resolution.

As I made my way through the convention after that Friday session had ended, I was amazed at how people, both friends and people I’d never met, came up to me and said positive things about the resolution and/or what I had said. Then, shortly before dinner, I ran into a group of friends and acquaintances. One was a woman I had met when I visited a parish with a bishop years earlier. She asked if I was the Cameron who had co-sponsored the resolution, and when I said yes, she shared with me that her son is trans. I asked to make sure, but, no, she wasn’t the same mother who had spoken earlier that day. And before the convention would end, I would be approached by yet another person, this time a priest, whose congregation includes the parents of a trans person. The more such encounters I have (and I have had several others with parents of trans people, both through priests and through outside groups), the more obvious it seems that this resolution, and other faith-based outreach regarding trans people, may actually have the most quantitatively large impact on the families, and especially parents, of transpeople. I left the convention that evening exhilarated about the impact of the resolution, even with the actual vote yet to come.

The next day, after officially ‘moving’ the resolution to the Convention’s floor, I again gave a three-minute explanation of it. This time I added to the previous day’s comments that because the murder of Rita Hester had taken place in the vicinity of my parish, and because the Day of Remembrance this year will include a vigil walk recreating the one that took place a decade ago, my parish was asked if it could be the site of this year’s Boston Transgender Day of Remembrance. I talked about how proud we are to be able to serve as that site this year. And I talked about how the resolution speaks not only to the experience of trans people but to all those connected to us, especially family and friends, as had been movingly witnessed in the previous day’s comments.

In the discussion period, this time, there were no comments or questions. When Bishop Gayle Harris asked if we were ready to vote, she didn’t have time to specify that those in favor of the resolution should signify a yes by raising their yellow cards. Yellow cards just started rising, beginning with the left side of the hall. “Hey, what if I had started with the nos?!” she said. But the avalanche was unstoppable: a sea of yellow cards filled the room. When Bishop Harris asked those against the resolution to raise their red cards, I saw no more than 10, again, in a room of about 800 people. I imagine there were some quiet abstentions, but based on that sea of yellow cards, there can’t have been many.

So the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts has now gone on record in support of transgender civil rights here in Massachusetts as well as at the federal level, and it has asked the General Convention next summer to augment its non-discrimination canon to include transgender people as part of the ministry of all the baptized. I am incredibly grateful for all the supportive comments and spirit shared this weekend, and I look forward to the further connections that this resolution may yet foster. Thank you, Diomass.

- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge

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Here is the text of the resolution:

In Support of Transgender Civil Rights and Inclusion in the Ministries of All the Baptized

Name of Submitters
Rev. Cameron Partridge, Rev. Christopher Fike, and Rev. Canon Ed Rodman

Resolved that the 218th Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts supports the enactment of laws at the local, state and federal level that a) prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or the expression of one’s gender identity, and b) treat physical violence inflicted on the basis of a victim’s gender identity or expression as a hate crime; and be it further

Resolved that the Secretary of Convention convey this resolution to the Massachusetts State Legislature, and the Massachusetts representatives in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives; and be it further

Resolved that this Convention submit to the General Convention the following resolution:

Resolved that the words “gender identity and expression” be inserted into Title III, Canon 1, Sec. 2 directly following the words “sexual orientation” and before the words “disabilities or age.”

Explanation:

The Diocese of Massachusetts has long been committed to social justice and to the eradication of discrimination in all its forms both in civil society and within the church. Although the "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community" are often referred to as a group, lesbian and gay people have made considerable advances over the last two decades, while transgender people — transsexuals and others who differ from societal gender norms — are still without legal protection for their basic rights in areas that include employment and health care. In 2007-8, Massachusetts House Bill 1722, "An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes" failed to pass and will be introduced again in 2009. On the federal level, the Employment Non Discrimination Act of 2007 passed the House of Representatives on November 7, 2007 after it had been amended to remove “gender identity and expression.” The United States Senate did not take up the Act. Next session, it may be reintroduced with transgender-inclusive language.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has reported that since 1997, transgender people in the United States have experienced, on average, 213 hate crimes per year. 321 such crimes were reported in 2004. Slowly, states and municipalities are passing laws protecting transgender civil rights. Currently, 13 states have statutory anti-discrimination protection covering gender identity and expression, compared to 20 that have prohibited discrimination against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. Massachusetts does not yet have such protection at the state level and at the local level only three of our cities do (Boston, Cambridge and North Hampton).

Despite this profound vulnerability, transgender people are increasingly visible as productive participants in workplaces and communities of all types, including Episcopal congregations. By passing this resolution, the Diocese of Massachusetts would stand with the Dioceses of Newark, Michigan, Maryland, New York, and California, continuing to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. Furthermore, by calling for a revision of Title III, Canon 1, Section 2, this Diocese would encourage transgender people, as it does all of God’s people, to bear witness to God’s transforming presence in their lives, and to discern the various ministries into which God may be calling them. Finally, the passage of this resolution would invite the Church to open its eyes afresh to see God’s hand at work in the world about us, and to deepen its inquiry into the holy mystery of the human person.

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Vigil Against Violence

3/24/2007

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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

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A Statement of Purpose for TransEpiscopal

3/13/2007

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We wrote this statement of purpose as part of our process of applying to join the Consultation shortly after the 2006 General Convention. It was posted to our original blog on Tuesday, March 13, 2007.

TransEpiscopal is a group of transgender Episcopalians and our significant others, families, friends and allies dedicated to enriching our spiritual lives and to making the Episcopal Church a welcoming and empowering place that all of us truly can call our spiritual home. Our group was started in January of 2005 and initially served as an online, nationwide community of support. After several informal gatherings in various parts of the country, we held our first Advent retreat in 2005 in New Jersey, sponsored by the Oasis Commission of the Diocese of Newark. In January 2007, several of us attended the first Summit for Transgender Religious Leaders co-sponsored by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. Having met with leaders, lay and ordained, from various denominations and religious traditions, we are inspired and galvanized to support a new chapter in transgender advocacy that is spreading across the country this year; a window is now opening in which transgender people have an opportunity to secure civil rights protections that long have eluded us, and to win an increasing degree of acceptance and welcome in this country’s religious denominations.

As Episcopalians we are proud of those times in our denomination’s history when the Church has supported and empowered those who historically have been marginalized or “othered” within and outside the life of the Church. We are grateful for the gains made by the groups that have entered the wider Church conversation before us, and we look forward to helping to sustain and to build upon those gains. Because we also recognize that this is a time of continued conflict in our denomination’s life, and knowing that our voices may intensify and add complexity to an already challenging debate about human sexuality and gender, we seek to enter that wider conversation with awareness and respect even as we look forward to more change. Knowing that none of us is nearly as strong singly as we are in concert, and recognizing that many of us embody multiple identities represented by different groups within the Church, we seek to collaborate with other progressive groups, that together we may ever more clearly embody God’s transformative love for all people.

As a group of transgender and allied Christians, we represent a range of gender identities and expressions. “Transgender” is an umbrella term referring to people who transgress the sex/gender they were designated at birth. Some of us physically and medically transition from one gender to another (a complex, multi-staged process that various individuals define in different ways, but which traditionally has been called transsexualism). Others of us believe that our bodies need not take on any particular characteristics in order to identify as male or female. Still others of us do not identify with traditional gender categories. All of us ultimately see gender as a spectrum of multiple lived possibilities. Trans people and our partners also do not necessarily identify as heterosexual. Some of us who identify as male, for instance, are partnered with other men. Others of us who are now female are partnered with other women. And while several of us have found that our previous relationships weren't able to survive our emerging identities as trans, others of us remain with the partners we had prior to transition. One couple in our group has been married for 30 years. Indeed, those of us who are married can witness to a denomination already struggling with marriage, showing that we are already living into its new forms and expanding its dimensions. Many of us are single, and several of us have children and grandchildren. Indeed, some of us are raising children as single parents. We live out our vocations in various ways within and outside of the Church, some of us as clergy, some of us partnered with clergy, some of us as laypeople quite involved in our diocesan or parish governance. Others of us limit our Church involvement to Sunday morning, and some of us are searching for the right community. All of us want to be able to count on the Church to support us and lift us up just as they would other individuals and communities.

Coming out as trans is a time when, for many of us, our faith becomes even more important to us than ever before. As we have come out, some of us have experienced profound difficulty with Church leaders who view us negatively or in condemnatory ways. Others of us have discovered that we are seen as potential sources of controversy. Still others have found an inspiring and at times surprising support, given the widespread lack of information in the Church regarding transgender people. In order to increase that support throughout our denomination and beyond, we encourage the Church to commit itself to learn about transgender lives, not simply as social, medical or psychological phenomena, but most importantly as people on powerful spiritual journeys that uniquely embody a lifelong human path of transformation and authenticity before God.

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Round Two

Diocese of Massachusetts Passes Resolution on Transgender Inclusion

Vigil Against Violence

A Statement of Purpose for TransEpiscopal

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