Come, come again, and again whoever
you are!
Come wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire!
Our hearth is not the threshold of despair.
Come even if you have broken your vows
a hundred times!
Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are,
come, and come again!

Mevlâna Celaleddin-i Rumi

Thank you for join us at the Transgender Religion Global Network. Transgender Religion Global Network - TRGN is a part of the workgroup transgender, religion, philosophy of life and ethics.

The goal of Transgender Religion Global Network is to build a bridge between religious transgenders, transsexuals of all faith and the different religions all around the world.

Transgender Religion Global Network and the workgroup developed a 6 step plan:

1. Research

2. Compile Transgender-Friendly Religions and Spiritual Card

3. Information and Public Relations

4. Advice and Support Transgender-Friendly Religions, Spirituale Care

5. Dialogue

6. Round Table Talks, Workshops and Lecture

Share your transgender faith, religion, spirituality story, video's, poems, books with us and invite your friends and organizations to join us.

Member of transgender organizations tell us about your work.

Let's make Transgender Religion Global Network a global transgender community for the freedom of religious transgenders all over the world.

Transgender Religion Global Network created Transgender Friendly Religious Alliance

Transgender Friendly Religious Alliance is a network for transgender friendly religious workers of all faith who support religious transgenders all around the world.

Transgender Friendly Religious Alliance
http://transgenderreligiousallance.ning.com

Visit Transgender Friendly Religious Alliance


Visit De werkgroep transgender, religie, levensbeschouwing en ethiek

Prayer

Dear God
Let me always remember
what it is is be
as a woman is
living in the corners of life
relegated to smaller portions
devalued
discounted
dismissed

Dear Lord
Let me never forget
what it is te be
as a man is
living in the eye of life
inheritor of unlimited possibilities
bestowed
believed
beheld

And Dear Lord God
Let me never forget to remember
what it is to be
the man I am
born the woman I was

Poem from Guilty by Gender by Hap Hanchett
Poem from The Phallus Palace Female to Male Transsexuals by Dean Kotula

Prayer for Transgender Day of Remembrance by Rev. Malcolm Himschoot

LAMENT AND PROCLAMATION

For use by communities during Transgender Day of Remembrance, a commemoration of lives lost worldwide to violence against gender-nonconforming people. - Rev. Malcolm Himschoot.

Reader 1:
How long, O God?
How long will transgender people suffer shame and loss because of who we are?
How long must we bear pain in our souls, and have sorrow in our hearts all day long?
How long shall we have enemies who persecute us, ridicule us, and gloat over us?
(adapted from Psalm 10)

Reader 2:
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
And my enemy will say, “I have prevailed.”
(from Ps 13)

Reader 3:
Why do you stand far off, hiding yourself in times of trouble?
In fear the violent attack the vulnerable –
Let them be caught in the schemes their hearts have devised.
In confusion and disturbance the oppressors say,
“There is no God who cares for the meek –
No God will find me out.”
Their mouths are filed with cursing and deceit and oppression.
They sit in ambush.
In stealth they murder the innocent.
The helpless fall by their might.
They think:
“God has forgotten [the drag queens and cross-dressers, transgender men, transgender women, transgender children and youth, gender-queer people and intersex individuals]* –
God has hidden God’s face.”

Rise up, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand.
Do not forget the oppressed.
(from Ps 10)

Silence

Reader 4: Matthew 5:1-9

Silence

All Gathered:
Why do murderers rage, and fearful people plot in vain?
Those in power, and those who long for power, conspire.
Against the precious anointed of the Lord.

In heaven God laughs at their presumption.
I will tell of the decree of the Living, Mighty God
Who said to me, “You are my child. Today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the earth itself your inheritance.”
(from Ps 2)

*In this line place whatever names and identities best affirm the community.

Scars

Men wear them

As a battle

Proud


Woman conceal them

as a fault

ashamed


Ashamed to be proud

I fault

my concealed battle


Poem from Guilty by Gender, by Hap Hanchett

Call Me Malcolm

A documentary feature about one man's struggle with faith, love and gender identity.

In the documentary is a theological conversation between Malcolm and Pastor Emily from the Washington Park United Church of Christ.

Macolm: The certainty that I was wrong, everything about me was wrong, used to trouble me a great deal and then I thought "Well what if I'm not wrong? Then it was livable, so I was wasting my life, 'worrying about being wrong and now I'm not wasting my life.

Pastor Emily: Talk to me about that, how you've worked that out with God, that sense of betrayed in terms of being incarnated in what, for you, felt like the wrong gender. How are things going with you and God on that conversation.

Malcolm: One of the issues I really haven't complained to God about is what kind of body I have, I mean, I assume that, if this is really how I feel and think, that is must be part of my body, and, like, my body is involved in sending signals to my brain that tells me how to think, so I'm not sure exactly why don''t have the same kind of body as another man, but it's not necessarly a problem. More of an isssue I had with God was, "Why were You so not clear that all your people think this is such a big issue?" You know, shouldn't Got bear some of the blame for.

Pastor Emily: All right, but see, I think God was really clear, I think God was very clear in Genesis when we hear the language "in the image of God was humanity created both male and female and you've heard me articutate before that my theology of transgender is that if you're looking for someone who incarnates the most clear and whole vision of who God is, well bases on our Scripture of tradition that it has to be a transgender person who has experienced both male and female that is the most whole vision of the sacred that we're going to get, which is why it's so easy for me to ascribe a prophetic call to you because it sounds like God to me.

Call Me Malcolm
http://www.CallMeMalcom.com

Statement by the Rev. Drew Phoenix

Last fall, after a lifelong spiritual journey, and years of prayer and discernment, I decided to change my name from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix in order to reflect my true gender identity and to honor my spiritual transformation and relationship with God.
My transition to live fully as the male I know myself to be is very personal and deeply spiritual. As a Christian, I worship God – I AM. People frequently asked Jesus, "Who are you?" His response was, "Who do you say I am?" "Who do YOU say YOU are?"

I believe that our spiritual path is, in great part, the answer to: Who am I? I am ...

I realize that my transition may be confusing and surprising for those of you who have known me for years but were unaware of what I was going through. I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to share.

It is my intention and hope that, by sharing my story – my relationship with God and my spiritual journey – we will commit ourselves to becoming educated about the complexity of gender and gender identity and open ourselves to those in our congregations who identify as transgender.

When I was born, society declared that I was a girl, and my parents named me Ann Gordon. But for as long as I can remember I have felt like a boy, acted like a boy, dressed like a boy and wanted to hang out with the boys. And for the first several yeas of my life, my parents let me by my boy-self. In fact, I was referred to by everyone in our small town as my father’s son, Dave Gordon’s son.

So it was very difficult when I reached puberty to be pressured by family, friends, church and community to conform, to dress and act, like a female. At the time (unlike now), there was no language or body of knowledge about gender identity, and certainly no available medical expertise, to help me describe and understand the disconnect I was experiencing between my physical, external self and my internal, spiritual self. I identify as male. The gender I was assigned at birth has never matched my own true, authentic, God-given gender identity … how I know myself.

Fortunately, today, God’s gift of medical science is enabling me to bring my physical body into alignment with my true gender. I am making this transition under the care of an excellent medical team. I am grateful for their expertise. They have been instruments of God’s grace for me.

As I continue to transition, to fully claim myself as a male, I find myself coming home to the Child God created me to be. I find myself joyful, whole, and peaceful. And I find myself even more effective as a pastor.

You may ask what effect this is having on the church I am currently serving, St. John’s of Baltimore City. I can tell you that St. John’s is growing and thriving on its Discipleship Adventure. In the past 5 years, membership has quadrupled, for the first time in years families with children are participating, stewardship has tripled, several new ministries have been initiated, and the congregation has plans to begin renovating its old, historical building in order to be more efficient, effective, and relevant in its vision and mission.

As I have chosen to transition, the congregation has studied, listened, and prayed in order to understand and embrace the meaning of my transition within my call to ministry and within our call as a congregation. My prayer, and greatest concern always is that the congregation continues to grow and thrive.

Gender identity diversity is not easy for most people to understand, as we have been steeped in an either/or, male/female-only understanding of gender. It is hard to believe that our bodies do not tell the whole story about what we are. I assure you that I am not one-of-a-kind, that there are may people like me in our congregations who are suffering with the disconnect that I have felt.

Jesus’ central message is that God’s love and grace extend unconditionally to all of us, not because we look a certain way or have a particular identity, but because we are all children of God created in God’s image. Each of us is a beloved child of God. No exceptions.

Today, in your congregation, in your communities, are young people and adults struggling with who they are and how they fit in. Maybe their families do not understand them; perhaps their friends have isolated them. They are wondering if they fit into the church. As Christians it is essential that we communicate to them God’s unconditional love and their worth and value as children of God made in God’s image. You can begin that process today as I stand here and witness to the complexity and joy of God’s creation.

Transgender Rabbinic Student Reuben Zellman

NEW YORK, March 11 (JTA) — The Reform movement’s rabbinical seminary has accepted a transgendered person, paving the way for what is believed would be the first ordination of a rabbi to have switched genders.
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati confirmed this week that it accepted a male rabbinical school applicant who used to be a woman.

The prospective rabbi, Reuben Zellman, 24, of Oakland, Calif., who considers himself “transgender and queer,” said he is not attempting to spark religious debates nor become a political lightning rod.

“As far as I know, I am the first person to do this, but that’s not why I’m doing it,” Zellman said.

“I realize it has political ramifications and I think those are positive, but I’m becoming a rabbinical student because that’s what I want to do with my life,” he said in a telephone interview.

Zellman — who was open about being transgender throughout the admissions process — was accepted “on his own merits,” said the school’s National Director of Admissions, Rabbi Roxanne Schneider Shapiro.

“Certainly we listened to the story he had to tell. But Reuben was an outstanding candidate.”

When Zellman begins his rabbinical training late this summer, he will be breaking new ground for the nation’s largest denomination.

In 1990, the Reform movement became the first to ordain gays and three decades ago pioneered the ordination of women.

It also comes as the Conservative movement, the next largest stream in America, wrestles with the question of how Jewish law should treat homosexuality. And at least one Conservative rabbi has raised a question about transgender issues, according to a top Conservative official.

Rabbi Richard Address, director of the department of Jewish family concerns of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform movement’s congregational arm, hailed the news about Zellman’s admission.

“I see it as a historic move, but I also see it as a continued progression of the philosophy of the Reform movement,” Address said.

Zellman will join between 57 and 65 rabbinical students who will be beginning their rabbinical training later this year.

Many, including Zellman, are expected to spend their first of five years at HUC’s Jerusalem campus.

For Zellman, who has committed himself to going, it will be the first time visiting the Jewish state.

Raised in what he called a “not very observant” Reform home in Los Angeles, Zellman went to Hebrew school and became a Bat Mitzvah. He declined to reveal his previous name.

In 1996, Zellman, still a female, entered the University of California at Berkeley and studied linguistics, later earning a second degree in classical voice.

In 1999, Zellman said he “transitioned” from being a woman to a man, though he would not discuss the emotional or physical details of that process.

“I just felt, at the time, that I would be happier living in the world as a man, and so far, I’m right.”

Although Zellman would not say whether he’s undergone a sex-change operation, he should be considered a man if he is living as one, said Scott Gansl, president of the World Congress of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Jewish Organizations.

Soon after he transitioned, Zellman joined Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco, a largely gay synagogue affiliated with the Reform movement that bills itself as including “people of all sexual identities.”

At first Zellman attended Shabbat and holiday services, but began growing more interested in studying Hebrew and Jewish texts.

When other members realized Zellman could “carry a tune,” he began singing with the synagogue’s chavurah and even led some services.

A Bay Area cantor took Zellman on as a student in 2001, and that spring, Zellman — at the age of 21 — was hired to perform High Holiday services at Temple Beth Sholom in San Jose, Calif.

Zellman originally hoped to become a cantor, but eventually decided that it “doesn’t encompass the full scope of what I want to do.”

He wants to study Torah, get trained as a pastoral counselor and “give others the kind of vibrant, living Judaism my congregation has given me.”

Zellman also sees tikkun olam, or repairing the world, as part of his rabbinical mission to work “for justice and peace.”

And as a transgendered person, Zellman feels he has much to contribute to that effort.

“I’ve had a unique and complex experience, which has deepened my connection to, and love for, the Jewish people’s complex and unique experience,” he said.

Zellman hopes to become a pulpit rabbi, yet recognizes that he may encounter problems finding a job because of his background.

“I may be a little different,” he said.

“I realize some people believe there is something wrong with transgendered people, but I have a lot of faith in the Jewish people, and faith that people will take this opportunity to apply the best of our Jewish values and be open-minded.”

Address of the UAHC said Zellman should not prove as “revolutionary” a rabbi as he would have even 15 or 20 years ago.

“It will always be a concern for some who want to make it an issue,” he said.

“But I am confident that five or six years from now, Reuben will find a place within the community that suits his needs and vice versa.”

Representatives of Judaism’s other major movements are more uncertain about the advent of a transgendered rabbi.

Neither officials at the Conservative movement’s rabbinical school, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, nor at the Orthodox Yeshiva University, which is affiliated with the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, would comment on Zellman’s acceptance by HUC.

Daniel Aronson, dean of admissions and recruitment at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in suburban Philadelphia, said the movement’s seminary and the movement in general would accept transgendered Jews “wholeheartedly.”

“Whether a person is transgendered or not, that in itself would not be a cause for rejecting a person,” Aronson said.

Though the Reconstructionist seminary has never received any applications from transgendered people nor had any post-graduates change sexes, Aronson added that some years ago one male rabbinical student “was feeling his way around” changing his sex but decided not to.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, maintained that according to Jewish law, “a transgendered person would be violating the halachah against self-mutilation.”

“I think what we would want to ask is, what is the status of such a person?”

Meyers said one Conservative rabbi he would not identify has raised that very question. The movement’s Committee on Law and Standards would have to consider the matter and issue a response that would form the basis of an official stance.

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, said transsexuality and transgendered people pose a “fascinating” and ongoing debate in Orthodoxy.

Rabbi Edward Reichman, a physician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and an authority on Jewish law and gender change, said halachah “considers sexual identity to be innate, and not changeable by any kind of operation.”

However, those who feel trapped in the wrong gender are encouraged to undergo medical or psychological treatment short of any procedure that alters their sexual organs, he said.

Connect with Local Transmen

If you identify as FtM, you are welcome to join this site.

We have created this site with your anonymity in mind. ONLY registered users have access to the information in your profiles, and YOU decide how much and what type of information you want to share.

We all needed answers and support when we began our transitions. Some of us were fortunate to have a close friend who had transitioned and we went to him for advice and support. The majority of us only had the internet. While the information is out there to be found, it's still not the same as having someone in our home town who we can turn to for support.

FtM Mentors was created with this purpose in mind. Nothing else - just a place to find a local FtM friend to either mentor ( be a big brother to) or to find an FtM turn to for support.

For those who are pre-transition, or in early transition, (Teen and untransitioned FtMs welcome) out site makes it easer for you to find someone locally who has transitioned (post-transitioned - meaning living Full-Time as a male, with or without surgery) who can hopefully become your friend and Mentor to help guide you in your exciting journey of becoming a Female-to-Male transgender indiviual.

For those post-transitioned men, you have a real opportunity to help others the same path, with support and encouragement.

FtM Mentors
http://www.ftmmentors.org