June 26, 2012
The Truth in Transgender: Will the Episcopal Church Amend Its Rules?
Out of the Box documentary challenges the church on transgender inclusion
By Elizabeth Drescher
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/6093/the_truth_in_transgender%3A_will_the_episcopal_church_amend_its_rules "I have to confess," continues Brooks,
"that I was one of those people who used to say, 'Why do we have to put the T with the LGB?' I thought it was a different issue. I thought it was confusing. I thought it was polarizing. I thought we should just separate the issues, take on one battle at a time."
A seminar by the advocacy group Trans Episcopal changed Brooks' understanding of the issues, and Brooks channeled her own learning experience into Voices of Witness: Out of the Box, a documentary that tells the story of trans women and men now serving in ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.
The immediate goal of the film, a copy of which will be sent to every Episcopal bishop and deputy in advance of General Convention, is to ground discussion of the resolution that "gender identity and expression" be explicitly named in the church's canons as characteristics that cannot be cited as reasons for exclusion from consideration for ministry. As the testimony of transgender priests, deacons, and lay ministers in the video attests (including commentary from bishops Gene Robinson, Ian Douglas, and Chet Talton), transgender people have not been universally excluded from ministry. But the revised language would ensure that ministry is a formal possibility in every Episcopal diocese, sending a powerful message of acceptance and inclusion across and well beyond the denomination.
