What gender is God? What gender is your soul?
I will ask you to ponder those questions in the back of your mind; I will return to that question later.
My plan for this sermon had been to use it to urge that everyone here take part in the effort to pass the Transgender Equal Rights Bill that was up for a vote in the state legislature. Apparently the members of both houses of the Massachusetts legislature and the Governor realized that I would be preaching this sermon and so, recognizing the immense pressure that would then be placed upon them because of this sermon, they rushed to pass the legislation and Governor Patrick signed it into law just nine days ago.
To save time, later this afternoon I will send Governor Patrick a list of other sermons I plan to preach.
[The above is stated in jest!]
The wonderful thing is that my sermon, rather than being a push for greater justice and love, now becomes a celebration of these.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, so far in the year 2011, nine people in the United States have been attacked and killed for being transgendered. This is not acceptable; it makes the work of justice all the more important.
I plan to talk about definitions of the word transgender, talk about whether the various categories that fall under the heading transgender are “natural”, and then talk a little bit about theology and Unitarian Universalist values.
I have several sermon styles, and this sermon is focused on social justice not personal spiritual matters, though these clearly intertwine. This is a “political” sermon in the broadest sense of that term; it is social and political, not partisan.
I know that some of our Unitarian Universalist congregations have been accused in the past of talking politics and pretending that was religion. I do not wish to do that. Unfortunately, we live in a broken world. It is not perfect, there is much that needs to be changed in it, and many people are suffering. We cannot be religious people, claiming religious principles, without speaking to that brokenness and to healing it. We cannot claim to be religious people and ignore what is happening around us.
At least, we cannot do that and still be true to our proud heritage as Unitarian Universalists.
Today, a spark has been lit and has burst forth into a bright flame. The movement for justice is taking huge leaps forward, justice now for what are called sexual minorities. I cannot ignore that movement. We cannot ignore it. I will preach sermons with focus on other issues, but we are called to justice as well.
One of the greatest religious acts that one can engage in is reaching out a hand of welcome to an individual who is isolated and lonely, or to a group of people who are experiencing social isolation and scorn, and to bring that person or those people into the circle of love and inclusion.
But it is not sufficient to act on an individual basis alone; it is not sufficient to be kind and loving solely in our private or congregational acts. Love and inclusion require that we work for social justice so that the whole life experience of people is one of having a place at the table. It is not sufficient to provide an isolated place of shelter; true healing takes place when one’s entire life is made whole.
Throughout the history of this nation, the struggle for equality has had to be ongoing, because we as a nation have never lived up to our own best principles of liberty, equality and justice for all.
Our Unitarian and Universalist movements have long histories of engaging in the struggle for human rights.
Today another great struggle is taking place in this nation, and we have been part of it. Some date the modern struggle for rights for sexual minorities to the Stonewall riot of 1969, which lasted five days. Beginning in 1970, just one year later, the Unitarian Universalist movement became actively involved in the struggle by calling for full rights for gays and lesbians. My comment over the years has been that we came late to the struggle; given our principles we ought to have called for equality for gays and lesbians a hundred years before we did. However, though we came late, compared to other religions, we were relatively early.
The Office of Gay Affairs was established in 1973, changing its name several times over the years until it was named the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Ministries. We have made many efforts to improve our attempts to serve the people who fit in those categories both within our religious movement and in society at large.
And ten years ago, this congregation voted to became a Welcoming Congregation, a designation which recognizes those congregations that are welcoming to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.
Though we have reason to celebrate the fact that Massachusetts is now one of sixteen states that guarantee some equal rights for transgendered people, there is more to do. There remain thirty four states without such protections and while the federal government has moved to protect some rights for transgendered people, there is no law protecting them at the federal level.
What does the word “transgendered” mean? You will forgive me if I cover basic information here.
I have discovered that, like any label, the word “transgendered” is both too limiting and too broad. The commonly known description is that a transgendered person is someone who is psychologically one gender and is physically another, so they are a woman in a man’s body or vice versa. Some people stop using the term transgendered if they have the surgical procedures that change their body; some do not.
Being transgendered and being homosexual are not the same thing, but one does not exclude the other. One can be a woman in a man’s body who is attracted to men, one can be a woman in a man’s body who is attracted to women, or one can be attracted to both–or to neither; because it is not about sexuality it is about self identity and self expression.
There are also people with both male and female attributes, either physical or psychological, some of whom are happy with that ambiguity, or, perhaps more accurately, with that mix. They are often included under the heading “transgendered”, though they might disagree with that label.
And there are other people with different circumstances who are included in the same category. Some of them are happy with that, and some are not.
For today’s sermon, when I use the term “transgendered”, I make reference to all of those people who challenge our notion that individual human beings are easily categorized as either male or female. I use it for those whose gender identity or gender expression are “gender bending”.
How can it possibly be “natural” to be transgendered; “natural” is being either male or female.
Portions of an Article in the New York Times published December 4, 1984 twenty seven years ago today:
“WHEN a school of reef fish loses its single male, the largest female begins acting like a male within a few hours and will produce sperm within 10 days. Some other species repeatedly switch back and forth between the production of eggs and of sperm during a single mating. Among deep sea fish that only rarely encounter potential mates, reproduction is often possible only if one changes sex.
Such opportunistic sex changes in fish, once thought to be a rare oddity, are proving far more common than supposed. Conversions from female to male are now known to occur in species belonging to at least 14 families, while conversions from male to female are known in eight families.”
Nature is not willing to accept our assumptions about gender divisions as readily as we are. Instead it poses challenges to our presumptions. Nature is more wondrous, more varied, more astonishing than we usually recognize. I find it fabulous that we will always have so much more to discover and to learn and to see. If that can be our response, if we can say, “That is fabulous”, then all will be well with the world. It is when we decide that wonder and variety and the astonishing are wrong, are evil, are threatening; it is when we yield to fear of the different that oppression and injustice arise.
That is the source of all of our “isms”; racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism, all of them. When faced with the different, we too often respond with fear, we seek to ensure in our own minds that we are better than what we fear, and that what we fear must be controlled and contained. The fear of the different is what gives rise to the real evils in the world, the fear of that which challenges our limited visions of the world and the universe, the fear of that which challenges our view of what the world ought to be like if it just did things our way. That fear gives birth to hate, and hate destroys.
Love gives rise to wonder and awe. Love gives rise to more of itself.
I asked before what gender God is. Most modern Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians say that God—in this case the God of Abraham–transcends gender. Throughout human history and across cultures the original God or divine Principle is envisioned as either transcending gender or as androgynous. Hear the words from the New English Bible, the Book of Genesis: So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Hear those words. The biblical claim that all of us, male and female, are created in the image of God is a claim of a god transcending gender.
Whether we understand various forms of gender identity and gender expression, whether we can relate to them or not, is irrelevant to the question whether as children of God, as children of the Goddess, as children of the Cosmos, or as human beings, people have the right to be treated with respect and dignity; have the right to be treated as people of inherent worth; have the right to be treated with justice, equity and compassion. Those are our declared Unitarian Universalist values. We claim those for ourselves, we owe them to everyone.
We are a Welcoming Congregation; our hand of friendship and a seat at the table extends to transgendered persons.
They are welcome as full participants in our community.
They are welcome as they are; not as sinners to be saved, not as sick people to be made well, not as pitiful outcasts to be changed but rather as whole persons welcomed into full community with us.
We affirm their presence, affirm their membership, and affirm their inclusion in all aspects of our congregational life.
I stated earlier that I believe that the greatest religious act that one can engage in is reaching out a hand of welcome to an individual who is isolated and lonely, or to a group of people who are experiencing social isolation and scorn, and to bring that person or those people into the circle of love and inclusion.
In calling ourselves a Welcoming Congregation, we have said that we are committed to doing just that.
To live up to our claims, to live up to the words of our faith, the Principles of Unitarian Universalism, our claims of being a caring, nurturing community in which all are welcome, our stated commitment as a Welcoming Congregation, it is our responsibility to be part of a movement that is making our general culture more open, more accepting, more tolerant.
We are called to support those who seek to redress injustice and bring greater equality to our nation and to our world.
We are called to act in the name of justice and love. Let us commit ourselves to doing so until every person, including each of us, knows in their hearts the words of Unitarian Universalist Minister Cynthia Landrum:
Beloved child of the universe,
You are beautiful.
You are whole.
You are good.
You are sacred.
You are loved.
You are made in the image of Godde.