![\"butterfly\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/361\/2015\/06\/butterfly.jpg\")
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This is a long and difficult road for many of us \u2014 queer and straight\u2026<\/p>\n
When the \u201cother\u201d kind of person turns out to be someone who is respected, liked, and loved, then who that person is will collide with who that person is assumed to be. This is a God-moment when seeds of reconciliation or rejection are sown.<\/p>\n
\u2026God has been leading me to connect with various Christian congregations in my area, growing and developing a godly, sisterly relationship with them. Because I live \u201csimply open\u201d about who and what I am, at some point when our relationship deepens, the fact that I am a married Christian woman of transgender experience will become apparent in natural, relaxed, and even winsome ways \u2014 in God\u2019s time\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026Last Wednesday, at an \u201cagape\u201d potluck and Bible study, it was \u201ctime\u201d \u2014 my status and authority as a transgender person became very relevant to the discussion and I gently made my disclosure, acting in great vulnerability from a position of spiritual strength\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026This Sunday at church was a good time of worship. Much was preached, sung and prayed about how this<\/em> church, this<\/em> part of Christ\u2019s Body, was especially attuned and welcoming to people on the margins, the people \u201cother churches\u201d reject. We were admonished that \u201cthey will come here for Jesus\u2019 love: be prepared!\u201d They didn\u2019t realize that I had already been among them as an \u201cunpresentable\u201d part of The Body. I was cautiously optimistic\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026Last evening, I again joined the \u201cagape\u201d group with my spouse. We ate and socialized, and when I was asked how my spouse and I were related, I replied in joyful truth. Moments later, I was called into the pastor\u2019s office along with the Bible study leader in whose group I had \u201ccome out.\u201d I learned that I had caused a stir among the entire church leadership for most of the past week.<\/p>\n We had a long and good discussion, but I was very much \u201con trial.\u201d We discussed my relationship with Jesus, my relationship with sin, my understanding of the Bible and its authority, my transgender nature, and my transition. In the end, I was essentially excommunicated. I was told (without Biblical support) that being transgender was illegitimate and that living as a woman (as myself) was, in their eyes: \u201csexual immorality.\u201d<\/p>\n I gently pointed out the arrogance of assuming absolute correctness on the issues, yet being unwilling to go to God about the possibility that they could be wrong. I also gently pointed out the hypocrisy of treating my \u201csin\u201d as one in need of special attention, including the breaking of fellowship. I commended the pastor for speaking civilly with me about this; he commended me for my reputation in the church as someone who was well-spoken, intelligent, honest, and kind with a gentle servant\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n But his prescription for me was to \u201crepent.\u201d Specifically, \u201crepent\u201d meant for me to renounce my (God-given) gender identity, to live as a man, and to \u201cembrace my masculinity.\u201d Of course to \u201clive as a man\u201d would require me to have a sex change, and I assured him that unless God made this demand crystal clear by the conviction of His Spirit, I would make no such recantation\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026So we parted. As I left, I suggested that we pray together and embrace. I led this prayer and we parted with hugs: fellow believers who could not be reconciled at this time and maybe not on this side of eternity\u2026<\/p>\n
![\"Ren\u00e9e](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/361\/2015\/06\/blatchley.jpg\" "\\"Ren\u00e9e")
About Brettany Ren\u00e9e Blatchley<\/strong>