LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

A little over a year after my gender confirmation surgery, I received a letter from a friend, a retired mechanic with whom I had been part of a men’s Bible Study for close to twenty years. After reading it, I stuck it inside my Bible and forgot all about it—until a couple of days ago. I discovered it while unpacking after my recent move. Note: This old friend didn’t use my name in the letter and instead used the initial for my former male name in brackets (J), nor did he begin with a salutation. He also didn’t sign the letter or include a return address. I’m sure his heart was in the right place and was thinking of what’s best for me, once you strip the paint off, his letter was deeply hurtful and transphobic. While I understand the importance of confronting one another when neces-sary, it is not an excuse to attack someone's identity and use religion as a weapon. This behavior drives people away from faith and causes deep wounds in the LGBTQ+ community. It's crucial to rem...

Enrique Salazar-Samper (April 7, 1918 – April 30, 2013) For the last few days, I have been humming the first few lines of the beautiful hymn, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” I cannot help but make the connection between how much my earthy father, Enrique, loved us and how much our Heavenly Father’s love flowed to us through my Dad.  I don’t want this post to be about me, but I also cannot help but see my Dad’s love for me these last five years that I have been Lisa as evidence of just how powerful love is, that it can overcome even what seemed impossible, that a man at the age of ninety would be able to accept his fifty-eight-year-old son as his daughter. I am so grateful and blessed—it overwhelms me. Dad lived ninety-five years and twenty-three days...he was the last remaining member of his family to depart. The youngest of seven children, he had no memories of his mother, who passed away when he was only two. Along with my many cousins scattered throughout the Unit...