There is Room For All on Transgender Day of Visibility

 

There is room for all in the shadow of God's wing.

There is room for all,sheltered in God's love.

And I rejoice and sing, "My refuge and my rock in whom I trust."

There is room for all, there is room for all. 

More Voices 62, inspired by Psalm 91

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Corinthians 5:16-18 NRSVue  (from Lent 4 epistle reading)

This is Transgender Day of Visibility and we have to wonder how transgender persons feel in a time when they are being told that they should not be visible or respected in places where they had made progress.

In the United States Trump has led the way on the "only two genders' front and institutions have been threatened because they upheld LGBTQ2S+ recognition. Some of them have capitulated and others have been forced to comply with new legislation, including libraries. There have been purges in the military as well.  

In an interview back in January Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, a man who aspires to be Prime Minister, said  he is only aware of two genders — male and female — and that the government should leave questions of gender identity alone. When he was then asked whether he would request that the U.S. to recognize the gender-neutral “X” marker available on Canadian passports, he didn't answer the question and talked about the cost of living instead. This is not the leadership I expect from a PM. 

There are transgender persons in our congregation and I sense that they feel part of our community of faith. They are involved in a number of aspects of church life. We are largely an older bunch yet the acceptance on the part of seniors who certainly didn't grow up with any conversation about transgender persons seems genuine. For a lot of us this has required repentance and conversion. We have recognized that we had biases that were not consistent with the gospel and often cruel. We have changed our hearts and minds because we follow Jesus whose acceptance went far beyond cultural norms. 

Welcoming congregations as places of sanctuary for LGBTQ2S+ persons are essential. In Canada transgender persons are about .33% of the population yet are often demonized as predators and a general threat to public safety. At times this borders on hysteria. They are far more likely to be subjects of violence and discrimination and, not surprisingly, have a higher than average percentage who struggle with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts. 

There is too much "fine print" Christianity that proclaims acceptance for all only to make the circle so small that many are excluded. As Christians we can take the lead in modelling wider acceptance rather than reinforcing stereotypes and rejecting God's children. Every day we can ask how there is "room for all."