Desert Notes March 27, 2025
| March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility. Over the weekend many organizations, including ours, will be marking this day with celebrations and solidarity events. Many of you may not know as much about the “T” in LGBTQIA++. Last year I shared a couple of stories with you about elders I knew from my ministry in Kansas who were transgender and who led in their communities by example–sharing who they were, including their generosity, telling the story of the journey and gently reminding us that humans have the same basic needs. I often tell people you don’t have to understand someone to treat them with kindness and respect. When someone tells us how they want to be known–their pronouns and name–there is nothing more complicated to do than to receive that gift and return it. Right now Trans and Non-Binary folx are being scapegoated in order to distract us from the planned theft happening in our government of funds and functionality. Being under threat looks like: being targeted by anti-DEI strategies; losing access to health care and spaces that were once safe (bathrooms, sports teams, student organizations); being targeted by harassment and physical violence; being criminalized for existing. When the same person also carries other identities under attack (immigrant, Black or brown, non-Christianity) the level of harm they experience is so much greater. This weekend I am inviting you to proclaim your solidarity and willingness to learn and lean in. We have a Community Resource Fair for Trans/Non-Binary community on Saturday March 29 from 10-2:50 designed to build community for trans/non-binary folx and their allies/accomplices and to share resources. I hope it will be an opportunity to plan both how we will fight back against the rhetoric of hate but also how we will experience joy, connection, and hope. This event includes a potluck, too. RSVP and if you can help clean up or can offer some other help–we’d love that, too. Changing Hands–a favorite bookstore of mine and I imagine for most of you, is also hosting a “Transgender Day of Joy” Event starting at 5 at their Camelback location. And our Sunday service, as you’ve read, will also focus on this topic. I’ve been asking folks to read the book “Authentic Selves: Celebrating Tran and Nonbinary People and Their Families.” (This is the UUA Common Read this year and is published by Beacon Press.) Read it, and let’s talk! As a parent watching my kid’s identity be erased, maligned, and watching him be denied access to things he needs, I have been really struggling. Kids need to be kids. They need to be able to socialize, play sports, engage in learning, have friends, explore, be in public spaces, without fear of being bullied, rejected, or denied access just because they don’t fit a neat box of “male/female.” Adults need full access to human activities, too. Let’s show up for each other! Love is at the center, always. —Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan |