Valjean Royal Caryl Averlyn Bella Donna Night Raven Sarah j. Babcock Karen Krebs Natasha T Chort Steph Turner Amanda Armstrong |
| Founding Corps Members |
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| In the summer of 2004, nine voices came together to share their diverse spiritual experiences in the context of their common transgender experience. Click on their names to see their "Opening Statement" that eloquently shares how each has integrated her gender giftedness into her spiritual expression. (Note: Copyright of each statement is retained by each writer.) |
| Trans Religious Dialogue (TRD) |
| As these gender-gifted souls exchanged their insights into how their unique gender experiences are integral to their spirituality, and not in spite of it, this exchange became known as the Trans Religious Dialogue, or TRD for short. A remarkable dimension to this TRD is the diversity of religious/spiritual expressions among their members: |
| With a rich diversity like this, enjoying a peaceful encounter of one another's religious perspectives, we are far from being any kind of scourge to society. Rather, we just might be what society needs! Most of these sacred souls above, like most treasures, are being kept under lock and key. Like most horded treasures, they are kept from bringing to the whole of society their blessed individualities. What are they guilty of doing? Mostly, they are guilty of being transgendered and poor. As they transcend rigid gender barriers, they also transcend the rigid divide between guilt and innocence. As gender is largely a social construct built around two natural modalities, these blessed souls recognize that "prison" is also based on a social construct. They intimately see how it ignores the many gradient shades of justice in between the modalities of guilt and innocence. They have moved beyond the popular belief that "convicts will do or say anything to avoid paying the penalty for their errors." Through their spiritual growth they have come to know a "justice" within that transcends the shortcomings in society. Is it because we grossly ignore the natural gifts of humanity, often poorly understood, that we create a culture with few opportunties for nurturing such blessed souls? When we protect ourselves from those we don't understand, do we guard ourselves from those with the gift to bring us back into harmony? When these gifted souls are marginalized to the outer fringes of society, who suffers the greater harm? Why do we rely on old institutions like the gender binarism and prison warehouses when so many social problems are rooted in the tensions of polarization? Indeed, many of these souls are freer than those who cast blatant aspersions against those things they scarcely comprehend. We welcome you to discover how they are transcending their circumstances to find a life that deep within lives true! |
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