Transgender Priest Testifies in Massachusetts
In Support of HB 1722, An Act Relative to Gender Based Discrimination and
Hate Crimes
Massachusetts Judiciary Committee, March 4, 2008
The Reverend Cameron Elliot Partridge
http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/2008/05/transgender-priest-testifies-in.htmlMy name is Cameron Partridge and I testify to you today as a Massachusetts
resident since 1995 and a transgender man. My vocation takes place in two
arenas, one as a doctoral student in the Religion, Gender, and Culture
Program at Harvard Divinity School and the other as a priest of the
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts serving in Allston/Brighton, where
transgender woman Rita Hester was murdered in 1998. I am here in support of
HB 1722 because I care deeply about the need to protect all people from
discrimination and hate crimes. I care not only because I myself would be
covered by this legislation in my secular work but also because many people
I know and work with—friends, family, students, parishioners, fellow clergy
and people of various faiths—want these protections to become law.
