As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Greek; slave or free; male or female, all of you are one in Christ.“ Jesus was not afraid to interact with, eat with, and welcome into his band of disciples those who were rejected, cast out, considered inferior/untouchable and judged by the rest of his society. The love of Jesus is unconditional. Radical inclusion is necessary when following the Way of Jesus.  That's why we include people of the LGBTQ+ spectrum in all of our work and worship as a community of Jesus. ...

  Here are some important statistics related to trans youth:             (from a 2019 Canadian Medical Association Youth Health survey)  -77% of trans-youth have avoided using public washrooms for fear of being harassed, assaulted or outed as trans -66% do not feel safe in school washrooms -58% are not comfortable talking to their health practitioner about gender care -transgender youth are 5 times more likely to think about suicide and 7.6 times more likely to attempt it, compared to other youth. -only 47% of trans and non-binary youth live in their felt gender full-time, 38% live it...

Did you know that approximately 1% of the world’s population are transgender? In the 2021 census in Canada, of those age 15 and older, less than 1% identified as transgender/non-binary: 0.19% identified as transgender and 0.14% identified as non-binary. The data shows that out of the 4.2 million Albertans aged 15 and older, 99.63 per cent are cisgender, meaning they identify the same as their sex at birth. That means that only a fraction of one per cent of Albertans, 7,305, are transgender Albertans — 3,420 transgender men and 3,880 transgender women. Another 5,170 Albertans are non-binary, meaning they may identify as gender-fluid,...

The process toward gender transition is a long and thoughtful one right now, based on current medical and mental health practices, with no new legislation needed. First, the trans youth and their parent(s) need to come out to their family doctor, if they have one. The family doctor then needs to agree to refer them to the gender care clinic. The gender care clinic team accompanying a trans youth and their parent(s) includes nurses, therapists, doctors, and a psychiatrist. Currently, the psychiatrist, who has to sign off on any hormone therapy, has a one year wait list. If there is...

It is important for trans youth (and other children) to have access to puberty blockers. Puberty is beginning earlier, for some girls as young as 8 years old. The changes to the body that happen during puberty can be distressing if they are not in line with a youth’s gender. Puberty blockers can help relieve this distress. Delaying puberty gives the young person more time to explore their gender identity & make a mature decision, before bodily changes happen that can’t be reversed. The effect of puberty blockers is completely reversible. If a youth decides not to transition, they go...

Should transwomen be banned from women’s sports?  NO!  Transwomen have no advantage over cis-women in sports. They face the same challenges as any female athlete. Banning transwomen from women’s sports can harm all women athletes with invasive tests, accusations that a woman is “too masculine” or blaming any woman's win on not really being a woman. Cis-women may naturally have higher or lower hormone levels.  There should not be separate teams for trans-people since that segregates them as targets for bullying. Trans youth need to be welcome to play sports alongside other students at school.  It is naïve to think that we...

High River United Church is officially an Affirming Church. That means that we have gone through a process set out by AFFIRM UNITED that helped us commit to being an intentionally inclusive community.  Here is the High River United Church Affirming statement:   Rooted in the love of God and grounded in the teaching of Jesus, High River United Church is a community of help, home and hope. In the spirit of Jesus' radical love we open our hearts and doors to be a safe community where no one feels alone. We celebrate all people in the full spectrum of gender identity,...

I wonder… what is the state of your heart? What’s in there? What’s that heart-territory like right now? I suspect that if we move out of our heads just a bit, and venture into our hearts we might notice all sorts of things not unlike the ingredients of a Christmas cake batter. I bet there’s joy and sadness, some loneliness maybe? Or, worry and alarm as another COVID variant circles the globe? Maybe this territory of the heart feels two-sizes too small, or perhaps full of contentment. One thing I know is that we would all do better if we lived...

I wonder, if like me, you are noticing a disquieting “hum” around us and the planet? The best I can do is describe it like a subtle static buzz that is causing many of us to feel slightly off—out of whack, or something like that. I know that we’re all doing the very best we can to hold on, to grasp at some form of “normal” during these times and yet, despite our best efforts we can’t quite avoid the “hum”. I wonder, what can Advent offer us this year that serves to quiet such a disquieting hum?   One thing...

Next year, we said.  Next year, we’ll be back to normal.  That was our dream as we locked down and limited our gatherings for Christmas 2020.  Next year!   But here we are a year later, and life is not back to “normal.”  Vaccinations have provided a bit more freedom and a bit more security.  But a new variant has been identified and unsettled things.   We are not fully open, fully gathering, no worries in the world.  It’s just another pandemic Christmas.  Oh my!   This is the time when we really need the Christmas story – not the warm fuzzy...