Transgender Day of Remembrance today

Transgender Day of Remembrance by Mikhaela Reid

http://www.mikhaela.net/

Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we commemorate those who were killed due to anti-transgender hate or prejudice.

The event was founded in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on Nov. 28, 1998 sparked the “Remembering Our Dead” web project. Since then it has grown into an international phenomenon observed around the world. It serves the dual purpose of honoring the dead and raising public awareness of hate crimes against transgenders — that is, transsexuals, crossdressers, and other gender-variant people.

Mikhaela Reid pictures some of the more prominent victims of anti-transgender violence in the cartoon above: Rita Hester, Brandon Teena (subject of the movie “Boys Don’t Cry”), Gwen Arujo, Chanelle Picket, Nakia Ladelle Baker, Debra Forte, and Tyra Hunter.

Born in 1980, Reid is a political cartoonist whose many accomplishments include service as president of the Gay/Straight Alliance at her high school in Massachusetts.

I am putting this post in the GLBT Saints series, even though the people honored on this date may not be “saints” in the usual sense. They were murdered for being transgender (or perceived as such). Thus they are martyrs to the cause of equality for all, regardless of gender identity.

Spiritual resources for Transgender Day of Remembrance are available at TransFaith Online, including this prayer by Rabbi Reuben Zellman, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco, CA:

God full of mercy, bless the souls of all who are in our hearts on this Transgender Day of Remembrance. We call to mind today young and old, of every race, faith, and gender experience, who have died by violence. We remember those who have died because they would not hide, or did not pass, or did pass, or stood too proud. Today we name them: the reluctant activist; the fiery hurler of heels; the warrior for quiet truth; the one whom no one really knew.

As many as we can name, there are thousands more whom we cannot, and for whom no prayers may have been said. We mourn their senseless deaths, and give thanks for their lives, for their teaching, and for the brief glow of each holy flame. We pray for the strength to carry on their legacy of vision, bravery, and love.

And as we remember them, we remember with them the thousands more who have taken their own lives. We pray for resolve to root out the injustice, ignorance, and cruelty that grow despair. And we pray, God, that all those who perpetrate hate and violence will speedily come to understand that Your creation has many faces, many genders, many holy expressions.

Blessed are they, who have allowed their divine image to shine in the world.

Blessed is God, in whom no light is extinguished.

The following links offer more info on Transgender Day of Remembrance:

Original “Day of Remembrance” site:
http://www.gender.org/remember/day/

Up-to-date info:
http://www.transgenderdor.org/
_________
This post is part of the new GLBT Saints series at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints and holy people of special interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.

We celebrate our 4th anniversary

Today we celebrate our fourth anniversary as an online resource for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) spirituality and the arts.

“We take creative risks and present controversial material that most websites won’t touch,” says Kittredge Cherry, the lesbian author and minister who founded JesusInLove.org. “We specialize in new GLBT Christian art that is too queer for religious institutions and too religious for GLBT organizations.”

As a small, independent website, JesusInLove.org is able to make an impact far beyond its size. By serving the grassroots, it has built a loyal core community of people who comment, donate, contribute and subscribe. They come from many spiritual traditions, but most have moved beyond mainstream churches.

“Christian rhetoric is often misused to justify hate and discrimination against GLBT people,” Cherry says. “I founded JesusInLove.org to present a positive spiritual vision for GLBT people and our allies.”

It has expanded from a single website into an online network that includes this popular blog, videos, e-newsletter and image archive. The content has also grown beyond the original emphasis on gay Jesus art. This year a new series on GLBT saints is generating lots of buzz at the Jesus in Love Blog. The blog now showcases a wider range of work from diverse contributors.

JesusInLove.org was launched on Nov. 17, 2005 with a news release titled “New Website Dares to Show Gay Jesus.” Since then it has reached thousands of people all over the world and co-sponsored the first National Festival of Progressive Spiritual Art.

“We have won many honors -- and we also get a lot of hate mail from conservative Christians,” Cherry says. She reports that a typical comment is, “Gays are not wanted in the kingdom of Christ! They are cast into the lake of fire.”

“Right-wing Christian bloggers labeled me ‘a hyper-homosexual revisionist’ and denounced my projects as ‘garbage,’ ‘insanity,’ and ‘a blatant act defamation and blasphemy,’” Cherry says. “The ongoing religious bigotry proves that JesusInLove.org is needed now as much as ever. Jesus loved everyone, including sexual outcasts.”

Cherry was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer. One of her main duties was promoting dialogue on homosexuality at the National Council of Churches (USA) and the World Council of Churches. Her books include “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” “Jesus in Love: A NovelEqual Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations.” The New York Times Book Review praised her “very graceful, erudite” writing style.

The first JesusInLove.org news release from the original launch is available in the Jesus in Love media room, along with other major news releases from the past three years.

_______
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenny_meriel/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

300 protest transsexual Jesus play

Jesus is a trans woman in the poster for “Jesus, Queen of Heaven”

More than 300 conservative Christian protesters picketed a play about a transsexual Jesus recently in Glasgow, Scotland.

Waving signs and singing hymns, they blocked traffic for two hours on opening night of “Jesus, Queen of Heaven” at the Tron Theatre last week. The play was written and performed by Jo Clifford (formerly John Clifford), whose stated goal was to create greater understanding of transgendered people like herself.

The play expresses a theme of love and tolerance in keeping with Jesus’ own teachings in the Bible. The poster shows Clifford posing as Christ in a white dress with a halo and crucifixion wounds.

Promotional materials sum up the play this way: “Jesus is a transsexual woman. And it is now she walks the earth. This is a play with music that presents her sayings, her miracles, and her testimony. And she does not condemn the gays or the queers or the trans women or the trans men, and no, not the straight women nor the straight men neither. Because she is the Daughter of God, most certainly, and almost as certainly the son also. And God’s child condemns nobody. She can only love...”

In contrast, protestors condemned the play with signs saying “God: My Son is Not a Pervert” and “Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven.”

Clifford said in a news interview that she was deeply offended by the protestors’ misunderstanding of her play and their prejudice against transgenders.

The production is part of the publicly funded “Glasgay!” festival, Scotland’s annual celebration of GLBT culture.

I believe that it’s important to envision a transgender Jesus because Christ represents God made flesh, and we are all created in God’s image, whatever our gender identity or sexual orientation. When we can imagine God as transgender, it is easier to recognize the divinity within the transgendered people around us. The transgender Christ is especially valuable to counteract the bigots who use Christian rhetoric to justify discrimination against GLBT people.

Similar protests were sparked by “Corpus Christi,” a play by Terence McNally about a gay Christ figure. Bomb threats almost prevented its off-Broadway opening in 1998.

Noah’s gay wedding cruise pictured

“Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise” by Paul Richmond, 2009
Oil on canvas, 24” x 30”
www.paulrichmondstudio.com

Happy gay and lesbian animal couples mingle with today’s GLBT celebrities in “Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise” by Ohio artist Paul Richmond.

His gay version of Noah’s ark even has drowning sinners -- opponents of gay rights such as Ann Coulter, Ken Starr, Pat Boone, Fred Phelps, and even Larry Craig with his toilet! Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie come out of the closet to watch from a porthole as a “God hates fags” sign sinks beneath the waves. Elsewhere on the cruise ship, human couples include Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Elton John and David Furnish, and Rosie O’Donnell and Kelli Carpenter. Even the fictional cowboys of “Brokeback Mountain” get another chance at love.

“I chose to symbolize our inevitable victory in the fight for marriage equality by painting my own adaptation of the biblical flood,” Richmond says.

He was moved to create the work after California’s Proposition 8 banned same-sex marriage last fall. Demonstrations across the United States in support of marriage equality inspired Richmond to paint a wickedly funny satire on the classic Bible story.

In Genesis 6-9, God commands Noah to gather his family and heterosexual pairs of animals into a boat to rescue them from the global flood sent to destroy human evil and the violence of nature. After the flood, a rainbow appears as a symbol of God’s promise never again to destroy all life on earth.

How appropriate that the rainbow has become a symbol of GLBT pride! Richmond puts a fresh twist on the Biblical epic with his sweeping vision of a gay-positive new world. A rainbow flag flies high on the mast of Noah’s gay cruise ship. “As the clouds begin to part, a heavenly rainbow appears in the sky to remind hopeful voyagers that full legal recognition and acknowledgement of same-sex love is just over the horizon,” Richmond explains.

His vision is artistically beautiful, politically meaningful -- and packed with visual jokes and pop-culture references that are great fun to find.

One of my favorite scenes is Larry Craig clinging to a toilet for dear life (detail below). The former Idaho Senator voted against gay-rights laws… and then got arrested for soliciting gay sex in a men’s restroom.

“Larry Craig was the first part I painted because I just couldn’t wait to throw that toilet at him!” Richmond told me.

The painting also satisfies my longing for GLBT-positive images of animals. Richmond painted wonderful same-sex pairings of cuddling elephants, giraffes, penguins, chimps, and, of course, flamingos. (Another detail below.)

The painting was well received (except by religious conservatives) and was named “the gayest painting of our time” by towleroad.com.

Richmond, now 29, came out as gay after graduating from Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. “My work is an exploration of sexuality and identity through narrative painting,” he says. “I draw inspiration from my own experiences as a young gay man from a conservative environment to break down the social constructs that exist around sexual orientation and gender roles. Through colorful, illustrative, and sometimes humorous paintings, I expose the grey areas that become overshadowed by black and white moral codes.”

“Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise” is available as a limited-edition giclee print from the artist’s online shop at etsy.com. I bought one for our collection and am delighted with its quality, artistry and message.

______
P.S. “Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise” has been selected for inclusion in this year’s OUTAuction benefiting GLAAD and celebrating their Top 100 Artists of the Year on Nov. 15. The artist says, “I’m so excited to have been chosen, and especially to be able to contribute that particular painting. Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise is getting ready to set sail for it’s last voyage! :)”
______

Larry Craig hangs on to his toilet while other homophobes drown.

Ellen and Portia lead the way as lesbian elephants and gay flamingos snuggle.

Brokeback cowboys, Rosie and Kelli and gay giraffes all have a chance at love under the rainbow flag.

Ann Coulter sinks with a “God hates fags” sign.

The following links may be used to place an order:

12” x 15” giclee prints of “Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise”:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21465325

16” x 20” giclee prints of “Noah’s Gay Wedding Cruise”:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23454918

All Saints Day invokes GLBT saints

From “Invocation for All Saints Day” by James Lancaster, published in Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations:

Our gay and gracious God, where shall we find your gay and lesbian saints? Have they all been lost to us? Bring us Saint Perpetua and Saint Felicitas, martyred women whose love and faith sustained generations of Christian hope. Bring us Saint Sergio and Saint Bacchus, whose fidelity and endurance inspired centuries of gay lovers. Bring us Saint Anselm, Saint Aelrod, Saint Paulinus, and the nuns of Tegernsee, who revealed lesbian and gay love and courage to the church and the world so long ago. Praise God for these valiant souls!

_____
Jim Lancaster was one of three openly gay seminarians who gained national publicity in 1988 for challenging the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s policy against ordination of gay men and lesbians.

Meet the saints he names (and more!) in the new GLBT Saints series here at the Jesus in Love Blog.

An Erotic Encounter With the Divine

“Let Me In: Young Gay Kiss” by James Wielson, Wikimedia Commons

By Eric L. Hays-Strom

I never thought about the relationship between sexuality and spirituality until several years ago. If the two words came up in conjunction with each other at all, my first thought, indeed my only thought, was that they were totally unrelated.

That all began to change in January 2000 when three of us set off on a road trip to southern California. Scott and I and our dearest friend, Karla, were on our way to a meeting in Palm Springs. While there, we took the opportunity to visit the headquarters of our denomination, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.

While perusing the resources available there, we discovered a tape series about spirituality and sexuality, “The Erotic Contemplative” by Michael Bernard Kelly. I was immediately intrigued. On our two-ay drive home from Los Angeles to Omaha, we started listening to the tapes and discussing the questions that came in a guide with the tapes. It was probably amongst the most intimate conversations of sex, sexuality and spirituality I have ever had. At one point I recall going into extreme detail in answer to a question from Karla, “Just what is it two gay men do when they have sex?” Oral sex was obvious to her, but what else if anything? And so I told her!

The tapes, and that discussion, were for me the beginning of a quest to incorporate my sexuality and my spirituality. Though in truth, I now know they’ve always been intertwined. My quest became to understand that relationship. I’m still a long way from finishing that quest.

The quest opened me to new experiences of the sacred, both in regards to spirituality and exploration of my sexuality and sexual expression. My first realization was that within the bounds of love, nothing sexual could be taboo as long as both parties consent to the experience, and no other parties are hurt. If I want to explore something untried, if Scott is okay with it, we do it. Some things we decide just are not for us. Others are. This freedom of sexual experience is only to be found within the confines of our relationship. We remain faithful to each other. Though, we have from time to time discussed the option of including another in our lovemaking.

Through the years our lovemaking has risen to an entirely new level when we intentionally invite God to be present to and with us. That is, when we prayerfully invite God’s Divine Presence to bless our lovemaking and to join with us in our lovemaking.

In my blog (http://scottneric.com/ontheroad) I have written about several experiences in my life in which I have known God’s presence, either as God or in the person of Jesus or of the Holy Spirit. So, in my own heart, and in my own soul, I know what the ecstatic experience of the Divine is like.

However, there is one experience I have not written about elsewhere. It involves the intersection of the ecstatic with the erotic, an experience of Divine Presence unlike any other I’ve encountered.

Soon after I began silently inviting the Divine Presence to be with us during lovemaking, I noticed that both Scott and I became more aware of each other’s bodies and more focused on finding those areas that the other enjoyed having stimulated. One day, Scott and I took a lazy spring afternoon off from housework to, as we euphemistically phrase it, Play. With a capital P.

After some time in intimate exploration, I invited Scott to enter me. There are several possible positions for this form of lovemaking, but one or two are especially conducive to a more loving intimacy. Scott chose one of these. Scott wrapped me in his arms and I surrendered to the intimacy of the moment. I prayed, thanking God for God’s Presence, and for having brought Scott into my life.

As I prayed, an awareness of God’s Divine Presence flooded over me. I knew Jesus to be with us, joining with us in our lovemaking. Every one of my senses was heightened. I felt exquisitely the caress of hands, smelled a scent that was heady beyond belief. I heard the beating of Scott’s heart, my heart... another heart. And though my eyes were closed, it seemed that a soft diffuse light glowed just in front of me.

At the very moment that climax arrived, all else washed away except for an overpowering feeling of love unlike anything I have ever experienced. I felt wrapped in arms from both sides, my breath stopped for what seemed an eternity. Both Scott and I commented afterwards that our lovemaking had never before lasted such a long time.

Ever since that day, I’ve longed for more of those experiences. While I have felt God’s Divine Presence on numerous occasions during Scott’s and my lovemaking, none have ever equaled that one very special event in which time stood still.
_________
Eric L. Hays-Strom has led a colorful life that includes living in Kenya as an exchange student and serving in the U.S. Army. He earned a Masters Degree in Catholic Life and Worship from St. Meinrad School of Theology in southern Indiana. He and his husband, Scott, live in Iowa.

___
P.S. A lively discussion of this post is also underway at:
http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/finding-god-in-gay-lovemaking

$365 needed now for Jesus in Love

JesusInLove.org needs $365 now for computer and web expenses. Please help us support GLBT spirituality and the arts!

We hope to raise $110 for computer repairs plus $255 for annual web hosting and a web update in August.

Many thanks to the 11 donors who already gave a total of $365 to pay the debt for our computer repair bill in recent months. It cost $475 to fix the computer, so we’re still $110 short.

Please donate now by clicking the “chip in” button below. Donors are honored with a listing on the sponsors page at JesusInLove.org.



We also accept donations by snail-mail. Please make your check payable to “Kittredge Cherry” and send it to: JesusInLove.org, P.O. Box 31133, Los Angeles, CA 90031.

“Your work is too important to allow a broken computer to slow you down,” one donor said in the email that came with her contribution.

Another donor wrote, “Your little website is spreading more Truth than the whole gay media put together. They're after out bodies. You're after our souls. Keep up the Good Work!”

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”-- Jesus (Luke 12:34)