An Act of Faith: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights

Last evening, about a hundred people gathered at the Edwards Church in Northampton, MA for "An Act of Faith: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights." After the first Act of Faith in Newton, MA this past January, several leaders of faith in Western Massachusetts organized an event to bring together communities of faith there in support of trans civil rights. I was honored to be asked to speak at the event, along with Mycroft Masada Holmes, with whom I am a co-chair of the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE). The evening featured speakers (sixteen in all) from a wide range of faith traditions-- Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Unitarian, Buddhist. The event was punctuated with exhortations, stories, song, prayers, and blessings. Below is an excerpt from my remarks:

This past November, my congregation, St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Allston/Brighton, MA, was honored to host Boston’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. We had been asked to do so because the murder of Rita Hester in 1998, which sparked this now international movement of remembrance, took place mere blocks from the church. I have always found it both moving and sobering to come together with the trans community every year on November 20th, but this time the experience was for me, as a transgender priest serving in that context, truly profound.

But the story I want to tell you tonight took place three years earlier, at a different juncture in my life.

When my partner and I decided to get married in 2005, we had already been together for twelve years. We had each come out in the lesbian community of our women’s college, and had come to the Boston area in 1995 for graduate school. Over the years, we went through a number of changes, not the least of which was my coming out as trans between the late ‘90s and the early years of this decade. Throughout this time, our community of faith-- Christ Episcopal Church in Somerville, MA-- was a tremendous source of support. And so when we decided to get married a few years after my transition from female to male, doing so at our church felt completely fitting. We wanted to get married in a context that recognized and celebrated our journey as much as our arrival at that particular point in time, even as we looked forward to journeys yet to come. Massachusetts’s then recent attainment of equal marriage—indeed, the first such legalization in the U.S.—created a yet more fitting context for acknowledging and celebrating our history, even though we would not be married as members of the same sex. With the day of the wedding nearing, the service and reception planned, the invitations long out, we went to the city hall of our town to apply for a marriage license.

In the time-honored tradition of people about to be married, we were nervous about any number of things that could go wrong, little or big. My slightly less generalized anxiety circled around the procurement of our marriage license: my secret fear was that the clerk at city hall might find some reason not to recognize me as legally male. And while I knew that if that happened, here alone in the U.S. (at that time) we could still have been legally married, the event would not have reflected the journey we had taken.

So there we stood at the clerk’s office counter, each of us in turn filling out the two required sheets of paper. Amid the various questions they might ask, I was concerned about one type of question, more common than one might think, that can come up and cause trans people difficulty in all sorts of contexts: "have you ever had another name, and if so what was it?" If a person has a former legal name that is unambiguously gendered, revealing that name can instantly expose your trans history -- perhaps even an aspect of your medical history -- in contexts where you have very little, if any, control over its reception and dissemination. As is so often the case, documents or decisions with huge impacts on the lives of trans people can be decided on the whim of someone behind a desk. If s/he is having a bad day, so might you, and then some.

After I finished filling out my half of the first form, I looked over my partner’s shoulder. With horror, I noted that she had written out my former first name. After she finished filling out her side of the sheet and we switched, I looked more closely at the form. But it asked “what are your parents names?” and what I had seen was her mom’s first name, which is the same as my old name. Sigh of relief.

So we finished filling out the forms and slid them across the counter to the clerk. She went down the list making sure we'd answered everything... and then, pointing to the “profession” line on my side of the form, she asked, "what does that say?" She had pinpointed the word next to “graduate student”, which I then read aloud: “priest.” "Then you can't get married," she responded. After a shocked pause, I explained that I am an Episcopal priest, not Roman Catholic, and that we can in fact get married. With evident annoyance, she took our paperwork to finish her part. The moment had felt teachable enough as it was, so I kept my thoughts to myself. But I will now report that at the very least, the following sequence flew through my head. Thought #1: you can't make this stuff up. Second thought: what was a city employee thinking telling me what my religion would or would not allow me to do? Third thought: being a married priest hadn't previously struck me as a particularly challenging concept-- at least, not in the context of my life. But hey, you never know.

The end of the story is that the license was issued and we went on to have a fantastic wedding. Our church community warmly and enthusiastically welcomed our friends and family from around the country. The service was beautiful. And although it was late October, with balmy seventy-degree weather the days before and, on the day itself, it snowed, just enough to dust the ground and wow our West Coast guests. As we gazed out the picture windows of our reception hall, beautiful fat snowflakes fluttered to the ground. Fittingly, it was a day out of time — a sacred, holy day.

This evening, too, is a holy one: a night in which we have come together to lift up a people who have traveled far and seen much, and who wish to be recognized as the people we are, the people we have been, and the people we are called to become. We come together to celebrate our humanity, both common and distinctive, blessed by unique opportunities but also regularly thwarted by challenges we should not have to face. We gather to galvanize one another and all those who care about peace and justice to do more to make the world a truly welcoming place for all of us. We must pass transgender civil rights legislation right here and right now. We should not have to worry about whether our identities or histories might prompt someone to deny us opportunities of livelihood-- whether in housing, credit, the workplace, schools, a hospital or a doctor’s office-- or even, as our litany of tragedy continued this week in Memphis-- of life itself. May we leave this gathering more committed than ever to doing our part, to supporting one another particularly in our faith communities, to make our world a place where all can be truly free to become the people we are called to become. Thank you.

Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge
Vicar, St. Luke's and St. Margaret's Episcopal Church
Co-Chair, Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality

AN ACT OF FAITH: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights

(Crossposted to my blog, MasadArts.)

In January, the bill “An Act Relative to Gender-Based Discrimination and Hate Crimes” was re-filed in the Massachusetts House and Senate. It would finally add “gender identity or expression” to the state’s discrimination and hate crimes laws and give transgender and gender non-conforming people basic civil rights.

On January 21^st, the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE) and Keshet held the event “AN ACT OF FAITH: Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Equality” – officially beginning the faith-based campaign in support of the bill.

Tonight, Beit Ahavah (The Reform Synagogue of Greater Northampton), The Edwards Church (United Church of Christ), ICTE, Keshet and many co-sponsors held the event “AN ACT OF FAITH: Western Massachusetts Communities of Faith Speak Out for Transgender Rights” at The Edwards Church in Northampton.

Ten congregations, eleven organizations, fourteen speakers (half of them transgender) and a full house of attendees came together for an incredible service to celebrate transgender people and commit to working for transgender rights.

These are the first and second interfaith transgender events in Massachusetts history! I wish I could tell you everything that they mean to me as a transgender person and leader of faith. What they mean to everyone who attended and everyone else who was part of them. They are miraculous, powerful, wonderful, beautiful beyond description. They are truly transformative.

With their program, each attendee was given the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition’s (MTPC) information about the bill and how to support it, ICTE’s signed Declaration of Religious & Faith-Based Support for the bill, information about the Transgender Emergency Fund, a green commitment card with several actions for the bill and transgender social justice, and wildflower seeds.

The first part of the service was a Welcome. Rev. Dr. Peter Kakos (Pastor, Edwards Church) gave an Invocation, and Rabbi Riqi Kosovske (Rabbi of Beit Ahavah) a Welcome. Gunner Scott (Director, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition) spoke about Testimony. Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian (Pastor, Haydenville Congregational Church) sang Libby Roderick’s “How Could Anyone Ever Tell You”.

The second part was Tilling The Soil. I preached about the meaning of Transfaith -- to read my sermon (Google Document), click this sentence. Rabbi David Dunn Bauer (Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Amherst) spoke On Chaos And Order and co-led Holly Near’s song “We Are A Gentle Angry People”. My fellow ICTE Co-Chair, Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge (Priest, St. Luke’s & St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church; Founding Member, TransEpiscopal) spoke about Giving Voice To Remembrance – for his blog entry, including his speech, click here. Tynan Power (Regional Coordinator, Al-Fatiha), read from the Qur’an -- Surah al-Inshirah (The Expansion).

The third part was Planting Seeds. Minister Louis Mitchell (Deacon, South Congregational Church; Minister, Recovering The Promise Ministries) gave words and an original prayer. Jan Alicia Netter (President, Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence) spoke about the Circle Of Caring and read Rev. Richard Gilbert’s poem. Rabbi Kosovske (Beit Ahavah) spoke of the Seeds Of Tradition.

The fourth part was Watering. Yohah Ralph, MDiv (Community Minister; Graduate, Episcopal Divinity School; In Care in the United Church of Christ; Member, First Churches Northampton) gave a Reflection On Faith. Arinna Weisman (Founding Teacher, Insight Mediation Center of Pioneer Valley) spoke and led us in Meditation & Movement.

The fifth and last part was a Closing. Rabbi Justin David (Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel) gave a Call To Action. Jennifer Levi (Director, GLAD Transgender Rights Project) spoke of our Next Steps. Rev. Kakos and Rabbi Kosovske gathered all the speakers to give the Benediction.

We speakers processed down the aisle and formed a receiving line behind the pews for the attendees. During that time and the reception that followed, I met many of my fellow speakers for the first time, and was gifted with several people’s responses to my sermon and the rest of the service. How much more so with personal stories about their lives from each of the transpeople, loved ones and other allies I spoke with.

A transman about to come out and begin his transition, who shares my fascination with mixed gender identity and expression. A transman who was partly sustained in high school by looking at my photograph in The Shared Heart (a book, exhibit and curriculum of GLBT youth portraits and essays – I’m the only transperson) every day. A transwoman who came out when she was eight, and went to a GLBT high school. A transwoman who shares my love of creating and wearing jewelry – and possible need for Jewelry Anonymous! A transwoman whose circus work taught her how to unite groups of people through the spirituality of their bodies and the rest of the natural world. A transwoman who like me comes from an interfaith family and has felt unwelcome, but sees and hopes for change. A transman who shares my interest in how faiths can learn from each other’s greatest teachers, including Jesus.

I am so blessed, grateful and proud to be part of tonight’s service, and the work which led to and will follow from it! Massachusetts has always been my beloved home (I was born and have always lived here). I’ve always felt closer to the Western part of the state than most greater Bostonians, yet I haven’t had nearly enough interaction with that community. This evening and its process was a rare and precious window and door into the amazing transgender and allied community of Western Massachusetts. What a privilege to witness such a thing, never mind be so welcomed and included! Hinei ma tov, how good it is to see the parts of my state uniting for transgender social justice and becoming more (of a) whole in the process.

Transpeople and our loved ones have been and are hurt, in faith communities and the rest of the world. We and our allies have much work and a long journey ahead of us, towards our inclusion in communities of faith and social justice. Tonight’s service acknowledged all of that, and yet was also so healing and hopeful. Tonight is part of a movement that will transform this state and country and beyond.

For the flyer (PDF), click here.

For the program (PDF), click here for the outside and here for the inside.

For the Facebook page, click here.

For my photos (Picasa Web album), click here.

The event was also photographed and filmed.

For the Edge Boston article, "Bay State religious groups back transgender rights bill" (by Joe Siegel, New England Editor), click here. For more press coverage, you’ll soon be able to click here.

Thank you to the event committee – Rev. Andrea Ayvazian, Rev. Eric Fistler (Minister of Christian Education, Edwards Church), Orly Jacobovits (Senior Organizer & Community Educator, Keshet), Rabbi Riqi Kosovske, Jennifer Levi, Jan Alicia Nettler, Tynan Power, Gunner Scott, Marcus Simon (Office Manager, Beit Ahavah), Marsha & Bill Zimmer (latter is President of Beit Ahavah).

I must especially kvell (be proud) about Marcus because he’s also a “TWiG”, a member of Keshet’s Transgender Working Group. And I must especially thank Tynan because he coordinated press coverage, and his family photographed, filmed, and co-led a song. Also, special thanks to Cameron for schlepping Orly and I from and to Boston.

Thank you to our cosponsors, speakers, volunteers, attendees and everyone else who was part of this event!

Mycroft Masada Holmes

Co-Chair, Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality (ICTE)

Chair, Keshet Transgender Working Group (TWiG)