Gender change gives McHenry pastor unique insight
By Burt Constable
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120916/news/709169915/Facing the challenges of moving from their old church in Woodstock to new digs in McHenry, parishioners at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation unanimously voted to hire Rev. Sean Parker Dennison as the pastor to lead them through the transition.
An ordained minister since 2000, Dennison is uniquely equipped to handle whatever transitions come his way. He not only understands the middle-age man and the teenage girl, Dennison has been both.
"I feel as if I've been male for as long as I was female," says the smiling transgender preacher in his 15th year as a man after living his first 31 years as a less-than-happy female. "They figure out the gifts my transgenderness means. I can relate to the single mom or the old 46-year-old white guy. Been both. Seen both sides. I have this whole vast world of experience."
Aware of the ignorance, prejudice and even violence faced by those in the transgender community, Dennison says he doesn't advertise the gender change that saw him go from a mom to a dad, but he doesn't hide it either.
