It’s Pat: Putting the ‘T’ in LGBT

from Stand Firm by Greg Griffith

It’s been a long-running joke around here, this alphabet soup served up by gay activists in the church to identify their movement: Years ago it was “LGB,” which we all understood to be “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual.” Then they added a “T,” which we figured meant “transsexual” until we were corrected - no, the “T” didn’t stand just for post-operative transsexuals, but anyone, pre- or post-op, living the life of a gender opposite the one they were born into. Ah, so it stands for “trans-gender.” The letter “Q” has made a frequent appearance, which we’re told stands for “queer” - although we’re not allowed to call gay people “queer,” so we just refer to the “Q” the way pop music fans refer to the symbol Prince once used to identify himself - mainly a combination of hand signals, smirks and eye-rolling. The lower-case “i” would occasionally tag along, which we learned stood for “inquiring” or “inquisitive,” only I could never see that little “i” without thinking of the scene in “Stripes” in which Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, upon enlisting in the army, are asked if they are gay. They reply, “No, but we are willing to learn… would they send us someplace special?”

Anyway, where was I. Oh yeah:

A Tuolumne County woman was ordained as an Episcopalian deacon at a Saturday ceremony in Stockton, joining a small but growing group of transgender clergy members.
Carolyn Woodall, an attorney with the Tuolumne County Public Defender’s Office, was conferred the title in a ceremony at the Episcopal Church of St. Anne in Stockton, joined by dozens of church leaders, family members and friends.
She will serve at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown, comprised mainly of local Episcopalians who stayed with the faith following a 2007 rift in the San Joaquin Diocese, which saw more-conservative members leave and join the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of America.
Woodall called the ceremony “wonderful” and said she was “very relieved.”
“I’ve finally gotten past it,” she said.

The Rev. George Cano of St. Anne’s, who led Saturday’s sermon, said, “We know what it is being Christians in a prejudiced world,” adding that it took the division of the church to make the Episcopalian faith “truly inclusive.”
I just had to bold that last part, in case you had glazed over before you got to it. Ponder that idea for a moment.

The ordination of Woodall also served as another milestone:

Integrity USA announces the completion of principal photography on “Out of the Box” – another groundbreaking documentary in the award winning Voices of Witness series. “‘Out of the Box’” puts the “T” in LGBT by celebrating the work and witness of the transgender community,” said Louise Brooks, Integrity’s Communication Director and the Executive Producer of the project.

“This documentary film is a resource for both teaching and transformation,” said Brooks.  “It is Integrity’s gift to the Episcopal Church and will be accompanied by a study guide designed to equip and inform opinion leaders and decision makers as we prepare for General Convention 2012.” The filming, which culminated this weekend in Stockton, California, in the Diocese of San Joaquin, at a historic ordination of a transgender woman to the diaconate, now heads into the editing process.

“As we prepare for General Convention 2012.”

Well.

At least somebody is preparing for General Convention 2012. What’s your diocese doing to prepare for it?