To:   My Brothers and Sisters in the PC (USA)

After returning from my attendance at the WMC-09, I feel compelled to share this letter with you.  Although spending those three days with over 600 people who shared a love for mission and a love for sharing God’s good news was a real mountain top experience for me, it was also a time of great sadness and pain.

I have a question to ask of us all.  I am a Transsexual and I wonder if, as a Trans person, I will be welcome to join the dance and celebration of what God is doing in the world.  You see, as I sat in the plenary sessions, I heard the speakers talk of God’s love for everyone, and the call for us to reach out to those who are suffering and I wondered if they would include me—just as I am..

As we gathered in group and sang the songs of “mission” and God’s love, I felt as if I were alone and standing on the outside looking in.  I was surrounded by a gathering of hundreds and yet felt isolated and alone—as if I were watching the activity from outside myself.  Can I, as a Trans person, be a part of the going and reaching out?

I love the Lord and have been blessed by what God has done in my life.  I feel called to serve and proclaim what God has done for me.  I can feel God’s call to me deep in my deepest parts, to go and be a part of the mission of the Church.   I also know that God loves me as I am, as a Trans person.  God created me as I am and loves me this way.  I cannot change that part of me anymore than I can continue to live if I were to stop breathing; it is who I am.  The call to be my true self is strong and I need to follow the path, to allow my true self to be free.

So why can I not respond to God’s call?  Why can I not join and partner with you as we seek God’s will and to follow God’s will for us and for the world?  Here is the interesting part:  I have been there, I have been to the mission gatherings with you, and have prayed and worshipped and worked and celebrated with you over what God is doing through the Mission work of the PC (USA).

I have done mission on your behalf.  I have gone out when called.  I have come back and shared those times with you and have been thanked and praised for doing this work.  Thanks and praise I do not want, for I believe that I was responding to God’s call and what God has done in my life.

Yet, as I sat there while we gathered in circles to sing about God’s love and proclaim our love for God and others, I felt more and more separated from you.   I felt more and more alone because I felt I must remain hidden from you.  Those of you who call me friend do not even know me and I am afraid you will not want to get to know me.

Your lack of acceptance and compassion, traits you claim to have and desire to share with others, causes me to remain hidden and unable to truly be who I am.  I pray among those who claim to be my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I am deeply afraid of you, because I fear your ridicule, your scorn and rejection, and yes, even fear your hatred.

Even as we shared Communion together, I can only wonder if you would have allowed me at the table if you knew who I truly am.  I ask myself why, in the Church I have served and loved for so many years, can I not find acceptance and the offer of a place of peace?  If I cannot be home in the Church, then please help me!  Where can I go to be home?  Where can I go to answer God’s call and to continue to serve the mission of the church?  Must it always be this way?  Is there no hope for me?  Must I die to finally have the peace I seek?  Or can the Church be the place that will help me to be my true self and be a place of safety and peace?  Will you still call me Brother, or ‘Sister’, after you get to know me as my true gender?

Mary

AND A RESPONSE TO MARY from Pam Byers, Covenant Network’s Executive Director

Dear Mary,

Thank you so much for your letter.  We in the Covenant Network are grateful for your active involvement in the church, and deeply saddened that you question your “acceptability” in the church you so clearly love and serve so well.  The uncertainty you feel about whether you are fully welcome is a primary reason for the existence of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, and we are committed to keep working until you and others have no cause to doubt that the PCUSA embraces you unequivocally.

You may not know that actually the Presbyterian Church (USA) has a minister member in good standing who is Trans, Erin Swenson, a pastoral counselor in Greater Atlanta Presbytery.  She recounts some of her story in this talk, which is posted on our website.

For a general overview of Transgender issues from a faith perspective, I strongly commend to you Justin Tanis’s Trans-Gendered: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith.

You’ll find a wide range of resources and testimony about transgender people on the Human Rights Campaign’s website. Many gifted Trans writers have contributed to HRC’s excellent “ Out in Scripture” resource. You can read about some of them here.

I’d finally point you to a wonderful sermon from our 2008 Covenant Conference, in which Barbara Lundblad of Union Seminary speaks by analogy to all sexual minorities including Trans. (Incidentally she specifically closes with a comprehensive invitation to the communion table.)

While you are right that there is still a great deal of work to do, I believe you would find a warm welcome, as “who you really are,” in many of our congregations.

Thank you so much for writing to us.  Blessings on your ministry and witness, and on your search for a church family that will indeed feel like home.

Faithfully yours,

Pam Byers

Did you know that in most states there is no law against getting fired simply on the basis of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity?   Supporters of an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) are pushing for a vote in Congress this week, believing that now is the time to put an end to this injustice.

For more information and to add your voice to this call for justice go to the website for the Human Rights Campaign. Contact your U.S. representative to express your convictions and encourage your family and friends to do so as well.

This summer, the Human Rights Campaign  and the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality at Vanderbilt Divinity School will co-host a week-long intensive seminar/workshop on LGBTQI issues and religion aimed at seminary students interested in working on these issues as activists and/or as academics.  Students whose seminaries do not offer particularly rich resources in this area of study are especially encouraged to apply; details available here. 

The Vanderbilt event is part of an HRC project to launch an annual seminary scholarship and mentorship program to nurture and promote promising religious scholars and theologians interested in LGBT studies.  Working in partnership with participating seminaries, schools of divinity and universities, HRC hopes to

build welcoming learning environments where intellectually and spiritually groundbreaking work at the intersections of religious studies, sexuality, gender identity and justice work can flourish.

By bringing financial resources, scholarly networks and mentorship opportunities to the next generation of LGBTQ and allied scholars, this project will help a new generation of scholars of religion and theologians promote and develop how LGBT issues and religion are discussed in seminaries and schools of religion.  And, by extension, they will help recast the conversation about LGBT and religion in our congregations and communities.

The application deadline for the Summer Institute is March 31.

The website also has information about a dissertation scholarship that ”will provide support to doctoral students advancing research on LGBT issues in religious and theological studies.  It is intended to provide financial help, mentorship and a network of collegial support to students working at the final stages of their dissertation… Preference will be given to students who self identify as LGBTQ or gender non-conforming.”

At the request of our friends at the Human Rights Campaign, we encourage you and your congregation to partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to help achieve a complete and accurate count of every U.S. resident in the 2010 Census.

Conducted every 10 years, the census describes who we are as a nation. It guides critical decisions on the national, state and local levels that affect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people. The 2010 Census will be the first to report counts of both same-sex partners and same-sex spouses. Transgender individuals will be counted as the sex they identify.

One of the shortest census forms in history, the 2010 Census form asks 10 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. It’s easy, important and safe. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with anyone, including other federal agencies and law enforcement entities. All Census Bureau employees take the oath of nondisclosure and are sworn for life to protect the confidentiality of the data.  The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

Please spread the word and let others in your community know about this important effort. You might want to download this flyer to post and distribute.