Trans visibility: A call to allies
Detail of resource cover page: Naming, Honouring, Celebrating: Worship resources for the International Transgender Day of Visibility (31st March). Photo shows silhouettes of arms raised against a sunlit sky, some holding the blue pink and white trans flag. Download the PDF for only £3.20.
Detail from Reform magasine November 2017: My Trans Calling: I am called to ministry, says Alex Clare-Young, and called to be transgender.
TRANS DAY OF VISIBILITY (TDoV) on 31st March is a day to show your support for the trans community.
To mark the day this year, OTN Co-Chair Alex Clare-Young has published trans-affirming worship resources, and a call to public action for trans allies.
Alex is a theologian, writer, campaigner, and Pioneer Minister with Downing Place United Reformed Church in Cambridge, which hosts the Cambridge Solidarity Hub, a network of communities and individuals who care deeply about inclusion, affirmation, well-being, and sustainability.
Alex’s TDoV publication: Naming, Honouring, Celebrating, includes four liturgies explicitly affirming and celebrating trans and non-binary people, including a trans naming liturgy. The 23 page booklet is available as a digital download from Wild Goose Publications.
Alex has also blogged a reflection on what it means to be a trans ally, with a powerful call to action, inspired by St Paul’s image of the Body of Christ [1 Corinthians 12]:
to claim trans allyship people must be able to honestly say:
We commit to weeping with our trans and non-binary members when they suffer,
To honouring them when they are disrespected, marginalised, or oppressed,
And to rejoicing with them when they are honoured, celebrated, or recognised.
Alex unpacks what each of these looks like in practice, in the current climate where
trans people make up a tiny percentage of the population and are, nevertheless, now featured in the majority of newspapers issued, usually with more than a hint of condemnation, disgust, or drama.
In this context, Alex’s is a call to public action:
The vast majority of people who tell me that they are trans allies have never, to my knowledge, spoken publicly about their support of trans people. This silence enables the tiny minority who speak against us to claim more power and to do more harm.
If you support trans people this TDoV please speak, please tweet, please post. If you can do so in your own words, amazing. If not, Alex provides some suggestions and social media images that you can copy and share [see slideshow above].
READ MORE ON ALEX’S BLOG.
PLUS: Alex shared their experience as a trans Christian called to ministry in the November 2017 issue of Reform magazine:
‘I am called to be trans, to be a member of the LGBT community, as much as I am called to be Christian, to be a member of the Church’.