Who is prevented?
/Please note: I rarely write directly about current political issues in this blog. Today is an exception, in case you’d rather not go there. I feel very strongly about this issue.
…and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” -Acts 8:36
Just four months into 2021, dozens of bills have been introduced in at least 28 state legislatures that aim to restrict the medical and social rights of transgender youth, including here in NH. These bills are strongly opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, human and civil rights organizations, many major American companies, countless school boards and school administrators, and 2/3 of the American public. Despite this, these bills continue being filed and are lathering up the ever-present culture clash in our country.
Many of you know that transgender issues are close to my own heart, after my transgender daughter died of suicide at age 18. Suicides are on the rise in our country, becoming the second leading cause of death in teenagers, and transgender youth have a suicide rate 2-3 times higher than cisgender youth. Some studies have shown that over half of all transgender teens have either made concrete plans for or attempted suicide. This makes the very small population group among us of transgender teens a uniquely vulnerable population.
The bills currently flooding state legislatures are based on stereotypical notions of what it means to be transgender, and seem to be orchestrated and designed to stir up fear and indignation in people who have no experience with transgender youth or know very little about the reality of transgender issues. Some of these bills seek to keep transgender girls from playing on their school girl’s sports teams, while others outlaw the accepted medical treatment for gender dysphoria in young people, even making it a capitol crime for their parents to seek medical treatment for their own children. Many parents of trans kids in Arkansas, where such a law has already passed, are looking for ways to move elsewhere in order to get their children the help they need and to stay out of jail doing it.
So, the lectionary this week presents the story of the Ethiopian eunuch at a relevant moment. People who fall in various and unusual places along the gender spectrum are nothing new in the history of humanity and eunuchs were just some of the ambiguously gendered people of Philip’s day. I note that after Philip spends time with the Ethiopian eunuch, it becomes clear to him that there is nothing at all to prevent the eunuch from being baptized. I’m sure if you’ve ever had time with a trans teen, you’ve also come to know that there is nothing at all to prevent them from living into their God-given life, either. In our Scripture and in our faith, we know that in Christ there is no male or female, slave or free. All are one - and beloved - in Christ.
As John writes in his letter:
Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their [siblings] also.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. And may we, out of the heart of our faith, advocate for trans teens as the beloved children of God they are.
