Samantha Christopher (Sam) THIS ONE (Copy 01)

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.

Dear Friends in Christ,

This year marks the fifth time I have celebrated LGBTQ pride month since coming out. I came out for the first time in August of 2015 when, in the aftermath of the Obergefell decision, all seemed bright and hopeful and joyous. This year, I celebrate pride not just in celebration of who I am and of the rich history of my ancestors, but in defiance of the forces of evil and death that run rampant in this world. In the past few months, state legislature after state legislature have passed increasingly punitive and shocking laws seeking to legislate transgender people like myself out of existence. As a person in the discernment process for the priesthood, I suddenly find one of my beloved adopted Church’s seminaries out of reach due to Tennessee’s punitive and deeply dangerous bathroom law.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians we read for the Office today, we find St. Paul warning us of teachers who seem to be angels of light and yet lie in wait to devour and destroy us. He points out that even the Devil portrayed himself as an angel of light, but we must not be deceived just as Eve was deceived in the Garden by Satan. In a heart-wrenching sermon on the Genesis reading we heard on Sunday, Fr. Sean Mullen of St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia dives deeply into that famous question asked of Adam and Eve in the Garden, focusing on the final word: “Who told you that you are naked?”

He goes on to point out that God, who created us in his own image, delights in our very being--from our thumbs to the way the hair drapes down our shoulders, and even to the way sweat glistens on our foreheads. Indeed, too, I believe God delights in the many expressions of gender he created us to express.

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity [...]

Just as my siblings around this world whose gender identity and expression match that which society assigned them at birth are beloved by God, so too is my gender variance and expansiveness beloved by God. So too is the gender expansiveness expressed by transgender and gender non-conforming people throughout God’s creation. Every time we leave the house, we are met with the face of God walking among us in every person we encounter, no matter where they come from or how they express themselves.

I pray that you take time this Pride month to look around you and see the face of God within those who look different from you, whose gender expansiveness is just as glorious as the most beautiful sunrise. I also pray that you take time this month to look in a mirror and see the face of God looking back at you.

Your sibling in Christ,
Sam Christopher