by
Rev. B. Vandy Ward
THE PRIDE MOVEMENT of the LGBT Community was born, as I understand it, out of the necessity to bring awareness that Lesbian, Gay, BI and Transgender people are part of the fabric of life and need to be accepted and respected in their lifestyle for who they are. We are entitled to the same human rights and dignities, as any other person is entitled to those same rights and dignities. We are entitled to the same courtesies that every other person is entitled to.
We are created by God, loved by God and called by God to be a people of love, change and reconciliation. God loves us just as we are, just the way we have been created. So PRIDE calls us to love ourselves, just as God loves, to love others as God loves them and to educate those we encounter about who we are and to teach them that we too are God's children.
PRIDE means many different things to many different people. As I was contemplating the issue of PRIDE, I decided to do one of my acrostics. This then, is what PRIDE means to me.
P - Proclamation. I need to stop fearing the fact that I am transgender and I need to proclaim the fact, first to myself, and then to others. I need to proclaim the fact that God loves and cares about me and knew I was transgender even before I was born. I need to proclaim that God loves you too, and knew you were LGBT before you were born. I need to proclaim that you and I have a place in God's kingdom and plan for humanity in spite of what the "church" may have told us in the past.
I receive great delight when I am asked to preach and share God's Love, Word and Sacraments "en Femme", because that is who I really am. We need to go to the rooftops and proudly proclaim who we are and who God really is. It is time to proclaim that it is time to come out of our closets. It is time to proclaim that there is indeed strength in numbers.
R - Reverence. I need to have reverence for my transgender nature. I need to never take my feminine nature for granted, diminish my feminine role, put down my feminine self, or try to "exorcise" my feminine self. This is who I am; this is how I was created. I am a wonderfully created gift of God given to life.
I am a MtF transgender person. If I am to have respect for all of life, then I must also have respect and reverence for myself. However, to have reverence for myself is to also have reverence for the God who created me and the God who also lives in me. As a Christian, this means that I hold dear the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, knowing that God also has respect and reverence for me as His child.
I - Involvement. I need to get involved. I need to reach out to others who are struggling in their understanding of who they are. I need to get involved with the larger LGBT Community. I need to get involved in starting worshipping congregations that meet the specific needs of the LGBT Community and their family and friends. I need to get involved in educating others about who we are and why they do not need to be afraid of us. I need to get involved with our political process to help effect equal rights for us. I need to get involve in my church, my community, and my work to affect the change necessary for all people to live in harmony and peace. I need to get involved with at least one other person to help on their journey of life.
D - Development. I need to continue to develop my own understanding and belief system. I need to continue developing my own understanding of who I am and what it means to be transgender. I need to continue developing myself as a person of worth and value. I need to continue to develop my personal and professional presentation. I need to continue to develop my career options. I need to continue to develop my relationships.
I truly believe that we are continuously on a journey of faith that has created, is creating and will continue to create who and all that we are. We are, so to speak, a work of art in process. And that process will never end. Because I believe that even when the body dies, our spirit lives on in the presence of God and we continue to develop and grow, only in a freer and purer place than this earth.
E - Engagement. I need to engage the world around me with who I am and what I know. I need to engage you, the reader, to respond in a positive way to who YOU are and not to be afraid of to lament over who you are.
Another word here might also be encouragement. I need to encourage you to let go and let God love you, transform your thinking to one of self love, self acceptance, self worth, self, wholeness, just as God loves you, accepts you, values you, makes you whole as a LGBT person.
This is, in a nutshell, what PRIDE means to me. I am proud to be a MtF transgender person. I really like me as Vandy. I know God likes me as Vandy. (Besides, I am a whole lot more fun en femme than in drab).
Drop me e-mail and let me know what PRIDE means to you. I would love to hear from you. Tell me about a PRIDE moment in your life. Think of those times when you were glad you are who you are. Who knows, maybe someday your story may appear in a book, names changed of course to protect the innocent. In the meantime, have a great week filled with PRIDE for who you are.
Grace and Peace,
Vandy
