[News/Religion] [USA] Lutherans for Full LGBT Participation

[Stephanie Stevens]

The formation of TransLutherans as an affinity group in
ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation, is proclaimed in
the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamieann-meyers/translutherans-for-full-lgbt-participation_b_1667018.html

Comments are requested and greatly appreciated.

Please circulate this link to your communities where people are
working for full participation of LGBTQI people in the Church. And
please, if you know of trans* people and allies who would like to join
us, suggest that they contact me at tr...@reconcilingworks.org, or
jamiean...@yahoo.com

In Solidarity and with wishes for Peace,

JamieAnn Meyers

Transgender Representative and Board Member
ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation

"We are named transgender so that others can preserve the illusion of
being properly gendered." Kris Gebhard, "Naked I: Wide Open"

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Huffington Post, USA



JamieAnn Meyers

Transgender representative and board member, ReconcilingWorks:
Lutherans for Full Participation

Lutherans for Full LGBT Participation

Posted: 07/16/2012 2:36 pm


On July 8, TransLutherans was announced as a new affinity group in
ReconcilingWorks: Lutherans for Full Participation at our assembly in
Washington, D.C. Thanks to the board for approving the formation of
this group at its 2012 spring meeting in Minneapolis. TransLutherans
has been a long time in the making. A word or two about the history of
this process is in order.

The board of LC/NA approved a resolution in the fall of 2002 to add
transgender and bisexual to our vision and mission statements, and a
task force was formed to integrate this work into the RIC program. In
2003 transgender and bisexual identities were to be included in all
subsequent mission statements of congregations who were to become RIC.
All congregations previously approved as RIC were asked to update
their statements as well. Many chose to use the wording "all sexual
orientations and gender identities." Those gathered at the final
business session of the 2010 biennial assembly of LC/NA in Minneapolis
approved a resolution to

• increase transgender and bisexual training opportunities for
board, staff, and Regional Coordinators,

• to create a national speakers bureau qualified to provide education,

• to commit the Legislative team and trans/bi/queer communities to
work together to create resolutions for synod and church wide
assemblies.

These resolutions would expand the welcome of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America (ELCA) to specifically include trans*, bi and all
people affected by binary gender oppression.

TransLutherans will support a network of people who will help to carry
out this important work.

Several years ago, two related personal experiences deeply affected
the course of my advocacy and the carrying out of these sacred tasks
through ReconcilingWorks as transgender representative and board
member.

Twenty-five years ago I distanced myself from the Church. My faith
life was mired in a valley of despair and was slipping away as my
gender identity, first sensed at age 3, welled up within me and began
to fill my consciousness. I was overwhelmed with fear of losing
everything I held dear, including my very life, were I to come out as
a trans* person. When I finally did come out to myself, then to my
wife and some close friends, a feeling of relief began to creep back
into my life, and my faith life was slowly restored. Many months later
I sought to reestablish my ELCA church home and arranged a meeting
with my pastor.

After reintroducing myself and explaining to them that I was in the
midst of my gender transition, I shared how I very much wanted --
needed -- to feel welcome once again in my congregation, from which I
had distanced myself after many years of faithful service. They looked
at me for a few moments with furrowed brow, and finally said
"JamieAnn, I think you might be welcome in one, maybe two churches in
town. Certainly the Congregational church would welcome you, and there
may be one other." It was at this moment that I began to understand
that people like me might not be considered children of God and a part
of the marvelous Divine creation of humanity. I subsequently sought
out a Reconciling in Christ (RIC) congregation in a nearby town and
the first worship service I attended as my true self transformed my
life. I began a life of advocacy for all LGBTQI people, working at the
intersection of oppressions in faith and secular communities.

The primary goals of TransLutherans are several-fold

• to lift up and provide support for transgender and gender
non-conforming people;

• to call out to the people of God to welcome us as part of God's
sacred creation;

• to educate others about transgender and gender non-conforming
people and the issues we face;

• to advocate for welcome and full inclusion of transgender and
gender non-conforming people in the life of the Church.

All transgender and gender non-conforming people and our allies are
invited to join our new affinity group. If you are a Lutheran
transgender or gender non-conforming person or an ally, no matter
where you are in your journey of faith, please contact me and join
TransLutherans. There is strength in numbers as all of us, people of
an infinite variety of sexual orientations and gender identities, walk
together with one another and with God.

Please pray for this newborn affinity group and for our work among us.
God continues to call all of us by name -- there is a place at the
table for all of us, no exceptions. Let us all be reconciled with one
another through Christ, whose love and mercy and grace are infinite.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamieann-meyers/translutherans-for-full-lgbt-participation_b_1667018.html