LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

It was with a heavy heart that I chose not to renew the website I created three years ago on New Year's Eve, "UgandaUrgentAction.com." It's time for quiet diplomacy and prayer. Original Website, January 3, 2011 How it looked on Dec. 17, 2012 Earlier that December 31, 2010 I read a blog post by my friend Kathy Baldock titled: "Genocide brewing in Uganda." It dealt with the infamous "Kill the Gays Bill" that was being debated in Uganda's Parliament and its passage seemed eminent. It upset me deeply and I decided to write an open letter to all 287 members of parliament, the President, the Prime Minister, and both the Cabinet and the shadow cabinet. Then I got the idea to create the website to promote a letter writing campaign. I enlisted a friend who is a copy writer to come up with three letters people could choose from and while I waited for the domain to go live, I got busy creating the page. Once it was up and running and a...

Have you ever considered the irony in the Christmas story concerning family? Luke tells us, “A decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David, called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.” Whether this census really took place in exactly this way is debatable. It may have been a more localized census, affecting only the Province of Syria, which included Judea. Assuming there is some truth to Luke’s account, can you imagine a homecoming where you cannot connect with any of your family and are forced to find shelter in a stable? If Joseph was returning to his roots because of a decree, one would think his roots would also be aware of this decree and anticipate the arrival of many kinfolks, perhap...

…And the eunuch asked two pregnant questions. A passage that has become very significant to transgender Christians is Acts 8:26-39, the story of Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. The narrator of the story explains how Philip was instructed by an angel to intercept a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, a eunuch, on the dusty road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Why this detail of the person’s sexual otherness is in the account may not be readily apparent to us. It seems a bit odd, after all, how did Philip know this intimate detail? It’s not as if this person had the word “eunuch” tattooed on their forehead. Perhaps the possible lack of facial hair, high-pitched voice, or even attire my have been the clue. But why out this person in the narrative? This story, therefore, requires that we do a little queering in order to get at the significance and the importance of the story for us today.

Dedicated to my friend RuthAnn. Today was the second day of orientation for new students at Vancouver School of Theology (VST) — we had a spiritual retreat. The morning started with a short worship service as we gathered together. We were then led through a couple of community building exercises designed to get us to know each other better, giving us the chance to share little things about our stories and how we have ended up at VST.  Not surprising, all of our stories and the paths that have brought us here are uniquely different from the others, yet there is the sense of calling that resonates with each narrative.  Due to my curious nature, but equally suspicious and reluctant to embrace things too quickly, I tend to ruminate and over-analyze; and It's usually after the fact that I finally make some sense of things.  Which brings me to my next point. We ended the morning by meeting outside at VST's labyrinth. I won't attempt to explain what a labyrinth...

As featured in Medium.com Ever wonder what it might be like to change into a different person? I’ve lived in Vancouver for the last forty years of my life; that’s about two-thirds of the total trips I’ve taken around the sun. I’ve met hundreds of people during those years, if not thousands. Some were my business clients; a couple were my bosses; dozens were my employees; about three hundred were my students at Capilano College; a crazy number were customers I had the pleasure of serving at my family’s restaurant in Kitsilano, Las Margaritas; another five hundred or so were fellow worshippers in the seven different churches we attended as a family; and several dozen were neighbors, the parents of our children’s friends, and the many other people I knew only by first name—the grocery store clerks, pharmacists, postal delivery persons, etc. I haven’t added all these people up, and I don’t know how my list compares to yours—is it larger, smaller, or average in size? I have no way of...

Which Gospel do you profess? As Stephen, the author of the blog "Sacred Tension // A Story of Dissonance" powerfully expressed in his post today ( "The Cost of Words" ), "Most Christians believe they speak eloquently and wisely on this topic (homosexuality) , but as long as they fail to realize the cost of their words, they will be babbling uselessly to those who are practically dying to hear the gospel of love." As a transexual Christian woman, I can say that when it comes to reconciling our faith to our sexuality, all of us who are LGBTQI have experienced an internalized struggle and fierce debate that would make your dogma run for the hills.  Growing up in a time when the word “transgender” did not exist meant that I did not even have the ability to understand why I felt the way I did. As the fundamentalist Christian I grew up to be, there was only one explanation, I had a perverse bent that needed high spiritual maintenance. This w...

I want to thank Justin Lee for this. GCN Radio GCN's weekly podcast features music, issue discussion, and interviews with guests. Listen to any show by clicking below, or  subscribe in iTunes  or with our  XML feed . New Season 2012-2013   August 7, 2013 Transparently Transgender.  Trans Christian  Lisa Salazar , author of  Transparently: Behind the Scenes of a Good Life,  discusses her struggles to accept herself as transgender and the Bible passages that gave her hope. [ listen to this show ] (right-click to download)

I am moved to tears by the fact that my blog's third largest group of readers are in Russia. As I ponder the impossible situation you face with respect to the criminalization of LGBT persons, where you are not even allowed to gather for mutual support, it fills me with rage. It is true that many people were outraged when Russian officials announced that all forms of public display in support of gay rights, whether it be something as simple as wearing a rainbow lapel pin or even same sex public displays of affection, would be enough to incriminate you and get you arrested. Mr. Putin's denial of basic human rights for LGBT people and your law maker's willingness to pass laws that target sexual minorities is a travesty. What can I possibly do to make a difference, I ask myself. It isn't enough to sit comfortably in the safety of my home and simply shake my head in disgust. I have signed several petitions in these last few days that have gone to places like th...

I  removed the blog post I wrote yesterday. Upon reflection, I confess that I was too harsh and judgmental towards the subject of a story that appeared in the New York Post.  The story was about Don Ennis, a former ABC News assignment editor who came out as transgender and changed his name to Dawn, then later experienced memory loss and began presenting as male again.  My criticism and skepticism were justified, and the story seemed too fantastic. But as others have pointed out, we don’t know all the details, and more importantly, we don’t know the person and what they are going through. I have often said that each person’s story is their own and have advocated for understanding because, unless we have walked in someone’s shoes, we cannot possibly claim to know what motivates them and their life. This is my apology for having jumped to conclusions. I forgot the pain I’ve seen in the three persons I know who have “detranstitioned” and returned to their previous gender exp...

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...

Long before I could admit I was transgender, I spent twenty-one weeks trying to apply the teachings of Exodus to myself. In 1991 I became aware of a ministry at my brother’s church that was trying to help gays and lesbians change their sexual orientation. The program’s director was Marjorie Hopper, a very masculine-looking woman with a harrowing, complicated, and difficult story. For years she lived as a man and worked as a custodian until she was outed at work, and her world came crumbling down. She had a religious experience and became a zealous anti-gay advocate and eventually the director of the Living Waters program at Burnaby Christian Fellowship (BCF). Living Waters was one of the many ministries associated with Exodus International. In those days, as I struggled with my gender identity, I desperately hoped God would heal me and remove all my feelings of inadequacy as a man. The word transgender entered our vocabulary, and there were new ways of thinking that, honestly, scared ...

As I waited for my sister and Mom to come out to the car so we could be on our way, Mom’s next-door neighbor approached me to ask how we were doing. My Dad passed away a few weeks ago at the age of ninety-five, and this neighbor was one of the last to see Dad alive before he was admitted to the hospital. The neighbor’s name is Dave, and on many other occasions, we made small talk as we came and went. As far as neighbors go, he is the best anyone could hope for, always willing to lend my parents a hand. He is the quintessential handyman and Mr. Fixit, friendly, easy-going, and talkative. From the many years he has been my parent’s neighbor, he has been able to piece together a bit of my family’s history, that we were born in Colombia, how we ended up in Canada, that we owned a California-style Mexican restaurant, how many children my parents had and how that explained all the grandchildren and the number of cars that showed up for family events, filling all the available visitor park...

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...

Who Made Me Gender-Role Police? The story is titled “About a Boy: Transgender surgery at age sixteen” by Margaret Talbot in the New Yorker Magazine (March 18, 2013). It talks about how many more females are coming out as transgender now than in the past. But as I reflected on the amazing progress trans people have made in recent years, it made me aware of my own subtle bias about gender-role conformity. Indeed, my doctors tell me that compared to twenty years ago, when it seemed that twice as many males transitioned to females than females to males, today there is equilibrium in the numbers, with as many females as males identifying as transgender. Margaret Talbot says this: In the past, females who wished to live as males rarely sought surgery, partly because they could “pass” easily enough in public; today, there is a desire for more thorough transformations. The subject of her story is a young transman named Skylar who underwent top surgery at sixteen, a much younger age than wou...

Here is a link to Matthew J. Roth's interview  with my friend Kathy Baldock. If you want to know the etymology of the words "homosexaul" and "heterosexual" and how they ended up in the Bible, you need to read this great interview! Click on the photo to be redirected. Equally worth reading are some of the comments. In particular, several by "Tim," which were made in response to "Mark." I've copied and pasted them below: Comment Stream by Tim : According to the ancient rabbis, as written in the Talmud, one of the problems in Sodom was heterosexual adultery which is quite different from homosexuality. The example the Rabbis give is Potiphar’s wife enticing Joseph to commit adultery with her in Genesis 39:9. In plainer words, according to ancient Jewish Rabbis, the men of Sodom were having sex with other men’s wives, not with other men. Take a moment to get your mind around that. This testimony from the Talmud is 2000 years old...