Transgender folks & those who are terrified by them

One of the curiosities of 2022 has been the accelerating fear of transgender people expressed in various ways by various groups, including Iowa's Legislature --- which by statute and with encouragement from the governor this year banned transgender girls from  girls sports.

Curious, in part at least, because transgender people are among the least threatening of the various sorts of humanity out there.

Some of it, I suppose, reflects a lingering societal contempt for women in general --- transgender women receive the most enraged attention, transgender men not so much. The ideal that a biological male might identify as female --- shocking, un-American, un-Christian and all the rest.

Anyhow, March 31 was International Transgender Day of Visibility, an event that motivated students at one of Iowa's most prestigious Catholic high schools --- Dowling in West Des Moines --- to share a public announcement and prayer for their transgender sisters and brothers.

According to a report in this morning's Des Moines Register, the prayer encouraged those who heard it to "love, cherish, and honor the dignity of all those in our community, especially our Trans friends and neighbors, just as they are."

That, as you might expect, alarmed some parents and patrons of the school supported by the Diocese of Des Moines. One result was a statement from Bishop William Joensen: "Unfortunately, while well-intentioned, a recent student announcement and prayer at Dowling Catholic High School noting transgender visibility day contained an open-ended reference to human rights and overall content that easily lent itself to a problematic interpretation. The point at issue blurs the distinction between Catholic Church teaching and a larger cultural ethos that is not friendly to the Catholic faith."

The Bishop goes on to note that the diocese is trying to develop a policy toward transgender folks and, presumably, continuing to fine tune its response to LGBTQ+ people in general. The result, of course, is unlikely to nudge tradition toward recognition of the creativity demonstrated by the Creator, but at least there is some thought being devoted to the issue.

Which is more than can be said for the Evangelical sects we hear so much about these days and the largely silent traditionally mainstream Protestant sects trying to keep their boats steady and stem the flow of traditionalists out the door and into Evangelical arms and of progressives just out the door, period.

Mind you, there are some religious entities that on paper at least offer unconditional welcomes to LGBTQ+ people --- United Church of Christ, The Episcopal Church, PCUSA Presbyterians, ELCA Lutherans, Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalists and more.

But for the most part, LGBTQ+ folks always need to keep in mind that when a religious person suggests that "you will know us by our love," he or she is not talking about us.