Non-Christians, Baby Christians, Discipleship and Moderation

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I attend two churches, one that tilts a bit to the right and one that tilts a bit to the left.  It took me a year to figure out that when one of them moves their worship service up an hour for the summer and the other one leaves it where it is, I can attend both services on the same Sunday for a few months.  The churches are only a five minute drive from each other.

And so when I thought of a scripture verse and a possible blog post to go with it, and then that general theme (if not the verse) was mentioned at some point during both services that Sunday, I took that as spiritual landing lights to move ahead with it.  So here goes.

I am concerned about the divisions in the body of Christ, the Church.  I am concerned about deep divisions in the United States of America.  Because this country was founded upon Judeo-Christian based values and ideals, augmented by commentaries of some of the best and brightest minds over the centuries, I believe that the two are connected.  I acknowledge that the U.S. has had mixed results in implementing those ideals.  Yet until now, they have been an inspiration for millions and to millions to do better, to want something better, to believe in something better.

Like the tangle of cords beneath my computer desk, it matters little how the mess began.  It might seem like a fruitful exercise to ponder whether a declining America led to a declining Christian church or did a declining Christian church lead to a declining America.  But at this point it would more likely lead to one more thing to disagree about, one more fine mess to get into.  Right now the priority is to get things untangled.

Since the topic was spiritually inspired for me, I will start from that side of it.  What I am seeing is that how the two poles of the Church get things wrong are mirror images of each other.

Let’s look at the Scripture passage that triggered this blog post: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. – Matthew 28:19-20

Now I pledged at the inception of my blog to use the KJV as my source for all Bible quotes.  But the KJV is often not the version used when I am in church or a Bible study or hearing a Christian teaching.  So certain popular verses will come to mind in an alternate translation.  And the more modern translations are consistent in rendering “teach” as “make disciples of”.  The KJV emphasizes the action to be taken.  The newer translations emphasize the desired result: for people of every nation to not only receive the Gospel message, but for it to have an eternal life changing effect on at least some people from every nation and for that change to have a practical manifestation on their lives here on earth.

It was “make disciples of” that resonated with me on Sunday morning as I was getting ready for church.  But how do you make disciples without teaching?  And how do you teach without first witnessing and getting a positive response?  And how do you get a positive response if non-Christians will not even listen to or read your message; if they stop their ears and kick you out from their presence or shame you into silence?

It wasn’t always this way during my lifetime.  I like to watch old television shows.  They are familiar, I find them more entertaining and they provide perspective.  Lately I’ve been watching old quiz and game shows like “What’s My Line?” and “Password”.  Previously I had been watching “Bonanza”, a show that mixed drama, adventure, comedy and some moralizing.

It is not the purpose of this blog post to postulate how we got from there to here in attitude.  But the difference can be startling, even to someone who lived through the gradual change.  It was taken for granted then that Christianity would be a major component of American life on these programs and it was respected.  Jewish game show panelists had no problem wishing people a Merry Christmas.  Every Friday, Allen Ludden would urge the audience members to attend worship services that weekend and show gratitude for their blessings.  Jewish actor Michael Landon not only portrayed a church-going Joe Cartwright on Bonanza, he made Christianity a major theme on “Little House on the Prairie”, and the focus of “Highway to Heaven” was clearly spiritual and Christian.  (Landon’s character is given a Gentile name, and in the very first episode alludes to Christ’s teaching to turn the other cheek, something with no direct equivalent in the Tanakh.)   Even clearer in its focus on Christianity was the Michael Landon created and produced show “Father Murphy”. While these shows continued for nearly twenty years after the end of “Bonanza” and were bucking the secularization trend in Hollywood, they were highly successful and point back to the way things had been.

There is nothing wrong with Christians wishing for a return to the respectful way that Christianity was treated two generations ago and earlier.  However, the way that many Christians try to bring this about can be counterproductive.

One of the biggest errors that some Christians (usually the more conservative ones) make is expecting non-Christians to live by Biblical standards.  If a person doesn’t acknowledge the Bible as authoritative, why would they follow its rules?  That’s like expecting me as an American citizen to live by the constitution of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Israel or Japan.  A similar problem is expecting non-Christians to automatically understand Christian-speak.  That might have been fairly likely over 50 years ago when the U.S. was steeped in Christian culture and even the biggest reprobate knew what they were straying from.  It’s no longer true and wishing it won’t make it so.

What are some of the biggest objections that non-Christians have to Christians and Christianity?  I was hoping for a poll, but I didn’t find one.  So I had to glean it from online articles: some written by non-Christians and some by Christians taking a hard look at themselves and their fellow believers.  Here are ones that made the list:

• Judgmental
• Hypocrites
• Unfriendly
• Shaming and sarcastic
• Unloving
• Hateful

Now if this was merely due to people living sinful, corrupt, wicked lives feeling uncomfortable, I would praise the Lord for that.  That isn’t because of what the Christians are doing.  That’s their own consciences convicting them of wrongdoing.  Comfortable people have little to no reason to change their ways.  It is only when they become uncomfortable and can find no peace that they are motivated to better themselves.

I also know that non-Christians do their fair share of hypocrisy, judging, shaming, mocking, turning away from and hating Christians.  So this is a two-way street.

But I think back to a Hebrew National commercials from years ago.  It was based on all the things that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (portrayed by Uncle Sam) allowed in hot dogs that they would not put in theirs because they were held to a higher standard by God. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAXvEFqLdm8

Any group that claims to follow God automatically puts themselves in a position of being held to a higher standard by both God and man.  So I don’t mind when non-Christians hold Christians to a higher standard, unless there is some violence or tangible loss connected with it.

It is true that some people are more motivated by the carrot and some are more motivated by the stick.  There are many Christians who only use the carrot and won’t talk about sin and hell at all.  There are many Christians who only use the stick and think they can shame or force non-Christians into conversion and heaven.  Sadly there are Christians who think they are showing love when they are using the stick far too often.  And there are Christians who think they are being compassionate when they are actually hurting others with that compassion.  So it is a complicated topic.

I heard someone’s testimony today.  He found Jesus Christ while in prison.  Upon release he returned home and went to church with a family member.  The people in that church knew about his prison background.  Rather than rejoicing that he would go to church, they all looked at him with expressions of “what are you doing here?”  When it came time for people to greet their neighbor, the person sitting next to him, literally his neighbor on his street as well as in the pew, did not greet him.  No one did.

He left church that day and went back to the streets and his old friends.  Two more years of his life were wasted, all because of a coldhearted church that didn’t evidence Christ in their walk.  But the Lord didn’t give up on him, even if some people representing Christ did.

Driving without a license landed him back in jail for a short period of time.  When he was released, he felt led to walk home 7½ miles instead of calling someone for a ride.  As he walked and meditated, he felt led to start a conversation with the Lord.  He rededicated himself that night.  Praise God, this time he found a church that demonstrated the love of Christ in their walk and in their outreach to a new person.  Many years later, that man now faithfully serves the Lord.

So someone becomes a new creature in Christ and finds your church.  Now what?  Hopefully you greet these people warmly and welcome them into fellowship.  But is that all that’s required of the church?  NO!  They are baby Christians.  On the one hand, their salvation experience may have them on fire for the Lord, but they are still a toddler in their walk.  Going back to that Matthew 28 verse, salvation is only the first step.  They need to be discipled.  They need to learn some discipline, just like any other baby.

Of course it is slowly and lovingly at first.  But this new Christian is only a baby in spirit.  Mentally they are older than that.  So you won’t just be saying “No”, you will be teaching and explaining the right way according to Scriptures.

And just as conservatives are prone to err on the side of legalism with non-Christians, liberals in the body of Christ are prone to err on the side of permissiveness when it comes to baby Christians.  In the name of love, grace and compassion, they are reluctant to correct new Christians for fear of either quenching their spirit or being legalistic.  But while we may disagree on what constitutes sin, it is clear that from the Bible that if we are new creatures, we are also to put off the old sins that beset us and separated us from God.  While we are to remember that we will never achieve perfection in this life, it is the target.

I am currently serving as a mentor in a local high school in a neighboring school district that has a large minority population.  To help us, especially those of us who are white, learn how to best mentor the teenage males, we are being trained by two black men who have made a career in education and mentoring.  Part of that training is reading books they have written.  I have already finished reading “Madd Truth” by Alfonso Wyatt and I am now reading “Soar” by David Banks.  There are similarities in their approach to educating these black teens and helping them grow into young men of achievement.

Discipline isn’t the only element, but it is a key one.  But it has to be the right kind of discipline in the right environment, built upon trust and peer support.  One of the chapters in “Soar” is subtitled “Discipline to teach, not punish”.  When trust is earned, hope for success is instilled and the right kind of peer pressure has been established, teen boys will want to follow the rules, do the right thing and succeed in the tasks put before them, whether in education, athletics, other projects, appearance, or on time attendance.

Yes, they acknowledge racism in society.  But giving black children an excuse to fail in the name of compassion by giving too much weight to racism is not compassionate.  Too many black teens, especially young males, are falling through the cracks when discipline is lacking because it is too tempting to take the easy way out, the excuse that the system is stacked against them.  Just as important, Wyatt and Banks use their lives and the lives of other black mentors to show that success is possible for black men.  Once they have the trust and attention of their students and mentees, their job is to guide and be a resource to help each one find their path of success in their area of interest and talent.  That guidance is based on discipline: discipline in thinking, in choice of friends, in commitment to assignments, even in the route that one takes from school to home.

Not surprisingly, one of these authors, Alfonso Wyatt, is a Christian.  His full title is Rev. Dr. Alfonso Wyatt, an elder on the staff of The Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, borough of Queens.  And just as discipline is required for a successful life, especially one when dangers are lurking, discipline is required for a victorious Christian walk.  After all, Christians face spiritual battles.  Even if it is motivated by love and compassion, an undisciplined Christian is likely to succumb in those battles.  A disciplined Christian is equipped to keep faithful to a Christian walk.

A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.  And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.  And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.  Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.  And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. – Luke 8:5-8,11-15

Many conservative churches tilt so far towards truth that they become cold, legalistic and fail to show the love of Christ.  They drive people away from Christ.  Many liberal churches tilt so far towards grace that almost anything goes.  They produce little spiritual fruit, although they are a friendly place.  New believers and those seeking God often soon find little reason to stay.  They’d do just as well joining a social club.

Moderation, balancing grace and truth, should be the aim of every Christian church.  Attending two churches on slightly opposite sides of middle ground is a way for me to keep balance and moderation.  While anything inherently sinful cannot be done lawfully in moderation or to any extent at all, moderation is required when one needs to balance two competing virtues.

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. – Philippians 4:5

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. – John 1:16-17

God bless,

Lois

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Scapegoats

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Would you ever want to be a scapegoat?  I would.  At least I would want to be if I am dealing with God.  With God, the scapegoats were allowed to live.  The “scape” part of the word “scapegoat” is an archaic verb that means to depart or escape.  In other words, the scapegoat is the goat that escapes.

If you have guessed that at least one other goat is implied by the concept of a scapegoat you are correct.  In fact, it is only one other goat.  What happens to the scapegoat and the other goat?  We find out from the portion of Leviticus where God instructs the children of Israel about the rituals to be carried out on The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.  And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.  And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. – Leviticus 16:6-10

Just to make it perfectly clear to those who might not be familiar with the terminology, when the goat and the bullock are offered for a sin offering, those animals were killed.  This is made quite clear in Leviticus 4:4 (for the bullock) and Leviticus 4:24 (for the goat).  The offering was not merely symbolic.

With the Biblical scapegoat and sin offering process, we see the Lord’s mercy.  All the people are guilty of sin.  No one is perfect and sinless.  But first the Lord substitutes the shed blood of animals for the sins of people.  Then he spares some animals, even though the blood of animals could never totally make atonement for the sins of the human race.

And certainly, I would want the lot to fall upon me to be spared, not slaughtered.  When the Lord casts a lot, He casts a perfect lot.

But people, as they sometimes do, have twisted the meaning of scapegoat into the ones who take upon themselves all the blame for a certain situation, even if they happen to be innocent.  No wonder King David, when he had committed a grievous sin against the Lord and was offered a choice among three punishments, he replied to the prophet who was God’s messenger bringing the choices to David: I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. – 1^st Chronicles 21:13 (portion)

Trans woman victim of violence

In the past few years, transgender people have found ourselves to be scapegoats more and more.  A tiny minority (estimated at 0.6% of the population), we are being blamed for the ills of society, charged with imposing ourselves and our agenda on the rest of the country, and impugned as being a group that uses our alleged gender identity as an excuse to violate girls and women, either by voyeurism or outright physical attack.  The latter charges fly in the face of the facts, as brought up by police chiefs and statistics around the country, that transgender people are not committing these crimes, even when access to bathrooms and other women-only spaces have been opened up to trans women.

Over a random period of a few months a while back when I was developing this post, I began to record mentions of sex crimes against women and children that were picked up in the news feeds that I receive.  I decided on at least a dozen examples (I ended up collecting a few more).  When I decided to start collecting this information, I had no idea what relevant news stories would be forthcoming and had no control over them.  These were the stories I collected.

• 40 year old white male middle school principal in upstate NY accused of having sex with a minor under the age of 17.
• 32 year old black male Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn who had been given the task of prosecuting sex crimes accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her car.
• 49 year old white male Village Trustee, venture capitalist and professor accused of possessing and promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child (uploading a child porn video to a website).
• 48 year old white male former major league baseball player, serving a 7-15 year prison sentence for six counts of criminal sexual conduct, is negotiating a settlement with four women who had been students at the high school where he worked related to him inappropriately touching them while they were working out in the weight room of the school.
• 76 year old white male rabbi and yeshiva principal in Connecticut accused by an alleged victim of repeated rape, molestation and sexual assault while the victim was a student and a minor.
• 28 year old black male who previously served seven years for a combination robbery, physical assault and sexual assault and then violated his parole two years after release was caught on camera and arrested for a similar combination of crimes against an adult woman in connection with a string of robberies in New York City.
• 52 year old white male music teacher and founder of a music school in New York City was arrested for allegedly trying to have sex with girls as young as 8 years old and actually having sex with 15 year old girls on multiple occasions.
• 30 year old white male coach of a high school girls’ sports team in Michigan was convicted and sentenced after confessing to filming underage girl team members undressing, and also possessing child pornography.
• 73 year old white male coach in upstate New York was arrested for sexually abusing one of his athletes, a female under the age of 15.
• 29 year old white male computer programmer and member of the mayoral staff of a major U.S. city arrested for promoting a sexual performance by a child under age 16 and for possession of child pornography on his laptop: about 3,000 images and 89 videos of nude girls between the approximate ages of 6 months to 16 years old having sexual conduct with adult males.
• 29 year old black male masseuse at a legitimate massage parlor located within a major U.S. airport accused of raping a 25 year old female receiving a massage during a flight layover.
• 50 year old black male counselor at an upstate New York medical facility was sentenced to a long prison term for sexually abusing patients suffering from traumatic brain injuries.
• 43 year old white male in Northern New Jersey sentenced to 33 years in prison for sexually assaulting three girls, ages 12, 14 and 15 years old who were daughters of his close family friends.
• 28 year old white male practicing attorney in the NYC Metropolitan Area arrested for taking upskirt photos of two 19 year old females at a sporting event.
• A white female (in her late 30’s at the time) elementary school teacher in upstate New York was accused by her alleged victim (now an adult; gender not specified) of rape when the accuser was under the age of 13.
• 25 year old white male police officer in upstate New York was charged with raping a minor under the age of 17.

There were no transgender perpetrators.  All but one was a cisgender male.  None of them disguised themselves as women to carry out their attacks.  Many were involved with schools or worked for the government in some other capacity.  Are there calls for banning people in these categories from public restrooms on the grounds of prevention?  Of course not.  More to the point, the loudest voices crying out in support of so-called transgender bathroom bills say nothing about preventative measures against the most likely group to commit sex crimes: those convicted in the past of multiple sex crimes.

Another argument used against transgender people is the suicide argument.  Because of high suicide rates, the argument is made that transgender people must be mentally ill.  But is transgender the cause or is it the stress of the negative reaction of family, friends and institutions?  For comparison, let’s look at another group that suffers from high suicide rates.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2014, an average of 20 veterans committed suicide each day, shining a light on only the most visible group of vets suffering from mental illness. Of those 20, only six were users of VA services. Veterans who are dishonorably discharged or who make too much money wouldn’t be eligible for counseling.  The graphic included in this post shows that the frequency of suicides has increased since 2014.

A Government Accountability Office study published recently showed that 60 percent of troops who have been discharged for misconduct in recent years suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder or some other type of brain injury.

Has the anti-transgender crowd called for a disbanding of the U.S. military because of the negative effect military service has on young men and women who serve?  No.  Have they called upon the military to change its recruiting methods to filter out those who are prone to suicide?  No.  Have they charged that those who volunteer for military service are prima facie suffering from mental illness because of the high suicide rate?  Once again the answer is no.

In these examples, we see the nature of scapegoating.  One group is picked upon to receive a disproportionate share of blame or negativity.

To be fair, while there is a significant amount of both scapegoating and violence against transgender people in the United States, the evidence we see every November when we observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance is that it is much worse in many other countries.  Brazil, a country divided on the issue similar to the U.S., nonetheless sees in the neighborhood of five times as many murders of transgender people.  In many countries, Muslim ones in particular, it is against the law to be transgender.

Exactly how many countries have laws making it illegal to be transgender?  We don’t know for certain.  Or at least there is no definitive list online.  There are many lists of the countries where it is illegal to engage in homosexual activity or distribute homosexual “propaganda”.  The people who maintain these lists assume that it would be against the law to be transgender in these same countries.  But there is no specific documentation of that, nor is there any acknowledgement that a country that does not prohibit same sex activities might still have laws making transgender identity or expression illegal.  It’s a bit ironic that human rights organizations don’t bother to give special recognition to the status of transgender individuals around the world, no?

Bathroom bills would require him and all trans men to use the woman’s restroom in a public place

Many times I have been in a group discussion where it is stated that people fear those who are different than them.  Certainly transgender people compared to the vast cisgender majority are different than most people.  And yet not all differences are feared.  Redheads comprise between 1-2% of the population, yet they don’t seem to be feared.  About 8% of the population has blue eyes, but they aren’t feared, either.  Skin color seems to be more fear provoking than hair color or eye color.  One might opine that we fear the dark, but do people with the darkest hair shades face more discrimination than people with lighter shades?  Why the preoccupation with skin color is a question for which I do not have an answer.

When it comes to anything related to sexuality that departs from the norm, the reason is more obvious: the fear is that something deviant and therefore perverse will be done.  But obvious reasons do not automatically mean justified reasons.  It has already been pointed out that the evidence doesn’t back the fear when it comes to transgender people in public bathrooms.  And of course those who support bathroom bills to keep trans women out of women’s public bathrooms forget that those same bills would require trans men to use the women’s public bathroom.

Asexual Panromantic flag

So if prejudice is based on what people will or even might do, then shouldn’t we expect that there would not be prejudice against people who are asexual?  Certainly if there is any group who identifies with a minimum of sexual motivation, it is this group.  And yet studies find that there is a high degree of prejudice against the asexual community, as this Psychology Today article discusses.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/without-prejudice/201209/prejudice-against-group-x-asexuals

Discrimination may or may not be rational.  A person with a discriminating palate is justified in choosing a five star restaurant over a fast food restaurant and a $100 bottle of wine over a bottle of wine with a twist-off cap.

Discrimination based on prejudice is never rational.  Yet prejudicial people have to find reasons to rationalize and justify their prejudices.  People generally don’t want to appear to be bigoted.  People generally don’t want to appear to be irrational.

Statistics are often the bedfellow of prejudice.  And any time a person cites 79% or 63% or 51% (and sometimes even 10% or less) as a reason to discriminate against an individual, it is prejudice.  Until one gets to know that individual, it is unknown which side of the issue or which type of behavior that individual will represent.

And when the percentage approaches zero, as it does with transgender people and violence by us, and yet there is still prejudice against us, how much clearer can it be that we are being scapegoated?

Although this post is being published on Memorial Day weekend, there is an Easter message in this.  But it is fitting for Memorial Day as well.  The act of communion commemorates the broken body and shed blood of Jesus as He bore our sins as part of the Easter story.  We celebrate … yes celebrate such violence against Him … in remembrance of Him and what He did for us.  And as only someone who is 100% God and 100% human could do, in one process He bore our sins on the cross as the scapegoat, was the Passover sacrificial lamb offering who shed His blood and gave His life for us, and He forever became the Good Shepherd leading His flock.

For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. – 1^st Peter 2:21-25

God bless,

Lois

And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part VI

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… and a Fortnight

After nearly three months, a lot of my stay in the hospital is a blur and I don’t remember the names of most of the staff anymore.  But what I do remember was that all the nurses and CNA’s (Certified Nursing Assistants) were very caring and supportive.  All of them were good and most were excellent.  Not once did I detect any measure of negativity towards me because I was transgender.

One major change for me since I transitioned is that I have a much more positive attitude towards medical situations and personnel than I used to have.  Yes, if I am truly in pain, I will not hide that fact.  But I try to be pleasant, even cheery and I can even tell a joke or two, sometimes in the midst of pain.  Hopefully the hospital staff came away with a good feeling after interacting with me with each shift.

Every so often, I had a few moments to chat with one of the staff members.  With one we talked about dealing with psoriasis.  Another time, I shared about probably having played high school baseball against Denzel Washington.  With another, I shared about my talent to imitate popular singers (although not enough breath to do it at the time and not sure if I will still be able to do so when I get dentures).  I remember explaining to one nurse the meaning of “cisgender” and talking about transgender issues in general.  Another staff member told me about some differences in Dr. McGinn’s protocol.  And shortly before I was about to be released, I had an emotional moment with an understanding CNA who had another staff member wait while I had “a moment”: talking about what my surgery meant to me, how fortunate I had been to not have any negative public incidents in the five years since I had begun presenting as Lois to the world and how bad I felt for my transgender sisters who haven’t been so fortunate.

That’s not to say that everything went perfectly.  The machines which monitored the drip from my IV bags beeped far more often than they should have.  One staff member told me that they never worked properly.  But I never wanted to ignore that beeping for long.  So I rang the nurse’s station more often than I would have liked, probably 90% of the time for that reason.

My operation was on a Thursday.  Business must have been slow because on Friday evening around 5 PM, I got a ride to a different wing of the hospital on that floor.  So few beds were occupied that they shut down the wing I was on and consolidated the patients.  That wasn’t a problem.  The problem was when the nurse went into my closet and didn’t find my belongings there.  They never came up with me from where they had been put before surgery.  And because it was now the weekend, it was much harder to find someone to bring my bag to me.  I had some jellied candies in it that I would have loved to eat at times when I had an appetite and no food in sight.  And I had some pocket testaments that I would have loved to have offered to some of the staff.  (If the conversation went in certain directions, I was not shy letting staff know that I am a Christian.)  I was only reunited with my belongings about 15 minutes before I was discharged on Sunday.

Then there was the food: do not go to the hospital for the food.  To be honest, I didn’t have much of an appetite for a couple of weeks after the operation.  Furthermore, I don’t understand the Romans wanting to be fed while lying on a couch.  Breakfast in bed doesn’t seem to be much of a luxury for me anymore.  In summation, the food was edible (and sometimes better than that) and occasionally I was hungry.

There was also a matter of timing.  We were served at 8 AM, Noon and 5 PM.  There was also a shift change at 8 AM.  One night, I ended up horizontal instead of slanted at my usual 30º angle.  I rang for someone to put me into position to eat breakfast.  It didn’t happen until 9 AM.  And I enjoyed that breakfast (French toast with bacon, as I recall, and both were very good).  But lunch three hours later was too soon.  And there was always a long gap between dinner and next morning’s breakfast.

Somehow by around 10:30 on Sunday morning, October 8, I was reunited with all my belongings, I had calmed down from my “moment” and one of my dearest trans women friends came to take me from the hospital to the recovery room at Dr. Leis’s office.  Since she had two of her children with her, I don’t know if she wants me to identify her by name.  But since she reads my blog, she can certainly do so if she wants to and if it won’t cause a problem for her.  And she knows that when it is time for her recovery from surgery, I will be there for her.

Slowly getting to my feet for the first time since Thursday morning, I managed to navigate the distance from my bed to the wheelchair and the walk from wheelchair to front seat of her car, while being cognizant of having to carefully handle the catheter bag.  While it was nice to get out of bed and out of the hospital in general (even as wonderful as everyone was), if I had my druthers I’d rather have stayed in place until that catheter had been taken out.

Roosevelt Boulevard (US 1&13), Philadelphia

And so I made the return trip from Bristol to Bala Cynwyd during daylight hours on a gray, drizzly, cool morning.  The GPS took us a different way than Dr. Leis used, a combination of I-95, US 13 and US 1.  There were lots of places with bumpy pavement (and the occasional railroad track) and after major surgery I was much more aware of those bumps than I was on Thursday morning.

Then we got to the doctor’s office and confusion.  I thought someone on staff was meeting me.  And I thought that Dr. Leis would examine me at some point, maybe even when I arrived.  (I didn’t see him at any point while in the hospital after the operation.)

A sequential compression device on a patient’s calves, while in a hospital bed.

But when we arrived, no one was there.  I finally reached the doctor on his cell phone and he told us to just go straight to the recovery room.  He saw me that evening.  So I gingerly made my way up the stairs with my thighs feeling like they had turned to lead in three days.  During the hospital portion of recovery, Dr. Leis uses SCD’s (sequential compression device) on the calves in lieu of walking early to prevent blood clots (plus an injection of blood thinner), but they do nothing to stimulate the thighs.  Having been told that everyone manages to do it, I pressed on and made it.

The most important thing I can tell you if you are facing GRS or any other major internal surgery in the future is that every person’s body reacts differently.  They can only tell you what happens in most cases.  Your mileage may vary.

Dr. Leis had told me that it would be a few days before I would have a bowel movement.  Jenna told me that for a while I would have a feeling of pressure like I was having a bowel movement, but it wasn’t one for the first few days.  The hospital staff doctor who checked me and pronounced that I was fit to be discharged told me that I wouldn’t have a bowel movement for a few days.

Even so, I had experienced a watery discharge from my bowels the day after the operation.  It had come on my quite suddenly, too fast for the nurses to get there when I rang for them.  So I got to experience what it is like to have your hospital bedding changed when you are in the bed.  I’m sure it isn’t their favorite job, but they are quite proficient at it.  And fortunately for them, I’m more featherweight than heavyweight.

Now I am in the recovery room in Bala Cynwyd.  I wasn’t able to get anyone to stay with me for the first day (my friend who chauffeured me had to leave for a family event) and there is no one staying in the adjoining room.  Jenna is going to come at some point and make something for me to eat but she hasn’t arrived yet.  I have finally figured out which remote will change the channels and I am looking forward to watching some playoff baseball.

You know how you are warned on the passenger side mirror that things aren’t what they seem to be?  Well I had been told that something that felt like a bowel movement wasn’t really a bowel movement.  But by golly it sure felt like one.  And finally I decided I couldn’t take the chance.  It was a good thing I moved when I did.  Dragging a catheter and moving at a reduced pace and trying to avoid soiling the floor, I made it over the toilet bowl just in time.  (Of course, I was in the room furthest from the bathroom, but it was the room out of the two where the TV worked.)  I couldn’t get the outer dressing out of the way in time, but I did the best I could.  Sorry Jenna!  At least I was wise enough not to flush and clog the plumbing with the dressing.  With rubber gloves, the packing could be retrieved (and was).  I think I finally convinced Jenna that I didn’t put the dressing in the toilet on purpose.  Hopefully by now she realizes it could have been much worse.  And life went on.

I got good news early on.  I was told that my friend Carolyn (wife of college classmate, Blair) had rearranged her schedule to come a day earlier than originally planned.  Actually she did more than rearrange.  She cancelled some piano lessons (paying customers) on Monday so she could come a day earlier.  Blair stopped in when they arrived and it was great to see them both.

Foley Catheter

All of my caregivers were wonderful.  But of the three, Carolyn was the only one who had children.  So she was the most experienced caregiver at a time when I needed the most care.  And she figured out how to empty the Foley catheter bag, a strange contraption of clamps, tubes and storage compartments that seems to be illogically configured at first, second and third glance.  (I had done it when no one else was there, but very clumsily and it was difficult for me to explain it.)

Dr. Leis showed me how to change the dressings when the catheter was in, and more importantly, once the catheter was removed.  The removal caused an interesting sensation and a moment of pain when it popped out, but then it was over.  I have been told to be glad that I never needed a penile catheter.

Carolyn was there from Monday to Saturday.  In between sleep, watching television, reading, phone calls, meal prep and Carolyn’s daily walk, we had many interesting conversations.  GRS in itself is somewhat surreal, even as much as it was important for me.  But it was also surreal to be having deep conversations with her.  My mind flashed back to having similar deep conversations with Blair, sometimes to the wee hours of the morning, whether about life in general or what we were going through in terms of relationships, school or career. Those conversations were ostensibly guy to guy.  Now I am having woman to woman conversations with his wife.  I am blessed to have two such wonderful friends and conversationalists in my life.

Carolyn was my caregiver (although she excused herself) when the catheter came out.  That was when I was handed the mirror and got a glimpse of the Dr. Leis’s handiwork for the first time.  The raw tissue and stitches were still very visible, but at least from the outside, I now look female there.  That wasn’t surreal.  It was very matter of fact.  I started to change my dressings with two non-woven sponges (that look more like gauze pads to me), covered with what is known as either a combine pad or an ABD pad.  And I learned how to pull up what Dr. Leis calls “granny panties” (aka wings) over them to serve as my disposable underwear.

Most of all, I had a surge of delight when Dr. Leis (clinically, of course), described my genitalia as “your urethra”, “your clitoris”, “your vagina”, “your vulva” and “your labia”.  This was my actual skin and tissue, not some prosthetic device.

While Carolyn was there, I got a visit from an aesthetician that Dr. Leis provides for his trans women patients recovering from GRS (perhaps others as well).  She told me that she could come back on Friday.  It would be a time of pampering, I was told.  She would arrive between 1:30 and 2:30 in the afternoon.  My friend Deirdre also called me to tell me she would be coming to visit on Friday afternoon.  Gauging the traffic and when she could leave, she expected to arrive around 4 and 4:30 PM.  No conflict, right?

Of course, the aesthetician arrived at 2:30 or even a few minutes after.  And Deirdre, even after a stop at Murray’s Deli, was early.  The traffic between DC and Philly must have set a record for lightest ever on a Friday afternoon.  And my tablet is ringing with her phone call while I am covered with a skin treatment and can’t get to it.

As far as the aesthetician, all I will say is that sometimes two people just do not hit it off.  I get along with almost everyone.  After all I move comfortably in very conservative Christian circles and very liberal LGBT circles.  But she and I, after the first few minutes, just did not click.  What was supposed to be a pleasant, relaxing pampering experience turned out to be the opposite.  In fact, I was somewhat agitated and talked to Deirdre and Carolyn about it a few times after the aesthetician left.  Plus the session cut short my visiting time with Deirdre, which in retrospect I would have much preferred.  (Fortunately Deirdre and Carolyn, both having music backgrounds, had friends in common and had a lovely conversation in the next room.)

Margaret, my friend from sixth grade, followed Carolyn in the caregiver role from Saturday to Monday.  Despite my telling them not to bring food (I had enough there to feed Sherman’s army and with me off my feed, it lasted longer than expected), they both did.  But it was good and we enjoyed it.

Standard equipment for Jamee before she retired.

My friend Jamee (a former engineering co-worker of Blair and a client of mine until she retired) took the final caregiving shift.  Jamee met me for the first time a couple of years before I transitioned and she and I just hit it off immediately.  It was also great to get to know her better as one can do when sharing a room for three days.  We also had some great conversations.

Jamee also helped make a key decision for me.  Dr. Leis wanted to see me before sending me home.  But he was delayed on Wednesday.  By the time he arrived and checked me out, it was past time for us to have dinner.  While Jamee had started to load the car for me (she was a blessing in that department), we hadn’t finished.  She told me that she could stay until the following morning and suggested I stay rather than leave and get home late.  It was an excellent suggestion.  So that’s what we did.

Mid-morning on Thursday October 19, I headed for home.  Wanting to avoid stopping to go to the bathroom if possible so I wouldn’t have to do a dressing change in a public bathroom (I eventually became quite good at doing so), I made excellent time and found myself home in a little over two hours.  But by then, I really did need to use the facilities.  I took care of business and then rushed back downstairs because I had cold food in the car that needed to be refrigerated.  From the exertion, I barely got inside my apartment when I passed out.  Fortunately, I grabbed hold of a quilt nearby and slid rather than fell.

I revived, put the food away and went to sleep rather than try to bring the rest of my things upstairs.  In fact, that would take a while and was done gradually over the next week or two.  The next day, October 20, I would have my next irreversible surgery of the month: all my teeth were being pulled in preparation for dentures.  As of this writing, due to complications in my healing, I expect to be without usable teeth and on a soft food diet for about three months before I have wearable dentures.  But that is an entirely different story.

I will have one more blog post in this series, dealing with the aftermath of the operation, evaluations and recommendations.

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:18-19

God bless,

Lois

And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part V

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Abraham, admissions, anesthesiologist, antiseptic, Bala Cynwyd, birth of Christ, born again, caregivers, childbirth, Christ's return, Christian, Christmas, comfort, dangerous road design, Dr. Christine McGinn, Dr. Sherman Leis, Dulcolax, Emmie Smith, eternal salvation, Gender Reassignment Surgery, general anesthesia, genital hair removal, God's will, Gospel of Luke, GRS, Hibiclens, identical twin, Jesus, Joy to the World, Joy Vanderberg, laser tech, laxative, left turn, liquid diet, Lower Bucks Hospital, Luke 16, major surgery, Murray's Deli, National Geographic, nuchal cord, painkillers, Philadelphia drivers, rebirth, recovery room, rich man and Lazarus, right with God, rising from the dead, rush hour, shaved, The Lord's hands, torment, traffic, umbilical cord

Four Hours …

I had one stop to make in Bala Cynwyd before arriving at Dr. Leis’s office.  I needed to drop off a prescription for painkillers that Dr. Leis had given me a few weeks earlier.  Since they are a controlled substance, I could only fill the prescription in Pennsylvania and I chose to wait rather than keep them in my apartment (and possibly forget to bring them).  I would pick them up after I checked in with Dr. Leis and his staff.

There is a CVS on the corner of US 1 (City Avenue) and Bryn Mawr Avenue, not far from Dr. Leis’s office.  Since I have an account with CVS in New York, a computer data base made it easy to file the prescription since they had all of my personal and insurance records on file.  Then I headed north on Bryn Mawr Avenue to the good doctor’s office and found out that Philadelphia area drivers don’t take a back seat to New York City area drivers when it comes to rudeness.

Murray’s Deli, just down the street from Dr. Leis’s office. I would go there for a pastrami sandwich when I wasn’t on a liquid diet.

To continue on Bryn Mawr Avenue at Montgomery Avenue, one needs to drive a couple of car lengths on Montgomery before making a left.  But the traffic light is only on the corner of Bryn Mawr heading south.  The traffic planners of Bala Cynwyd didn’t place a corresponding traffic light on the corner of Bryn Mawr heading north.  (As a former prospective urban planner and traffic engineer, I notice unsafe situations like this.)

So it was no problem making the right onto Montgomery.  But making the left to continue on Bryn Mawr at rush hour was a nightmare.  First of all, it was the early part of rush hour and traffic was heavy.  Second, the drivers ignored the “Do Not Block The Intersection” sign.  When they were stopped for the light, I was blocked from making what should have been an easy left turn.  Finally, Montgomery is a four lane road.  So even when a car in the left lane stopped to let me turn (after traffic flow resumed), I couldn’t see the cars coming in the right lane.  I eventually darted across, hoping I had enough of a gap that I wouldn’t get T-boned on the passenger side of my car.  The possibility flashed in my head that I might be maimed or even die in a car accident on the night before this life-changing surgery.  What a cruel joke that would have been.  But I made it safely and was soon parked in the doctor’s parking lot.

After I settled my nerves, Dr. Leis took me into an examining room and did exactly what the room’s purpose suggested.  It was the first time he saw me naked.  He also shaved the area around my genitalia in preparation for the surgery the next day.  He commented that my laser tech, Joy Vanderberg, had done a good job removing “most” of the hairs.  Of course, the gray hairs would not succumb to her zaps.

I was shown what would become my recovery room once I came back from the hospital.  It would not be used by anyone else while I was at the hospital so I brought all of my things up from the car.  Not taking for granted that I would have help bringing everything back down in two weeks, I had packed one small suitcase and a lot of small bags, whether it was clothing, personal items or non-perishable food.  Knowing I would have to feed myself and a caregiver for 11 days, I wanted plenty of food on hand, things not difficult to prepare and a variety to accommodate the tastes of myself and three different caregivers.

Shopping Center where an Acme is located. I got the perishable food items there.

Once I had squared things away (including what I would be taking to the hospital with me the next day) and checked out what was supplied in the kitchen area (the basic condiments and sugar were there, plus a few other items), I headed out to buy perishable items.

There wasn’t much I could eat that night, however.  I had to do all that driving and all that carrying (up to the third floor, mind you) without the benefit of solid food since midnight on October 3.  I had some beef bouillon and then juice from a juice box, got comfortable in bed, and failed to figure out how to get more than one channel that night.

I washed down a Dulcolax tablet so any remaining solids would be out of my system before surgery.  I was to have nothing by mouth after midnight so hopefully I would be totally empty by the time I had the surgery.

And I needed to get some sleep, even though I wouldn’t be awake for much of the following day.  Despite the importance of what the next day would bring, I had been through enough packing, driving and lugging that I had no problem falling asleep.  And I was pretty calm, all things considered.  This operation had been covered in prayer for a long time.  I knew I had committed myself into the Lord’s hands.

I set my travel alarm clock for a ridiculously early time so I could shower and wash my body with the provided Hibiclens antiseptic liquid that I was required to use – after I had my final bowel movement and bladder emptying (so I thought).  I noted that it was to come nowhere near the eyes, so I used more conventional means to wash face and hair.  I also wondered why the Hibiclens shower wasn’t done at the hospital.  After all, I had to get dressed to travel to the hospital and there was no guarantee that my clothes were perfectly antiseptic (even though they were clean).  And while the car I rode in was clean (as best as I could tell in the dark with a black interior), it wasn’t antiseptic, either.

Having taken care of the necessities, I took my travel bag (actually a Dress Barn bonus for spending a bunch of money during my second group shopping trip to add to my meager stash of female clothing back in 2012) and my purse and put them at the foot of the stairs.  Then I waited for Dr. Leis to pick me up.  Yes, when Dr. Leis does your GRS, he is chauffeur as well as surgeon.

Of course, he showed up when I had gone back upstairs for a few moments.  Jenna was with him and she had to come upstairs to retrieve me.  But soon we were on our way through the dark streets of pre-dawn Philadelphia.  At that hour, anyway, Dr. Leis takes the route through center city Philadelphia to get from his office to Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol.  It is the same hospital featured as part of the recent National Geographic program: the surgery by Dr. Christine McGinn of Emmie, the identical twin.

(Note: although done at the same hospital, and even though Dr. Leis trained Dr. McGinn, some of the procedures are different than the ones I went through. For example, I was not transferred from gurney to gurney while awake. I woke up in my own room on my own, not in the recovery room by the surgeon. And Dr. Leis uses some different techniques and different post-op protocol. Emmie seems to be experiencing more pain than I did, and they have her walking sooner.)

I found out a few things on that roughly 45 minute drive.  First, Dr. Leis has a very nice car with a very smooth ride.  Second, he has a nice touch behind the wheel, no sudden stops or jerky moves.  So I was quite comfortable in the back seat, never feeling a need for that involuntary move of my right foot to an imaginary brake pedal as I have with so many other drivers when I am a passenger.  But most of all, as we were driving through the construction zones on I-95, I was beginning to wonder if my surgeon was driving to Bristol Speedway in Tennessee instead of a hospital in Bristol, PA.  I don’t want to tell you at what speed he passed one of the temporary signs that were posted to inform motorists of a 45 mph speed limit in the construction zone (not that he was going that much faster than anyone else and he had plenty of company in the left lane.)  And yet I felt totally safe with him, just as I felt safe with him doing my surgery.  And when we arrived at the hospital, I felt no need to kiss the ground.  (One of the staff at the hospital told me after my surgery that he did get into a minor fender bender one time while bringing one of his patients, but they admitted that she didn’t know who was at fault.)

We were already hitting traffic on the southbound Schuylkill Expressway and for a sad reason.  South of where we turned onto the Vine Street Expressway there had been a terrible accident that I had heard about on the television as I was getting ready to go to the hospital.  A motorcycle rider was struck and killed on the Schuylkill Expressway.  That evening a second accident in Philadelphia claimed the life of another motorcyclist.  Fortunately it was not an omen of bad things ahead for me.

I found out that Dr. Leis also does some of his surgeries at Roxborough Hospital, about thirty minutes closer than the hospital in Bristol.  I would have been nicer to have the shorter ride, especially on the way back when I was in not the best of shape while still recovering from major surgery and there were some very bumpy sections of pavement to traverse.  My speculation is that either insurance or hospital logistics is the reason why my surgery was done at Lower Bucks.

Inside, Dr. Leis directed me to where I needed to go to get registered while he went to change into scrubs.  After all the initial bureaucratic paperwork, I was led past the spooky piano with the invisible piano player in the lobby.  Two great nurses took charge of me, my belongings and the little bit of valuables that I brought.

Whether it was the cool air when I disrobed or nerves or both, somehow my body found a little more urine to get rid of (so much for the Hibiclens once again), so the nurses told me where to go in the room to take care of that and they took the request in stride.  And before long I was being wheeled into a room with a lot of other gurneys and a lot of curtains that could be drawn around.

Soon I was greeted by the anesthesiologist who asked me some basic questions about any allergies to medicines, previous reactions to anesthesia and my approximate weight (115 pounds, thank you very much).  Dr. Leis came in, greeted me and then exchanged some small talk with the anesthesiologist before they turned their attention back to me.  An assistant anesthesiologist came in and introduced herself.

At that point, apparently everyone who would be in that room with me was present.  The anesthesiologist told me that I would feel a needle prick in my arm and I would slowly feel drowsy.  Darn, no more being told to count backwards from 100.  The next thing I knew, I was in a hospital bed with soft music playing and pretty pictures on a monitor in front of me.  I was in my room and the monitor was my television.  Lower Bucks Hospital has a channel on their television system called C.A.R.E. that features nothing but soft music and pretty scenes.  And that must be what they have you wake up to.

The evening before the operation, Dr. Leis had asked me if there was anyone I wanted him to call after the surgery.  My Cousin Sherry had asked to be called.  Later, when she called me, she said that he told her that my surgery took four hours and that it went very well.  Of course, I was out longer than that, but the four hours of the surgery were the focal point of it all.  Of the three most important events in my life, I have no direct memory of two of them. All three have to do with birth or rebirth.

I don’t remember being born.  Who does?  All I know about it is what I was told by my mother: she had to go to the hospital in the pouring rain when she went into labor; she threw up at the end of her pregnancy rather than the beginning, so much so that the doctor asked if she was going to birth me or throw me up; I made her miss lunch as I was born shortly after noon; that I was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck twice.

I would occasionally share that last item when childbirth stories were shared.  But since I have come out to most of the world, I have turned that story into a funny one, if a bit warped in some minds.  I say that I did the wrapping of the cord myself because just before I came out, I got a glance of what was between my legs for the first time.

Twice was a bit of overdoing it, but I have since learned that having what is known as a nuchal cord is common.  It occurs in approximately a third of births (less than 10% have it wrapped multiple times).  And babies don’t choke from it because they are not yet breathing through their nose or mouth until those passages are cleared and the baby gets that rude slap on its lower cheeks.  I did get some marks on my neck from where the cord had wrapped, but those went away in fairly short order.

The one life-changing moment I do remember quite well was the moment I associate quite clearly with being born again.  In fact, it happened just about where I am sitting now as I type this blog post in my apartment.  In June 1989, I wasn’t working out of my home yet and I hadn’t gotten my first PC, so I had a lot more room.  I was sitting in a lounge chair reading.  It took a few weeks before I realized just how significant it was, but that was soon enough that I remember many of the details.  But that is a story for a different topic.

GRS was the second time that I had been totally out with anesthesia.  Under anesthesia, there is no sense of being asleep, no sense of time passing, no sense of dreaming.  One moment you are in surrounded by a medical staff behind curtains and the next moment you are alone in private room with pretty pictures on a monitor and soft music playing.  I can imagine it being like waking from the dead.

It reminds me of a story that Jesus told as recorded in Luke’s gospel.  It’s a story about being right with God.  We always want to be right with God, because just as no one knows the day or hour of Christ’s return, no one knows their own personal day or hour.  But going into major surgery (my first of any type), I especially had to feel that I was right with God and was within God’s will having the surgery.

The story is about two men who knew of each other, one rich and the other poor, who died at about the same time.  The poor man was carried by angels to the comfort of Abraham, but the rich man was in torment.  And he cried to Abraham for mercy.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. – Luke 16:25-31

On this Merry Christmas night as I finish this blog post, we continue to celebrate the birth of one foretold by Moses and the prophets, who rose from the dead and through whom we are offered the free gift of escaping torment and being eternally right with God.  I pray that all who read this will choose their course wisely, not like the rich man.

God bless,

Lois

Lois Simmons: Evangelical Transgender Woman

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Having finished my baseball themed thread, I had planned on continuing my GRS journey in my next post.  But a story caught my eye.  It was a follow up commentary to the recent Pew Research Center study and analysis on U.S. attitudes towards transgender.  It confirmed the basis for my blog and the name I gave it.  By being a transgender Christian, I belong to two groups that are not only nearly mutually exclusive, they are generally mutually uncomfortable with each other.

In connection with this article by Samantha Allen which appeared in the Daily Beast on 11/30/17, someone did a Google search for the following two phrases: “Evangelical transgender man” and “Evangelical transgender woman”.  According to the article, the first phrase turned up one person (who was interviewed for the article).  The second phrase turned up no one.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/will-evangelicals-ever-get-over-their-anti-trans-prejudice

Having defined myself for over 30 years as a born-again Christian and having gone public since 2012 as a transgender woman, I was aware that there weren’t many of us out there.  But I neglected to identify myself as an evangelical anywhere on my blog.  Before I rushed out to correct this defect, I decided I had better make sure the meaning hadn’t changed since I last checked.

I found a few variations on the meaning.  I decided to go with the definitions provided on the website of the National Association of Evangelicals.  (I also checked them out to make sure they were a representative organization.  Since my current denomination and the conference to which my previous church belonged are both members, I am confident in their validity as an organization well-equipped to define the term.)

https://www.nae.net/what-is-an-evangelical/

First what is evangelicalism?  The NAE website lists four primary characteristics:

• Conversionism: the belief that lives need to be transformed through a “born-again” experience and a lifelong process of following Jesus
• Activism: the expression and demonstration of the gospel in missionary and social reform efforts
• Biblicism: a high regard for and obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority
• Crucicentrism: a stress on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as making possible the redemption of humanity

Noting that evangelical individuals are often researched, and acknowledging that the researchers use a variety of criterion to identify evangelical subjects for their studies, NAE and LifeWay Research developed a method that they urge researchers to use to identify evangelical individuals.  According to this method, an evangelical must strongly agree to the following four statements:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

And my answer to all four is that I strongly agree with each and every one of them.

For a few years now, I have identified myself in the following manner:

• I am a Christian first. That is my eternal spiritual identity.
• I am female second. That is my innate gender identity.
• Somewhere on the list, I am transgender. That is my anatomical reality.

So I hereby step into the void that was claimed to exist by Daily Beast.  I, Lois Simmons, am a born-again Christian Evangelical transgender woman.

Note that I live in New York, the third least evangelical state in the U.S. According to the Association of Religious Data Archives, my county is only 5.5% evangelical, which is nearly half the percentage in the state, So I am well aware of what it is like to be a religious minority and a gender minority.

As if life wasn’t interesting enough already.  While I have received a measure of acceptance and support within both groups and hopefully have also educated those in one of the groups about the other group, I have also detected and experienced measures of prejudice within both groups.  While it doesn’t surprise me, it does sadden me.

There was a time when it might have surprised me.  First of all until recently, transgender was barely a blip on the Christian radar.  Until we started receiving more news exposure, Christians’ lack of familiarity with transgender individuals could be a plus if the issue was addressed in a positive way, with a sound Christian theological foundation.  Furthermore, Christians and transgender individuals are two of the most persecuted groups in the world.  One would think that there would be a natural affinity between groups that share significant persecution experience.

Sadly, over the years I have learned that this is not so.  And it isn’t limited to Christians and transgender individuals.  I have seen or heard of too many members of one persecuted group attack another persecuted group as part of their claim that they have suffered far greater persecution and the other group doesn’t have a valid claim.  A current example is some black leaders who claim that LGBT+ organizations have hijacked the Civil Rights movement.  And I have seen or heard too many members of one marginalized group mock or denigrate members of another marginalized group.  It is not just those with privilege who use slurs and hate speech.

Persecution of Christians

Based on statistics that have been kept on the persecution of Christians for the past 25 years, in 2014-16, this persecution has reached record numbers each year with 2016 being the worst year yet.  Millions of Christians face interrogation, arrest, torture, and/or death because of their religious convictions and cultural/ethnic identification.  While about 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians.  Christians currently face persecution in more than 60 countries.  Between 2007 and 2014, Christians were targeted for harassment in more countries than any other religious group.  Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians are the most likely Christians to be persecuted.  Terrorist attacks against Christians escalated over 300 percent between 2003 and 2010.  It is estimated that 7100 Christians were martyred because of their religion in 2015, an increase of over 300 percent compared to 2123 martyred in 2013.  Christian response to persecution is almost always non-violent, demonstrating faith and forgiveness.  (Sources: International Society for Human Rights, U.S. State Department, Open Doors USA, Pew Research and Under Caesar’s Sword [at the University of Notre Dame in conjunction with the Religious Freedom Institute and Georgetown University])

It is not just adults who face this persecution.  It is children, too: at school, at play, on the street … anywhere.

The extent of persecution of Christians may come as a surprise to some readers of this post.  According to these sources, both the mainstream media and human rights organizations give little attention to Christian persecution.  From 2008 to 2011, according to research done at Georgetown, Human Rights Watch had religious persecution as the focus of only 8 out of 323 published reports (about 2.5%), and less than half of those focused on persecution of Christians.

In the part of the world generally defined as “The West” (North America, South America, and Western and Central Europe), significant religious persecution was found to occur in only three countries: Cuba, Colombia and Mexico.  Even so, Pew Research reports that governmental restrictions on religion increased in 37 out of 43 European countries plus the United States and Canada from 2007 to 2013.  During the same time period, social hostilities towards religion increased in 38 of the 43 European countries.  As someone who just celebrated her 65^th birthday, I can testify that both of these categories have negatively impacted Christians’ religious freedom in the United States during my lifetime.

One of the ways Christians are persecuted in the world is that they are captured and enslaved.  Both men and women are subjected to forced labor.  Young girls and women are often forced into religious conversion and then a marriage to one of their captors.

I have shared Josh Groban’s version before, but it is appropriate for me to do so again.  Not only is it the right time of year, but the words of the second verse cry out to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh-yR0pbmU

Persecution of Transgender Persons

While statistics of persecution of Christians can vary because not everyone defines Christian in the same way, international statistics on persecution of transgender persons are even more difficult to come by.  Many countries do not report crimes against transgender people at all, either denying the existence of transgender people in their country, or because it is not a crime to attack someone who is transgender in that country, or both.  Some countries simply don’t consider it important to report on such matters.  Others frequently misgender transgender people, using the gender assigned at birth rather than the personal gender identity of the person.

Even so, in countries where the statistics are more reliable, the trend is that violence against transgender people is increasing.  While some of this may be related to more accurate reporting, greater visibility of and backlash against transgender people also may be playing a role.  In the United States, a record number 23 violent deaths against transgender people occurred in 2016.  With four weeks remaining in 2017, that number was topped as 27 violent transgender deaths have been recorded so far this year.  Because some victims are misgendered in the initial reports, that number may rise even if there are no more murders before the end of the year.  And with violent deaths occurring at a rate of more than one every two weeks, there is no guarantee that there won’t be more murders before the end of the year.  The Christmas season of love and light provides no special protection for transgender people.

The vast preponderance of the 27 who were killed was trans women of color.  And again, while there are differences in deciding which cases are included and which cases are not, the trends and the identity of those who are most vulnerable are both unmistakable.  The annual murder rate for Americans age 15 to 34 is about one in 12,000.  For black trans women in the same age group, it is one in 2,600.

Gwendolyn Ann Smith

Another reason that the statistics may vary from website to website is that there are some cases that are in a gray area as far as whether it is a transgender related murder.  For example, a transgender person may be killed by violent means but it wasn’t because the person was transgender.  Gwendolyn Ann Smith, the founder of Transgender Day of Remembrance, points out that one of the 27 transgender victims of violence was killed as a result of an argument with a trans woman friend.  And there have also been cases where the victim did not identify as transgender, but it is likely that the perpetrator of the murder assumed that they were or might be transgender and that was part of the basis for the violence.

Even so at the root of the matter, the trend is getting worse.  And murder isn’t the only way that transgender people are persecuted.  According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, a 2015 survey of U.S. transgender people revealed that 55% of those who sought coverage for transition-related surgery in the previous year were denied.  77% of those taking the survey also reported that they were mistreated in some way when they were students during grades K-12.

I am one of the fortunate ones who was not negatively impacted in either of those areas.  But I did encounter discrimination from a person who at one time had been employed by my insurance carrier when it came to negotiating a fair market price for pre-GRS hair removal.  And I am about to contact a transgender-supportive state legislator’s office to look into why another reimbursement request related to my surgery has gone into a black hole: no approval, no denial and no explanation has been put forward.

The persecution of transgender people doesn’t just occur in dark alleys and private places.  It also has been occurring in the halls of government.  Although none of these bills have passed, sixteen states considered legislation to curtail the right of transgender people to use the public bathroom that corresponds with their personal gender identity, and six states have considered legislation to invalidate local anti-discrimination protections.  There have also been three actions taken by the Federal Government in 2017 to roll back recent gains in transgender equality: rescinding protection guidelines for transgender students, the effort to bar transgender troops, and the Justice Department decision to stop applying workplace discrimination protections to transgender people.

The language here is very important.  Note that I have deliberately used the phrase “transgender people”.  While we have a transgender identity, first and foremost, we are people.  Some of us have made significant positive contributions to our society, whether before our transition, or after, or both.  Many more hold down steady jobs in a variety of industries and professions, pay our taxes, are good neighbors in our communities and play an important role in our families, worship in accordance with our religious or spiritual beliefs, and help provide the goods and services that meet the needs, wants and desires of our fellow Americans.

Note also that I talk about “transgender equality”, not “transgender rights”.  We do not seek special rights above and beyond what our cisgender neighbors enjoy.  We want the right to apply for and hold a job, to find housing, to receive public accommodations without being discriminated against.  We want the right to feel safe in our homes, on the streets, and yes in bathrooms (where we are vulnerable, not perpetrators).  To summarize, we want our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness the same as any other American covered under the Constitution of the United States.

The trend for murders of transgender people around the world is also increasing compared to the previous year.  Based on statistics gathered by transrespect.org in preparation for TDOR 2017, there was an increase from 295 to 325 in the number of murders compared to the similar time period for the previous year.  Brazil by far continues to produce the most reported murders, with 171 for the 2016-17 time period, followed by Mexico (56) and the United States (25).  Since the statistics were first kept, there were 2,609 reported murders from January 1, 2008 to September 30, 2017.

There are many ways in which transgender victims of murder and other violent crimes are dehumanized as part of the systemic persecution.  One is that the names and/or ages of the victims are not reported.  Often, the victim is identified by birth name and gender in the official reports rather than their chosen name and personal gender identity.  In many countries around the world, including Brazil and Thailand, it is illegal to change your name.

And then there is the situation where many countries do not report these crimes at all, or do not consider them to be crimes.  Here is a salient quote from the transrespect.org website: “Trans and gender-diverse people around the world are victims of horrifying hate violence, including extortion, physical and sexual assaults, and murder, which often go unreported.  In most countries, data on violence against trans and gender-diverse people are not systematically produced and it is impossible to estimate the actual number of cases.”  Furthermore, it is suspected that there is vast underreporting of murders of transgender people from most Muslim countries, Russia and China, to name the largest and most flagrant instances.

On the other side of the reporting coin is Brazil.  The situation in Brazil is similar to that in the United States.  There are areas of the country, such as Rio de Janeiro, where there is a very visible and accepted transgender community.  But there are other areas of the country, such as Sao Paulo (less than 200 air miles away), where much of the murder and other violent crimes against transgender people occur.  Brazil has a little less than 2/3 the population of the United States, but nearly seven times as many murders of transgender people.  For all citizens, Brazil’s murder rate is 4½ times as high as the United States, so that explains some, but not all of the discrepancy.  Differences in the religious makeup of the population may also explain some of the discrepancy.

Comparing the persecution of the two groups, you may have noticed something.  As a member of both groups, I am certainly aware of it.  As much as a significant number of Christians feel antipathy toward transgender people and a significant number of transgender people feel antipathy toward Christians, both face a significant amount of their persecution by the same outside groups.

It is not uncommon for the enemy of my enemy to become my friend as a way for group alliances to be formed.  But the groups have to sense that they have enough in common and have to reduce if not eliminate any sniping they are doing at each other.  And that brings me back to one of the purposes of my blog.  I have found a way to reconcile these two parts of my identity that many would claim to be diametrically opposed.  If I can do it within me and not abandon one part or the other, then theoretically speaking it is doable in society.  But both groups need to reach a place where they would prefer making allies instead of looking for gotchas and ways of putting the other group down.  And that usually starts with one side making the first peace overture and the other side responding in kind.  That might not be easy in view of the past history and lack of a centralized leadership for either group.

But here is where my Christian background comes to the fore.  All things are possible with God.  It doesn’t mean that it will happen, and I confess that at times it feels like I am shoveling sand against the tide.  But it can happen.  So for now, I stay at the task.

When I went to college, I had hopes of being a civil engineer/urban planner/transportation engineer.  Maybe I can still be a bridge.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. – Philippians 4:6

God bless,

Lois

And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part IV

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Fifty-four years later, prayers are answered

Sometimes God answers prayers with a yes.  He also has a couple of different ways of saying no.  One is, “No, I love you too much to give you that.”  Another is, “No, because I have something better in store for you.”

And then there’s the one most of us heard at some point in our childhood: “You’re too young now; maybe when you’re older.”  Of course, there is no maybe with the Lord.  He knows whether it will be a yes or a no.  But after all, we are His children.  And sometimes we do need to wait until we are older.

American girls – 1960’s style

I recognized my female identity when I was seven.  It didn’t become problematic until I was around age 10 or 11.  I was at that age that I started to pray that I would wake up with a girl’s body (an interesting prayer, since I still didn’t know what a naked girl’s body looked like).  And it was soon after that time that I renamed myself.  After all, if I trusted that God grants prayer requests, I needed to be prepared with a girl’s name to tell people.

Renaming wasn’t new to me.  By that age, I had heard the story of the younger sibling of a girl in my brother’s grammar school class.  When this sibling was born, the gender assigned at birth was female.  The child was given a female name and raised as a girl.  At some point in time before the sibling started school, the sibling started to complain about severe pains in the abdominal area.

When the doctors did their examination, it was found that this child was really a male who was born with genitalia that didn’t descend out of the body: therefore the female appearance at birth.  After surgery was performed to correct the problem, the child’s first name was masculinized and was now raised as a boy.  And by the time I was ten, I heard about this event.

(As a side note, some of the so-called “bathroom bills” aimed at restricting transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their personal gender identity would require this person and others like him to use the women’s bathroom in public places.  Why?  Because his initial birth certificate identified him as female and that is one of the criteria in these bills for assigning the bathroom to use.  The result: a very masculine person in all other regards breaking the law if he uses the men’s bathroom in public.)

But back to my story: although the battle over dental insurance was ongoing, things had quieted down on the GRS front.  My hair removal was proceeding on schedule and by September, virtually all the dark hairs were removed.  I was ready for my pre-surgery visit with Dr. Sherman Leis on September 13, 2017.  This was where the rubber would truly meet the road.

One of the sobering parts of the meeting is the reading of the long list of possible risks of the surgery.  Some of them were minor and some were rare.  One or two risks were so rare that Dr. Leis said that he had never seen a case or heard of a case of it occurring.  Nevertheless, it was part of the list.  I was glad that death was not on the list.  I took a breath and signed a copy of the list that indicated that I had heard and received a copy.

One of the things that impressed me was that my surgeon stays current on technique.  If I understood him in terms of the time frame, he had learned a significantly new surgical technique compared to what he was using when I had seen him for the initial consult on 11/30/16.  Previously, after the orchiectomy (removal of the testicles), the remaining genitalia was completely removed.  To complete the vaginoplasty, the penile skin is sewn back in.  The surgical scar would roughly be in the shape of the letter “O”.

With the new technique, the remaining penile skin is not completely removed.  At the top of the genital area (i.e. the part furthest from the anus), the penile skin is left attached to the rest of the body.  Anything that needs to be done can be done from that position, but not as many nerves are detached and there continues to be a flow of blood into the penile skin at all times.  This new procedure reduces risk, such as risk of necrosis, and aids in healing the surgical area.  With this procedure, the surgical scar is roughly in the shape of the letter “U”.

Of course, I had some questions.  Someone in the transgender community asked me if Dr. Leis “scraped” (technical term: curettage) to remove any stray or gray hairs.  He said that he did not do so because penile skin is very thin and delicate and curettage tends to be harmful to it.  He would remove any stray and gray hairs with a needle (the only painless form of electrology, presuming the patient is totally knocked out on general anesthesia!).  He might have described it as a form of cauterization, but my memory may be less accurate on the term.

I also wanted to know why he hadn’t asked to examine my genital area.  Other trans women I had read about who either were post-op or were in the process had been examined to make sure they had sufficient depth without resorting to additional procedures.  Dr. Leis asked me I had a normal sex life and if my genitals had developed normally (i.e. not a micro penis or inhibited by using blockers from an early age).  When I responded in the affirmative, he told me that size would not be an issue.  (This can be an issue, however, for those who start their transition these days at a young age and go on pubertal blockers and then start on estrogen to block the effect of testosterone on their body.)

During the visit, we also discovered that I had a gap in coverage during the first two days after I left the hospital.  I could have sworn I was told that I would be in the hospital for five to seven days after the surgery.  It turns out that I was told (I found it later in my notes) that I would be released after three days.  I generally have a very good memory.  The only explanation I can think of is that I read about someone else going through GRS who was going to be released after 5-7 days (or who had that experience).

In some ways it didn’t matter.  None of the people who would be taking care of me for the 11-12 days after my release from the hospital were available for those two extra days.  (In the end the first person taking care of me rearranged her schedule, at a financial cost to her, to come a day earlier, so I was only basically on my own for one day.)  I tried a number of avenues, but another person could not be found who was willing and available to help.  More on my experience in a later post.

I left Bala Cynwyd with two scrips: one for a heavy-duty painkiller that could only be filled in PA.  I held onto that rather than carry around the painkillers for three weeks.  I would fill it the day before the surgery.  The other scrip was for medical tests: blood work, urinalysis and an EKG.

At this point, I was doing my best to balance my preparations for my GRS, my teeth issues and the needs of my clients.  Looking (unsuccessfully) for someone to cover the first two days after the hospital and the pre-op tests added two more items to my plate.

Model with glasses

Knowing that I was losing Medicaid soon, I also had my first eye exam in nearly three years and got new glasses.  I was following up to find out what happened to my school tax credit (STAR program).  I needed to sign up for a Medicare supplement program.  I was searching for an oral surgeon who had appointments available before I lost my dental insurance.  And I needed to keep track of the schedule of weaning myself off of various medications and supplements prior to GRS.

I went in for the blood and urine testing on September 21 (no appointment required) and scheduled the EKG for the following day.  It was almost too late.

The testing brought me back in contact with one of my favorite people at the local hospital a quarter mile from where I live.  In the past, I have had major problems with giving blood.  The first time was in April 1981 when New York required a blood test to get a marriage license.  It was not a big deal to me.  My dad gave blood regularly at work and it was a matter of fact thing and satisfying thing for him to help others in this way.

I went into the lab that day with my fiancé, had the blood taken, had the juice and the cookie, and then went outside with my fiancé.  We were talking about the rest of our day.  The next thing I knew, I was back inside, sitting down and feeling very woozy.  Without warning, I had crumpled onto the sidewalk, leaving my fiancé perplexed as to what to do next: run inside of help and leave me there or try to drag me inside.

So I knew I had a history of passing out by the time I had a blood test a few years ago when Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould became my primary physician.  Now blood work was a big deal to me.  Then I met the lab technician at the hospital.  On her office door, she had a child’s drawing of a vampire.  A woman who I would guess to be in her late 40’s or early 50’s (warning: I’m not very good at estimating ages), her hair was dyed blue, green and black.  It was so different that it helped put me at ease.  When I saw her pulling out one vial after another, I joked with her, asking if she was going to leave me with any blood.  She joked back, “A little.”  Still I warned her about my past problems and she took the blood with me lying down on a gurney.

That was the last time I needed the gurney.  Maybe my metabolism is slowing down.  Maybe it’s the effect of the estrogen.  (I was quite chagrined when I learned that young males are far more likely than women to pass out after giving blood.)  Maybe this technician has gotten me so relaxed that I no longer have a problem, even when she isn’t the one taking the blood.

So it was time for blood work again.  But first, my body was telling me to give the urine sample.  It was primed and ready, locked and loaded.  I went into the privacy of the bathroom and faced a decision.  Although I didn’t have to, ever since I knew it was likely that I would transition, I have sat down to urinate.  (The only exception was when I was still wearing men’s clothes and no stalls were available at the Penn Station men’s room.)  I knew it would be much more difficult to give the urine sample sitting down.  So (presumably) one final time in my life, I peed standing up.

It is also worth mentioning that in my head and heart, I knew that GRS was the right thing for me.  But was it God’s will for me?  Even if God does not have a problem with this surgery in general, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was right for me.  With these tests coming up and the surgery less than a month away, I went to the Lord and prayed that if I had been dull of hearing and ignored the Lord telling me not to go forward with the surgery, that He would intervene and do something to stop it.  And for a while, it looked like that might be the case.

My EKG – September 2017

The UA and blood work results came back and there was nothing in them to prevent the surgery.  The EKG was another matter.  I had never had or felt any problems with my heart.  No one in my immediate family has had heart problems.  I had one uncle on my mother’s side who suffered a heart attack, but no one else among my grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins that I knew of.  But the EKG came back with some irregular readings.  I would need an echocardiogram and a stress test before I could be cleared for surgery.

This created a new problem.  Time was growing short and we were also running into the Jewish holidays.  A stress test must be administered by a cardiologist and I didn’t have one.  And many of the doctors in my area are Jewish.  I couldn’t get the stress test done at my local hospital without first establishing a relationship with a cardiologist on staff or with residency privileges there.

Instead, I had to drive two and three quarter hours each way to the hospital upstate with which Dr. Carolyn is affiliated.  At 7 AM on a cold October 2 morning, watching the news coverage of the Las Vegas shooting, I waited to have my tests.  I drove up the afternoon before, not wanting to leave at 4 AM (or worse, oversleep and miss my appointment).  Fortunately I had some rewards points to lower the cost of the motel room.  Between the alarm and a wakeup call, I got up in plenty of time.  Instead of 165 minutes, it was a five minute drive.

I learned that I need to go back to the gym.  I was breathing heavy after the stress test, but that was in part because I couldn’t really get the hang of a treadmill. I never have.  But my recovery time was a lot faster than two men I had seen take the test before me.  I learned that I have some minor valve problems, yet nothing serious enough to prevent the surgery.  I took this as an indication that God had answered yes.  This was above and beyond the promises He makes to His people.  Even so, every good gift and every perfect gift comes from Him. (James 1:17)  But the extra tests and travel took one more day away from me as I finished up one more client’s tax return and tried to get final planning and packing done for the two weeks I would be away in Bala Cynwyd.

Finally, October 4 arrived.  It was time to do my last minute list checking and packing.  Mid-afternoon, I called Dr. Leis’s office to let them know I was just about to leave.  A short while later, I brought the last items to my car and began to drive to Bala Cynwyd for the third time.  After years of waiting, wondering and almost losing hope, surgery was T minus 17 hours and counting.  This was it.  This was really it.

For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. – 2^nd Corinthians 1:20

God bless,

Lois

And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part I

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The Journey Begins

Well, it’s different for me, anyway.  In no way do I consider myself a pioneer.  Even so, I’ve decided to chronicle the next step of my gender transition journey.

Charles Dickens

Where to begin?  Charles Dickens began “David Copperfield” with the sentence “I am born.”  No, I think that is too far back.  Perhaps the more appropriate Dickens quote would be (personalized), “Lois Simmons asked for more.”  (Or for less?)

Part of the necessary steps for me to start on prescription hormones and to live my life as Lois was counseling sessions to determine if transgender was a valid diagnosis in my situation.  By the third session, we worked together well: she would give me one or more assignments and I would come back the following session with my homework extensively done.  The single most-used phrase uttered by my counselor was “Hold on, let me catch up.”  We usually were pressing up against the end of the session and would squeeze in the scheduling of the next appointment at the very end.

But one time, somehow we ended up with about 15 minutes left and everything from my assignments had been covered.  So my counselor, Kathleen O’Brien, brought up the topic of surgeries.  We hadn’t discussed them up to that point.

I dismissed bottom surgery immediately, totally for financial reasons.  I didn’t have health insurance at the time.  Besides at the time, most health insurance policies weren’t covering transgender related health care of any kind.

As far as breast augmentation, I said that I would wait to see how well hormones worked.  But then I added, I might consider some minor facial feminization procedures.

Kathleen looked at me in astonishment.  “Why do you think you need that?” she replied.  As it turned out, she was spot on.  While I am no beauty contest winner, no one has read me for male, even when I first started appearing female in public and had been on prescription hormones for less than a month.

I also took mild herbal equivalents for about one year prior to getting prescription hormones.  In fact, my first day was the day of the October blizzard in the NYC metro area.  The last day was the day that Hurricane Sandy hit my area and knocked out my power for three days (and a lot longer for some).

Within four months of counseling, I had my transgender diagnosis confirmation.  (Your time may vary.)  Kathleen and I then started to work on finding a source of hormones for me.  Her preference was an endocrinologist in Albany.  But he had a six month waiting list for new patients.  And that would put me needing to go to Albany in mid-March with the possibility of winter weather and the certainty of tax season getting in the way.  Six months became eight.

A clinic in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan was the next choice.  Over the phone, I was told that there was a six week waiting list.  Later, I was told that the time frame was not definite and I should not have been given one.  The point was moot.  Hurricane Sandy hit their facility hard and pushed everything back.

Then I remembered that I had found a transgender knowledgeable doctor in Northern New Jersey: a different state but closer to me than the other two.  I received a referral letter from Kathleen, waiting for phone service to be restored to this doctor.  I faxed the letter there.  They claimed that they didn’t receive it.

I told the receptionist that I would drive it there.  She said they were closing in a few minutes, but I could do so the next day.  I showed up, referral in hand.  “When would you like an appointment?” I was asked.  “As soon as possible,” I replied.  “How about tomorrow?”

My wait time went from six months to six weeks to sixteen hours!  It was the first and last time that doctor saw me in male mode.  He was pleased and amazed by what he saw on my next visit.  A few visits later, he confided to me that occasionally one of his cisgender patients would ask him if he knew who was in his waiting room.  One of his transgender patients was there, sticking out like a sore thumb.  Then he added, “No one has ever mentioned you.”  Indeed, I would sometimes engage in light conversation with another patient, family member or pharmaceutical salesperson in the waiting room.

Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, my personal doctor and a beautiful person, inside and out.

But then Obamacare came along.  Not only did my GP sell his practice because of all the additional record-keeping requirements, but my public insurance (Medicaid) would not port over the state line.  As I wondered about waiting lists and finding a new doctor, Kathleen told me about Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould in Oneonta. It has been my good fortune for my basic medical care that I have not needed to provide Transgender 101 training for a medical practitioner.  And that was certainly true of Dr. Carolyn.

Dr. Carolyn and her husband, while also providing family medical care, have built an upstate New York oasis of medical care for transgender patients par excellence.  Their practice continues to grow and their patients come from surrounding states as well as New York.  Words cannot describe how much of a blessing she has been to me.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/03/transgender-healthcare-doctor-oneonta-new-york-carolyn-wolf-gould

And one of those blessings came during a six month checkup.  She asked me if I knew that Governor Cuomo had issued an executive order that required insurance companies in New York to cover transgender health care, including gender reassignment surgery.  I said I did, but I thought it only covered private insurance. She replied that it covered public insurance as well.  Furthermore, she had done some investigation and found a surgeon in the Chicago area who was experienced and took Medicaid.  Since inexplicably no surgeons in New York were doing the surgery, let alone accepting Medicaid, I could port my insurance outside of the state.

So I started pointing toward Chicago.  And I had two hurdles: a letter from my counselor (an MSW) and a letter from a mental health professional with a “Dr” title in a related field (i.e. psychiatry or psychology).

Kathleen was ready to write the letter right then and there.  She knew how successful I had been in my real life experience, far beyond the one year minimum requirement.  Then she looked through her notes.  We had only talked about surgery for a few minutes.

And I was glad for a few sessions devoted to the topic.  In some ways, this was a tougher decision than presenting my true self full-time to the world.  This meant a major surgery, something that never should be taken lightly.  Furthermore, I had passed age 60 and never had a reason to stay overnight in a hospital since my mom brought me home after I was born.  In December 2014, I had a tiny cyst removed from my eyeball: in by 7 AM, out by noon.  They don’t even put you under for that surgery: just a local plus a nice floating feeling, but you can still respond to instructions from the surgeon to look in various directions.  Until 2017, this was the only surgery I ever had.

No, this was going to something completely different.  Was I tempting fate?  As a Christian, I reminded myself that this wasn’t the right question.  Instead, would the Lord be with me in this or against me doing it?  It was even possible that this wouldn’t be considered a sin in general, but it might not be His will for me.

After prayer and contemplation of scripture, I didn’t receive any dissent from the Lord.  I was reminded that when I was a pre-teen, I had prayed for a while to wake up with a girl’s body.  I didn’t get the results I prayed for (although my body remained quite androgynous).  But I never got a “no”, either.  At that age, I lacked the knowledge and sophistication to understand that “wait” is a possible answer from God.

Now I needed to search for that second mental health professional, one at the level of doctor, for that second letter.  I found many who took my insurance, but none in my county who had the slightest experience in transgender issues.  I was tipped off on a husband and wife practice in a neighboring county that fit both conditions.  He had an 18-month waiting list; she wasn’t taking any new patients at all.

Then a new door opened.  VCS in Rockland, a group I was very familiar with by this time, had started a mental health clinic that accepted Medicaid.  By January 2016, I had my second mental health professional.  By the end of tax season, I had the second letter.  And by this time, Dr. Carolyn informed me that she had found a surgeon closer to me.  She assured me that he had an excellent reputation, was known for being very caring, and that he accepted Medicaid.  And that was how I found out about Dr. Sherman Leis in Pennsylvania.  He was everything advertised … and more.

http://www.drshermanleis.com/

But that is skipping ahead a few steps.  There is always a bureaucracy to deal with.  And it rose up at every turn.

Early in my adult life I worked for HUD in New York City.  I left that job to run a housing assistance program for a local housing authority.  After four years in public housing I became a financial professional, starting as a stock broker and adding other specialties over the years.  This might be the heart and soul of capitalism, but I still dealt with a government agency (SEC) as well as bureaucracies with the NYSE and NASD.

Even so, that was a relative lull until I started preparing taxes professionally.  Now I was dealing with the IRS and various state tax agencies (usually New York and New Jersey, but also Pennsylvania and California to name a few other states: over the years, I have prepared tax returns for 28 different states, DC and Canada).

I thought I qualified for a PhD in bureaucracy.  Then I started dealing with health insurance bureaucracy gremlins.

The first step is for the “patient navigator” to request approval for a consult with the surgeon.  This was submitted at the end of May, shortly after I delivered all the necessary paperwork from my two mental health professionals and Dr. Carolyn added her required letter.  I was told that this process should take about six weeks.

In mid July, six weeks had come and gone.  The patient navigator admitted surprise.  She told me that around the same time, she had submitted a request for another patient with the same circumstances: same surgeon, same insurance carrier, same surgery, same state of residence.  The other patient’s request was approved promptly.

This would be the first of many times I would become a ping pong ball between various people acting for my benefit, each claiming someone else needs to solve the problem.  Finally in mid-September I put my foot down and demanded that these people talk to each other and to stop going through me, the least influential in the process.

(I have been on the other side of this dynamic, when I deal with tax agencies on behalf of clients.  I have far more clout than the clients do.  I illustrate this with the following joke.

A ship wrecks and three men end up in one of the life boats.  One is a priest, one is a soldier, and one is a lawyer.  After rowing for a while, they spot an island nearby.  But the current is against them reaching the island with normal effort.  Furthermore, there is a school of sharks between them and the island.  Swimming to the island seems out of the question.

Finally they decide that maybe one could get through to the island and hopefully get help on the island.  But who should be the one?  The priest argues he should go because the Lord would protect him during the swim.  The soldier counters that he is by far in the best shape and would have the best chance of getting through, either outswimming or fighting off the sharks.  Rather than enter the discussion, the lawyer simply takes off his shoes and jumps in the water.

To the soldier’s amazement, the sharks open a path for the lawyer to swim through and he makes it safely to the island.  The soldier asks the priest if he knows why that happened.  The priest replies, “Professional courtesy.”)

Finally the parties involved talked directly to each other.  And what did Dr. Carolyn’s office find out?  My insurance carrier wanted paperwork that pertained only to an in-state service request.  This service was being performed out of state.  Even so, it took another few days for the patient navigator to decide that the best way to resolve this impasse was to simply fax the request again.

Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit

With the cover page please include a statement that this is an out of state request, I suggested.  She did.  On September 26, I had approval for a consult with Dr. Leis.  There was a minor problem that the approval was good for only 30 days and it took over 60 days to get a consult with Dr. Leis.  In a few days, the approval was extended and I had an appointment for a consult with Dr. Leis on November 30.  It was a consult that should have been held before Labor Day.  Little did I know my trip through health insurance Wonderland was just beginning.

O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces … – Daniel 9:7 (portion)

God bless,

Lois

Lois is interviewed

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Andrea James, blog, Caitlyn Jenner, Calpernia Addams, Caroline Cossey, Class of '74, Cornell, Dana Beyer, Deirdre McCloskey, Diane Sawyer, Donna Rose, Jennifer Leitham, Joy Ladin, Kate Bornstein, Kristin Beck, Meggan Sommerville, Monika Kowalska, New York Times, Polish, The Heroines of My Life, Trans woman, trans women, Transgender, Tula, women's fashions

I am still in the process of following up after my most difficult tax season ever. Normally I have 10-12 tax returns on extension after the April due date. This year I had 26. I also have more tax clients outside of the United States than ever before, and their due date is June 15. And there is much follow up work on top of that with clients whose returns were prepared at the very end of tax season. I also had more of those this year. In a normal year, I am able to work diligently enough so that I make my crunch time a few days before the due date. On the due date, I am usually left with one or two returns to complete, and that only because I am waiting for one item from each client. This year, there were 18 returns that I didn’t even start until the morning of the due date. I filed my last extensions 40 minutes before the deadline.

In addition to my professional duties, I have had some dental issues to deal with as well as health insurance issues. That has taken a significant portion of my time. And then there are activities with support groups (I am on the board of one of them), my church and with friends. There are a few people who lean on me in some way and/or look to me for some sort of mentoring. And once tax season has passed, people who have been waiting for weeks to contact me do just that.

And living alone, I have to cook (and eat), shop, do laundry, deal with personal hygiene, pay bills … and if I get a rare spare moment, clean. (Too often that falls by the wayside.) And I need a break once in a while. So Lois has been a busy girl. And my blog posting continues to suffer. I do have a four-part series that is almost ready to post. And I have started working on another idea.

There was one additional activity in recent weeks that I deliberately did not mention until now. I had the delight of meeting and being interviewed online by questionnaire.

Monika Kowalska

Monika Kowalska is a Polish trans woman who has an English language blog site with over 2 million page views. On her site called “The Heroines of My Life” she has interviewed over 400 trans women. Last month, she chose to interview me after reading the mini-bio I submitted to the NY Times shortly after the initial Sawyer-Jenner interview in 2015.

Among those who Monika has interviewed: Kate Bornstein, Caroline Cossey (aka Tula), Deirdre McCloskey, Kristin Beck, Donna Rose, Joy Ladin, Andrea James, Jennifer Leitham, Meggan Sommerville, Calpernia Addams, and Dana Beyer.

For those who are interested in my interview in general and the site in particular, here is the link to my interview. The archives of the other interviews are to the right.

http://theheroines.blogspot.com/2017/06/interview-with-lois-simmons.html

At my Cornell 40th reunion

I am also adding this URL to my links page.

I hope you will enjoy the interview. It will give you a capsule of my views on a variety of topics, even some on fashion! And I give a mini-bio of my life from A to Z: my interests, my career, my schooling and so on. Monika asked me great, open-ended questions and didn’t put the editor’s knife to my answers. (As long as some of the answers appear now, I switched from writer’s hat to editor’s hat and did some of the heavy lifting in that area for her.)

And while you are there, I hope you sample some of the other interviews, and maybe even make a comment or two while you are there.

… I do the more cheerfully answer for myself: – Acts 24:10 (portion)

God bless,

Lois

An Example of Christian Choice of Love Over Legalism

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arguments, attacks, Bible, Biblical authority, born again, brokenness, bullying, child molestation, Christian leaders, Christian service, church, conviction, daily Bible reading, effeminate, ex-gay, experiment, Gay, gay theology, God's love, Gospel, grace, growth, guilt, harassment, Hawaii, homosexuality, hypocrisy, Jesus Christ, judgmental, legalism, LGBT, liberal, light, Lois Simmons, loving parents, male role models, men's fellowship, old-fashioned, open and affirming, peace, personal testimony, prayer, real-life experience, reprobate, salvation, sexual urges, shame, sin, sports, stability, stay-at-home mom, struggle, submitted, Sunday school, support system, Sy Rogers, symptoms, Transgender, U.S. Navy, unbelievers, walk with God, witness

To finish the list from my previous post, we jump back to the present day to someone with a history perhaps even more complex than the Apostle Paul.  This is probably the biggest risk I have ever taken with a blog post.  There are people who castigate him as someone who shames gay people.  There are people who laud him as an example of being cured of homosexuality and/or transgender.  But if you listen to his personal testimony rather than jumping to preconceived notions, you might find that he has gone far beyond these things in his message.

Sy Rogers has run the gamut from being associated with more than one letter of the LGBT acronym to being an active member of the ex-gay movement.  Now, according to recent remarks I have heard him make to audiences, he simply preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I find his story a fascinating journey from a troubled early life to a life of experimenting with lifestyles and identities to a triumphant and satisfied life of peace in Christ.  And it is a story that I present here as faithfully as possible as an objective reporter, not an editorial commentator.

This is the second blog post I have written about Sy Rogers.  The first, posted on 8/8/14, found no fault with him.  It only found fault with those who claim that he is a cured transsexual.  In their zeal, they ignore his own testimony.  That post is consistent with this one.  He never really is or was transgender.  It was an experiment after trying a number of other paths.  Fortunately for him, the Lord spared him from a terrible mistake.

http://wp.me/p45rR3-ey

It was when Sy focused on pleasing God that he found peace.  And that is the core of the message he now preaches.

So early in life that he does not even know at what age it occurred, he began to be molested with regularity.  Outside of the home, before he ever experienced any sexual attractions or became aware of any sexual orientation, Sy’s speech and mannerisms made him a target for reprehensible verbal attacks and bullying, using terms for being gay and/or effeminate that are too vile to repeat.  While most of his peers did not join in, none of them did much, if anything, to come to his aid.  And it should be pointed out that his attackers were not people who identified as LGBT.

At some point in adolescence, Sy decided that his attackers might be correct and that this is who he was.  He began to seek and find same sex relationships.  The verbal attacks and bullying continued through school until he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was stationed in Hawaii.  There his fellow sailors pretty much left him alone.  He theorizes that they respected anyone who had what it took to make it through basic training, regardless of any other personal views.  He used whatever free time allotted to him to lead a double life: sailor following orders on duty and active involvement in the gay community off base.  This included him meeting and becoming friends with men who identified as gay Christians.  They attended churches that identified as open and affirming of the gay lifestyle.  While Sy believed in God his whole life, he was lukewarm even about this church because he was angry with God.

The next step in Sy’s journey occurred after he finished his tour with the Navy.  He enrolled in college.  It was a difficult experience for him.  He became the target for any anti-gay sentiment on campus.  The college would not allow him to have a dorm roommate.  Petitions were filed against him.  He was nominated for homecoming queen as a joke.  He also says that there were some Christians who cared enough about him to try to witness to them.  But the mistake they made, well-meaning as they were, was to try to win theological arguments with him instead of emphasizing that God indeed loves him.

Around this time, two of his gay Christian friends, friends whose marriage he celebrated with them, contacted him with news they were excited to share.  By reading the Bible for themselves, they became convinced that the gay theology taught by their church was in error.  They renounced their marriage and their gay lifestyle, were born again and started to attend a conservative church.

The initial effect that this had on Sy was to challenge a key pillar in his life, the teaching of the liberal church that God had made him gay and he should celebrate it. But that pillar wasn’t immediately replaced with a new support system.  He decided that he was a failure as a man, as so many people were telling him.  In fact, maybe he wasn’t a man at all.  The only way that made sense for him to be born again was to be reborn as a woman.  He went so far as to live as a woman for about 18 months in preparation for “sex change”.

At that time, Sy heard directly from God even though he wasn’t actively seeking Him.  God found him when no Christian, no mocker, no church led Sy to Him.  God and particularly the love and redemption of God became real to him.  He reports that God didn’t say for him to stop being gay, but simply to walk with Him.  Sy realized this was what he had needed all along.  Having been told that he was reprobate and couldn’t be saved on the one hand, and that God made him gay on the other, he decided to turn to the Bible for himself to see what God had to say on the matter.

As a result, Sy turned away from living as a woman.  He didn’t return to a gay lifestyle, even though his gay friends attempted to bring him back there.  Soon, he realized that he needed to associate with people who shared his current values.  He started attending a church.  In this church, he found the male companionship he was lacking all his life and so desperately needed.  They didn’t judge him as effeminate, which Sy admits that he still was very much so at the time.  They simply drew him into their fellowship over and over again.  For the first time in his life, he met men who simply accepted him as a man and didn’t want to either beat him up or have sex with him.  This required an adjustment period for him, one that he was able to eventually work through.

Salvation is not followed by “and they lived happily ever after.”  Sy faced trials.  The main one was that he still had urges for sex with other men and the guilt he experienced as a result.  He became a pastor, got married and has a family (a daughter) and turned to the ex-gay movement, becoming an active participant in it.

But none of those things helped to get rid of the urges or the guilt: of feeling unworthy of salvation.  He needed something greater and he found it: a closer relationship and intimacy with God.  Sy reports that he received a word from the Lord, reminding him of two things: that God is from everlasting to everlasting and knows the end from the beginning, and that God knew he would continue to have these urges after he was saved.  The key was not the struggle against the urges.  The key was to substitute something better and stronger.  Sy learned to confess that yes, he still has these desires, but his love and desire for the Lord is greater.

Sy is still involved in ministry, but is no longer part of the ex-gay movement.  His focus is not on rebuking people for their sins, but for showing them the light, love and Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He counts his own salvation as the single most important accomplishment in his life.  And he counts leading others to Christ as his most important ministry.  When people give their life to the Lord, he trusts that the Lord will convict them of their sins, whatever they may be.  It’s not his role to judge.  He doesn’t need to do God’s work for Him.

Sy told a story in one of the videos of him that I watched.  It is a good example of where his emphasis is now.  He reports that a pastor told Sy that when a same sex couple moved next door to him, he shunned them and made his disapproval of them apparent.  Sy asked the pastor what he would do if an unmarried heterosexual couple moved next door to him.  The pastor affirmed that he and his wife would invite them to dinner at his house.  Sy was able to show him the hypocrisy of offering fellowship to the one couple and denying it to the other, even though the pastor admitted that he believes both are living in sin in their relationship.  The witness the pastor was giving to the first couple was helping push them away from Christ, the last thing any Christian should be doing.

I have done my best to accurately share Sy Rogers’ story.  Lest I fell short in any way, here is one example of his testimony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gbVgcKZQtg

My testimony is quite different from Sy Rogers’.  I grew up in a stable home with an older brother and parents who were married nearly 65 years when my dad passed from this earth and my mom followed him 18 months later.  I had good relationships with both my parents who were both present in my life (including a stay at home mom).  They loved me and provided for me, taking care of my needs and even some of my wants and desires.  But they certainly were not indulgent as many of my friends’ parents were.  They had old-fashioned values (and happened to be a half generation older than most of my friends’ parents).  My mom made sure that I went to church until I left home for college: then I could decide for myself what I wanted to do.  And I loved church and Sunday school.

For a while, I turned away from the institution of church as many of my generation did.  But I met a woman when I was 27 years old.  Before we even started courting, her Christian testimony as part of her life story, not as a rebuke or in an attempt to lead me to God (she knew that at some level I believed in Him), convicted me that I needed to return to church and the fellowship of other Christians.  We fell in love and got married and I became both husband and instant father to my infant stepson.  And even though the marriage failed within a year, as did an attempt at reconciling 25 years later, I know that my return to church was a marvelous gift of God through this woman to whom I was once married.  Slowly but surely, I grew as a Christian because of taking that step.  And I must add that I initially returned to the church I attended as a child, in part because the pastor always was encouraging and friendly should we meet in public during that period of being away from the church.  He never chastised me for my absence.

I never have identified as gay.  My transition was never about doing so to get rid of guilt or shame when having sex with men.  I have never had sex with men and did not transition to seek a sexual relationship with a man.  If I end up in a marriage relationship with a man, it will be because my future spouse and I will, after much prayer, have arrived at the belief that this is God’s will for our lives.  I am open and submitted to God’s will for my life.  I have had men attracted to me since I began transition.  I did not seek them and none of them were God’s will for me to pursue.

At the same time, I knew I was female from the time I was seven years old.  Unlike Sy’s testimony, it was not an experiment because nothing else was working.  I was quite content in my childhood, doing well in school, having a good relationship with my brother who I emulated in many ways until I got older and started to express my own likes and dislikes.  I loved sports and had male friends and was never accused of being effeminate, and certain not bullied or mocked or called insulting names.  My struggle was not so much internal as my need to deal with the knowledge that there were (apparently) almost no other people like me plus my awareness that society considered people like me something to be mocked, scorned or condemned.

But none of that kept me away from the church and God.  In my case, I actively served in church as a trustee and an elder before I was saved.  During this time, I attended regularly and took an active part in church life.  I was respected.  I served on the pastor nominating committee when the pastor I had known for well over 20 years at that church resigned to go to another church.

I was quite the ecumenicist at the time, studying other religions including eastern religions and philosophies.  Like Sy, God found me in my own home, an answer to a very open-ended question I asked.  I was 36 years old.  From that time, I put away all other religions, and my relationship with God grew closer and closer.  I began to grieve when I fell short of the glory of God rather than look to excuse or justify my sins.  I occasionally gave a sermon when the pastor was on vacation, and I gave the only altar call I ever heard given in that church.  I was convicted to pray and read the Bible daily and read the Bible cover to cover.  (I would estimate that I’ve done so at least 15 times by now, sometimes in a year, sometimes more slowly and more studiously.)

Two and a half years after I was saved, I became part of a worldwide ministry (primarily men), a non-denominational missionary outreach of local churches.  It was here that I had even stronger and closer fellowship with men, wonderful Christian role models, especially as I was able to go outside my local area in the ministry and see men in positions of greater authority.  I also saw many strong and loving Christian marriages, with wonderful relationships between husbands and wives.

I was in the main part of that ministry for nearly 21 years.  I still love the work of that ministry and support it financially as I am now in a peripheral part of it.  I have calculated that to the glory of God, He equipped me to have a tangible part in the distribution of well over 300,000 copies of His word (either full Bibles or pocket New Testaments) through personal donations, by placing them directly in the hands of people or in various locations where they were accepted, by raising funds by speaking in churches, or by creating the assignments for teams of men to go out and distribute His word.

But here is a key point in my testimony: when He saved me, God knew I would transition 23 years after I was saved.  He also knew I would continue to grow in His word, love Him more and more, be active in a Bible-believing church, and give my Christian testimony (as I am doing right now).  In addition to God’s foreknowledge, there’s a more subtle point.  Those 23 years were a long time of being in God’s word until I saw the scriptures that showed me God’s mind on this matter of how I was created.  I did not act on transitioning until I had this Biblical knowledge.  In addition, although my life had experienced its share of relationship and financial struggles, the need to live as my authentic self came at a time when my life was content and untroubled by anything else.

Furthermore, I still distribute His word on a limited basis as well as continuing to contribute to the purchase of scripture (whether for me to hand out or for others to distribute, mostly in countries where they can afford to purchase far less than the need).  I am currently a member of a church that is also another well-known worldwide Christian ministry: the Salvation Army.  I have shared my Christian testimony and my transgender testimony with a number of people there.  I walk in the light and no longer hide who I am in darkness.  And just before Christmas 2016, the Lord gave me a wonderful encouragement.  I was able to hand out about 75 copies of His word to the needy people of the area who were picking up presents for their children and food for their holiday dinners.  And we would have been able to hand out more scriptures if we hadn’t run out.  We will be better prepared next year to help our neighbors satisfy their hunger for God’s word as well as their hunger for a celebratory feast.

A second key point in my testimony is that once I reached the point where I considered acting on transitioning, I did not keep this knowledge from my pastor at the time (not the church I go to now).  I came out to him early in the process.  We prayed together and searched the scriptures together.  I spoke to whoever he wanted me to speak to on the matter.  Throughout the process, he never stopped showing me Christian love or respecting me as a person.  He continued to acknowledge my authentic Christian identity.

I have no idea if Sy Rogers would accept my testimony.  I have no idea if he would be willing to share a stage with me to present our life stories and then carry out the important work of witnessing for Christ.  I certainly have no right to speak for him on a topic where I have not heard him speak.  What I do know is that in his current testimony, he does not identify as having been gay or transgender.  He considers those symptoms of the brokenness of his upbringing, not identity.

What I have in common with Sy Rogers is that I have a life story and the most important part is what God has done for me in my life.  As I routinely tell people, first I am a Christian: that is my eternal spiritual identity.  Next I am female: that is my innate gender identity.  Somewhere down on the list is the anatomical incongruence that makes me transgender.

Someone who is generally recognized as a Christian leader in the United States recently commented that Jesus wasn’t always loving.  Any Christian leader should tremble when making remarks like that.  Jesus’ rebukes were almost always directed at those in religious leadership who enforced the letter of the law without understanding or including the love, mercy and compassion of God that was at the heart of the spirit of the law; who required burdens of their proselytes that they themselves would not bear; who condemned tax collectors for cheating the people when collecting taxes for the Roman government but were just as guilty for their involvement in cheating the people in the temple when it came to exchanging their currency for the shekel to pay the tax or in declaring their offering blemished so they could sell them another animal for sacrifice.

When Jesus taught and even corrected multitudes of the common people, it was never in a harsh or attacking way.  As Paul advised in Colossians 4:6, so did Jesus minister to the people: his speech always with grace, seasoned with salt.  The grace, lovingkindness, compassion, gentleness, healing, feeding and freeing the people from the bondage of the Law was what drew people to Him.  The salt was to convict them when they were violating the spirit of the Law or were slow to see and hear the message in His teaching.  But if the message is all salt, who can swallow it?  It drives the people away.

And Jesus did not rebuke the Roman authorities and other Gentiles who did not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He didn’t fear them.  Why should he?  It wasn’t that they were excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven.  Their time would come in the next 10-15 years.  No, it was simply because He knew that they were not ready to receive His message.

But today, leaders routinely attack those who are outside of the body of Christ, who do not consider the Bible their authority, for doing things and committing sins contrary to Biblical teaching.  Of course they don’t.  Why would they follow the teachings of something that they don’t consider authoritative?

Judgment begins within the Church, not outside of it.  When the body of Christ gets its act together and presents a Christlike face to the rest of the world, then we can do a more effective job of drawing people to Christ.  Yes, there will always be those who hate us, because the world hated Him before they hated us.  But if one must suffer, it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing wrong.

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same things.  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? – Romans 2:1-3

God bless,

Lois

Christians’ Choice: Witness for Christ or Condemn for Self

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Many Christians in the U.S. today are preoccupied with fixing: fixing the country; fixing the culture; fixing individuals who identify in various ways.  Is this what the Bible calls for?  And is this a worldwide phenomenon for Christians?

To some extent this is a phenomenon pretty much found in the United States alone.  Behind this preoccupation is the belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation based on Christian values, and that if the United States abandons those values, the nation will experience a significant decline from its greatness.  Those at the forefront of this movement will point to evidence that in some ways the United States is already experiencing the beginnings of decline including a corresponding moral decline, and that the evidence parallels both the growing trend to remove God (and especially in the person of Jesus Christ) from the public square.

Regarding their premise, there is a great deal of evidence that the United States was founded on Christian principles and by mostly Christian political leaders.  We can see it in everything from numerous laws, to the theological content of the early McGuffey Readers, to the foundation of colleges and hospitals, to oaths of office and swearing in of witnesses on a Bible, to public statements by political leaders at their inauguration in office, their farewell addresses and speeches at times of national crisis.

But were these the only principles upon which the United States was founded?  We might accurately say with a touch of humor that the Founding Fathers relied on both Calvin and Hobbes.  Indeed, they were influenced by the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes, Montesquieu, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Cesare Beccaria, David Hume, Adam Smith, Voltaire, Rousseau and Plato: all known for varying degrees of secularism in their major writings and some not Christian at all.

Therefore, while we were seen as being endowed with unalienable rights by a creator God, the United States also greatly expanded the rights of a free people to both participate in the political process of the new republic and to enjoy life and liberty and pursue happiness as they saw fit, provided it did not interfere with those same rights in others.  So even though these rights come from God, each citizen could choose how to worship God or not worship at all, or even refuse to believe in the existence of God.  Certainly many political leaders of that time would have believed in the superiority of Christianity in the marketplace of ideas and therefore would have had little concern about the United States ever abandoning Christianity to any great degree.  One of the ways to ensure that, they believed, was to have a well-educated public in at least the basics, what became known as “the three R’s”.  From such was spawned an emphasis on the importance of a public school education for all children who reached a certain age and the establishment of most of the early collegiate institutions of the country.  (Ironically, most of these colleges are today liberal bastions and harbors of negativity towards Christianity.)

Regardless of the origins of the political system and the prevailing culture in the United States, we’ve come a long way and seen many changes in the 450+ years since the first permanent colony by Europeans was established in St. Augustine, the 400+ years since settlers from England founded Jamestown and the 240+ years since the First Continental Congress of the American colonies met, leading to the 13 colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain less than two years later.  In particular during the past fifty years, Americans have moved away from mainline Protestant denominations in general and from organized religion in particular.  Many also continue to nominally identify as Protestants or Catholics, but have turned away from strict adherence to Papal authority in the case of Roman Catholics, and local ecclesiastic authority in the case of Protestants, many of whom retain the identity but are essentially unchurched.

At the same time, there has been growth or at least continued strength in various denominations of Baptists as well as in independent evangelical Christian churches (some in small splinter denominations) which include a number of megachurches.  It is from these denominations and churches that the greatest hue and cry comes to see the United States either continue to be or return to be a “Christian nation”.  But the question is, how should this occur, through politics or evangelism?  And if through evangelism or both ways, what should the evangelical part of the message be?

First and foremost, let me state unequivocally that there is nothing in either the Bible or the Constitution of the United States that prohibits Christians (including clergy) from participating in the political process, whether voting, voicing public opinion, running for office at any level, and serving in either appointed or elective offices in any of the branches of government at any level.  And certainly the positions and actions of those who serve in government can and must be influenced by their moral beliefs and convictions as shaped by their spirituality.  But it must also be consistent with the laws under which they serve and swear or affirm in some way their fealty to.  And if those same moral beliefs and convictions cause them to have sharp and deep disagreement with any of those laws, their attempts to change those laws must also be within the framework of the law.  Furthermore, if they can no longer abide by the framework of the law, they must be willing to accept the consequences if found guilty of violating the law in a fair and just hearing or trial.

There is, and should be, far less restriction on what is preached or taught within churches and in general the free exchange of ideas in the public square.  This is also part of the “American experiment” in freedom, including protections within the Bill of Rights regarding the free exercise of religion.  And that free exercise extends beyond mere worship.

But freedom, to be used wisely, demands a high level of responsibility.  In his letter to the Romans and two letters to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul writes in detail about the balance between Christian liberty and responsibility.  Those responsibilities extend to dealings with both fellow Christians and non-Christians, and include a general requirement to obey the laws of the land unless such laws require (not permit) Christians to disobey God’s commandments: in particular, only those commandments that apply when part of a country that is not a theocracy (which is every country other than Israel and Judah from the time of Moses until the diaspora).

Christians ought to take notice that Paul was writing these words from locations and to Christians in locations that were far harsher in their treatment of Christians than anything close to what Christians in the United States experience today.  He was writing these tenets that became part of the Biblical canon of the New Testament at a time when he and eleven of the first twelve post-ascension Apostles would be martyred for being Christian (the twelfth, John, sentenced to exile on the island of Patmos for the final decades of his 94 years on Earth).  While persecution of Christians in the world is at historically high levels, there is nothing in the United States that even remotely compares to what was experienced by the early Church until the conversion of Emperor Constantine around 312 AD.

So what choice do Christians face?  In terms of Christian witness, it is the choice between legalism and love.  Love doesn’t mean anything goes and all Biblical standards are thrown out the window.  Agape love means primarily caring about others, Christian or non-Christian, looking to lift up and edify other Christians while drawing non-Christians to the love and light of Christ.  It means remembering who we were before we were saved and that we still fall short of the glory of God even after becoming new creatures in Christ.  And it means remembering how powerful God’s love is; how strong God’s grace is.  1^st Corinthians 13 is one of the best known chapters of the New Testament, and one of the best testimonies to the power of God’s agape love (translated as charity in the KJV).  The strength of God’s grace is not as well known.

Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. – 2^nd Timothy 2:1

So I choose agape love over legalism.  Here are some examples of agape love in action.  One is someone famous in the 20^th century, one is someone unknown to all but a handful of people, and one is direct from the Bible.  There will be a follow up to this post, a part two, that will deal mostly with a fourth example whose example is especially interesting to me in comparison with my life.

Anyone who watched the movie, “Chariots of Fire”, knows the story of Eric Liddell.  His refusal to compete in his specialty, the 100 meter dash because the heats for the race in the 1924 Olympics in Paris were held on a Sunday is a key element of the story portrayed in the movie.  It certainly smacks of legalism.  But while it might have hurt the chances of his country’s team in one event, it was basically something he imposed on himself.  He did not require it of any of his teammates.  And it was potentially less detrimental to his team than the refusal of Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax to play on Yom Kippur during key games in a pennant race or the World Series.  As it turned out, Greenberg’s Detroit Tigers would win the American League pennant in 1934, Koufax’s Los Angeles Dodgers would win the World Series in 1965 and Great Britain would win the gold and bronze medals in the 100 meter dash at the 1924 Olympics, the race that Liddell refused to run.  As for Liddell, he had time to adjust his training to a longer sprint race: the 400 meters.  He won the gold medal in Olympic record time, and also captured a bronze medal in the 200 meter run.

The movie also showed how Liddell, born in China, was from a family of missionaries.  What is somewhat less well known is what he did after his Olympic triumph in 1924.  In 1925, he returned to China as a missionary, first in Tianjin (Tientsin) and was transferred to a poor rural area of Xiaozhang in 1941.  The area was so dangerous due to attacks by the Japanese Army that he sent his pregnant wife and two older daughters to Canada to live with his wife’s parents.

In 1943, Liddell was captured by the Japanese with other members of the mission and was interned in a camp.  While others, even many of the missionaries, became selfish and cliquish, Liddell’s exemplary character stood out in the worst of times as he tirelessly helped others, especially the elderly and the children.

Many stories of his selflessness survived Liddell and the camp.  The one that stands out to me involves him serving as a referee for the boys team sports games like soccer, rugby and field hockey.  Originally, consistent with the stand he took at the 1924 Olympics, he refused to referee any games on Sunday in hopes that the boys would spend their Sundays in church and devotions that day.  Instead, the boys formed their own informal matches.  Reasonably well-behaved when their hero was refereeing, fights broke out among the boys during the Sunday games.  When Liddell learned of this, did he punish the boys?  No.  Understanding that they were boys, not men, and concerned for their safety, he relaxed his strict position about activities on the Sabbath and began to referee their Sunday contests as well.

From an internment camp in China during World War II, we go to a small town in south-central Pennsylvania.  The year was 2016.

Mercersburg is a small town of about 1500 people, but some famous people were born there or have lived there.  A private prep school, Mercersburg Academy, has educated seven Rhodes scholars, a Nobel laureate, two Academy Award winners and 54 Olympians (12 who have won gold medals).  I met one of those gold medalists.  Charles Moore Jr., who won a gold medal in the 1952 Olympics at Helsinki in the 400 meter hurdles and a silver medal running one of the legs on the 4 x 400 meter relay team, went from Mercersburg to my alma mater of Cornell, graduating in 1952 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  He is also a member of the Quill & Dagger Society, a senior honorary to which I was selected in 1974.  But I’ve already talked about an Olympic gold medalist.

Instead, this story primarily involves the public high school which is named for perhaps its most famous native son, President James Buchanan.  And it involves a student there who will never receive world recognition.  But I believe she will receive many crowns in heaven.

It began in early March with a local Youth Pastor hearing about The Life Book, which contains the complete Gospel of John.  Students are using it to witness to their peers.  The pastor was so excited by this that he ordered six cases and shared the information about it at their next youth group meeting.  The students eagerly began to make plans to distribute the books to their classmates at James Buchanan High School.  But the most eager was Violet Clark.  One of the most popular students in school, she asked the Youth Pastor for a full case: 100 books.

Did Violet distribute those books of witness to her fellow students by preaching fire and brimstone and telling them what horrible sinners they are?  No!  With a big smile and joy in her step, she went from student to student, those she knew and those she didn’t, to hand them a book and share Christ’s message of hope with them.  It took her a little over six weeks to share the entire case, sharing the last three just before her 18^th birthday.

The day after her birthday, Violet was involved in a serious car accident as she left school.  Although the school is not one where prayer is normally promoted, students and teachers spontaneously began a prayer vigil on behalf of Violet.  But three days later, God chose to call her home.

In the immediate aftermath of Violet’s death, the school community turned to the word of God that was now readily available, not only to deal with her death, but to find out how to receive the kind of joyful life that Violet lived while she was among them.  Many students are coming to Christ, not in response to rebuke, but because Violet and some of her fellow youth group members radiated the love of Christ among them.

From modern day Pennsylvania, we go back nearly two thousand years to eastern Macedonia, in particular to the city of Philippi.  Here we look upon two men who have gotten themselves into a peck of trouble.  We know them today as the Apostle Paul and Silas, but it was Paul who was the leader.

It is Paul who we will focus on.  God could not have picked a more interesting and well-suited person to be both his chief missionary of the Gospel and author of a major part of the New Testament through the letters he wrote to the churches he planted, clarifying some of the finer points of Christian theology and contending with heretical positions that were already creeping into the early Church.  As the Church spread into Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and points west, the early Church membership went from being entirely Jewish to a not always comfortable mixture of Jew and Gentile.

But who better to deal with contentions and heresies than a Jewish scholar who at one time thought that believing that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God was the very epitome of heresy.  Saul of Tarsus, who would later be better known by his Roman name, was perhaps the foremost persecutor of these Jewish followers of Jesus.  It fact, it was when he was on the road to Damascus to apprehend these followers of Jesus (the name “Christian” was not even being used yet), that Paul had his direct encounter with Christ that led to his 180º change of position on the legitimacy of belief in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God.  It was such a major change that many of the leaders of the early Church were highly suspicious that it was a trick to enable Paul to destroy the Church by cutting off the head.  It would be like Ted Cruz suddenly speaking out as the most ardent advocate of pro-LGBT issues.

But Paul was far more than a zealot.  He was a scholar who studied at the feet of the best teachers of the Law that Judaism had to offer in his day.  In fact, he was a member of the sect whose name is now synonymous with legalism.  He was a Pharisee.  And while he preached in the synagogue of Damascus immediately after his sight was restored following his Damascus road experience, he also studied the Tanakh long and hard to make sure that his interpretation of the experience was accurate.

Although the Bible tells us that Paul did not preach with eloquence, by adding a solid scriptural foundation to a compelling testimony of a changed life, he was able to win many converts, both Jew and Gentile, to the early church.  As such, he often drew the ire of those who had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, whether Jew or Gentile.  In Philippi, it was wealthy Gentiles he angered.  They incited a mob that brought Paul and Silas to the magistrates who in turn had them beaten and thrown into prison.  At this point, we’ll let the Bible tell the story, starting with Acts 16:23.

And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. (Acts 16:23-34)

What brought salvation to the jailor and his family?  Was it angry rhetoric directed against the jailor, the magistrates and his accusers?  Was it the formation of a protest committee, marching around the jail and shouting slogans?  Did a commando raid break Paul and Silas out of prison, taking the jailor and his family with them?  No!  It was because he saw their concern for him.  Not only had they been cheerfully praising God in a situation where most would be surly and grumbling, they did not avail themselves of the perfect opportunity to escape.  But Paul, who wrote about sacrificing his Christian liberty for a weaker believer, sacrificed his physical liberty for someone who didn’t even believe in Christ.  Yet led by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate humble obedience, Paul won this man and his family to Christ.

Even some conservative Christian websites are talking about the need to return to the primary Gospel message for our witness to the world.  Although I don’t agree with every idea stated in the article, I am providing a link to one such discourse.  And then the next blog post will look at the fourth and final person in the list I promised, a person some of my transgender friends may be surprised that I am including.  But his message fits this theme perfectly.

https://scottsauls.com/2016/10/31/politically_anxious/

And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. – Colossians 3:14-15

It’s good to be “back”!

God bless,

Lois