more beauty...

 I recently attended a webinar by Egale Canada, the first of their series to increase the understanding of anti-racism, Indigenization and faith in Canada from a 2SLGBTQI context. It was very well done, with four speakers (re)introducing the Black feminist concept of intersectionality, exploring its implications, and affirming its relevance to 2SLGBTQI organizations.

As a person of faith myself, I really appreciated the important discussion, being quite aware from real life of the tensions and antagonism that can be present between queer folx and religious communities.

I also saw the following post come across my social media feed recently, and was stunned speechless.

When I first read it, I stared at my phone screen, not even having thoughts of any sort, but just looking at the words, letting them float into my brain. To be honest, on their way to my brain, the words affected my eyes which got a bit teary…

“There is more beauty in a single trans child than in the whole of your theology.”

It can also be said, “There is more beauty in a single non-binary child… more beauty in a single intersex child… more beauty in a single queer child…  than in the whole of your theology.”

And I'll add this: 

“There is more beauty in YOU as a queer person than in the whole of anyone’s -ologies. The universe leaps for joy because of you.”

Related links:

Building Bridges page at https://egale.ca/awareness/buildingbridges/

Post from https://www.instagram.com/p/C3lZ3QNuWVe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

dear queer one...

 Something that has been very encouraging to me over the past months has been the Instagram posts by an organization for queer youth of faith, as they have a life-giving tone while avoiding sappiness.

I was inspired to create a similar image and message of my own to share with you and on social media - if you live in Edmonton you may recognize the downtown location where I took the photo that is the background, including the street preacher who believes he has good news but really doesn’t. Here it is:

Hope you are all having a great Pride month! You are loved!

my alphabet includes NB, T and Q…

I’d like to share with you today about my alphabet of love and, in particular, about why it includes four letters that I've come to love very much: N, B, T and Q.  

Non-binary, transgender and queer.  

I'm focusing on these four letters because I have some amazing, beautiful friends and colleagues who are non-binary, trans and queer. 

And because I've been learning to center people who are at the margins, those who are more oppressed by the structures of our society and by those in power. To figure out how the last can be first…

And because it seems that some people are actively and consciously choosing to leave the letters NB, T and Q out of their alphabet, and I think it is important to speak up about it.

Of course we know some people are against trans folx because of lies and misinformation they've been told by others for political gain or religious control.

But there are also members of the LGBTQ2S+ community who say things like “LGB without the T”. The distinction they are making is between themselves as people who have a minority sexual orientation - lesbian, gay, bisexual - and other people who have a minority gender identity and/or expression - trans, non-binary, queer.

I am sad when I hear this. It’s true that from a western perspective, sexual orientation and gender identity are usually considered to be two different things. But when those who are LGB want to advocate for themselves and leave out the T - and by extension, the NB, I'm not okay with that. 

At a practical level, this wrongly suggests that the two groups never overlap - that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are always cisgender and that transgender people are never lesbian, gay or bisexual. This is not the case.

It also wrongly suggests that what impacts transgender folx will not impact lesbian, gay and bisexual people. That's not the case either and ignores the reality that what's happening politically is not really about protecting trans kids but is about control and power, and LGB may be next… 

And finally, it leaves out queer people whose cultures - or queerness, for that matter - do not have the same distinction between sex and gender that is predominant in western culture.