Search This Blog

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Sometimes, You Just Gotta Say...

As many know, religious issues can often present problems for someone who is trans or for the family of someone who is trans.

 Karin is transitioning.  She has a child in a Catholic school.  This could lead to problems, but Karin is prepared.  Sometimes, You Just Gotta Say... is an interesting, and short, post from Karin's blog, I'm Just a Girl (I Think).

 This is a good time to remind T-Central readers that there is a Trans/Religion Blog section on the right column of this page.  Several blogs representing many different faiths, are listed.  For Catholics (like myself), Anna's The Catholic Transgender blog is a good one to follow.
Posted by Calie

1 comment:

  1. Karin July1992June 18, 2015 at 12:37 PM

    Hi, T-Central!

    Thank you very much for featuring my recent blog post! I consider it an honor and hope that my words may inspire someone else in some way.

    I will write more about our meetings at each Catholic school after we digest it all, but long story short... the kids are in! No problem! Both schools are all about the children and educating them. As for the other kids at our children's schools, bullying WILL NOT be tolerated. The diocesan school has an excellent anti-bullying program, but the other (non-diocesan) school has a weak anti-bullying program. (We will definitely be offering to help with that if we can).

    As far as the OTHER KID'S PARENTS - we are on our own with them and my wife and I are okay with that. Adults are adults and bigotry is taught downward. Both schools stated to us that they will step in for our kids, but they (understandably) cannot do anything about any ne'er do well parents who causes trouble. Our skins may have to get a little thicker in the coming months.

    I did not get an official or unofficial endorsement of my being Transgender from either school - while they function pretty independently, they must adhere to official Catholic scholastic teachings, etc. HOWEVER, I did get a complete sense that the priest. lay principal and nuns we met with realize that I/We transgender folk are good people and can be good Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Baptists, etc. Caitlyn Jenner came up in our conversations as a Transperson whom they are familiar with and all I can say is... God Bless, Caitlyn! Her coming-out and publicity definitely was a big benefit to explaining me, who I am and why I am. Caitlyn Jenner will make thousands of conversations like ours with the schools a lot easier.

    As for any "rules" we have to follow, we just simply agreed that we would respect that the diocesan Catholic school would be teaching what the Catholic beliefs regarding sexuality, etc. are and as I described myself as a "modest person" - that we aren't going to stir up trouble for trouble's sake. As our child is quite young and sexuality, etc. isn't taught until 7th grade - we're okay with that. As the pastor (priest) of the school said during our meeting, "there's a good chance that this Pope might help you out!" We all had a good chuckle at that POV.

    We are extremely relieved and personally, I feel a little like Christopher Columbus must have felt after he landed in the New World... "okay, where do we go from here?"

    I just glad that I said, "Sometimes, you just gotta say... what the (blank)!" and that I made my move. No matter what, my world is a lot better for my talking to the kid's schools and introducing myself as a Transperson. My wife deserves a lot of the credit as she helped me realize that I had to go for it and take a chance. She was also an awesome advocate for me and us Trans-folks when she spoke about us in our meetings.

    Thanks as always for your inspiration,

    Karin

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

The People - Personal Thoughts

Show All

Cobweb Corner - Older Blogs, Not Recently Updated