LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

Another friend,  Susan Cottrel,  also invited me to write some thoughts.  This is the link to her blog,  FreedHearts :  http://freedhearts.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/can-i-trust-you-with-a-secret/   I invite you to visit her blog. Do you have a secret? How big is it? How do you think people will respond if they find out? Disclosure, revelation, exposure, or whatever word you may have for it is a visceral, frightening process. Especially if the information is so sensitive, some would prefer death by flaying. But in fact, that is what disclosure is all about, peeling away the layers that hide the “body” of truth. Perhaps that is why it can be so traumatic. On October 2007, I began disclosing to family and friends that I had been diagnosed with acute gender dysphoria—that I was “transgender.” I had already lived eight years with this verdict; it took me that long to reconcile myself and my faith to my diagnosis. The news shocked everyone; only ...

A friend,  Matthias Roberts,  recently invited me to write some thoughts on belonging. He said this: "Specifically, if you could share a story on a time where you felt that you truly belonged — even if it was just for a moment." He published my response today (May 17, 2014), so I'm sharing it here too. This is the link to his blog,  Not Boring Yet :  http://notboringyet.com/saturday-stories/belonging-saturday-stories/   I invite you to visit his blog and read some of the other stories from other contributors. I felt like I did not know how to pray for nearly two decades. Oh, I prayed, but my sense was that my prayers were ineffective—like lead balloons—my prayers didn’t even reach the ceiling, let alone G_d, or so I thought. The very public process of transitioning seemed so drastic and unfair. After all, the struggle with my gender identity was a very private matter. Why was the solution—if, in fact, to tra...

Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, but not into the hands of mortals; for equal to his majesty is his mercy, and equal to his name are his works. (Sirach 2.18 – NRSV) In all the reading I’ve been doing in preparation for my Hebrew Bible class, I’ve come across several verses that have captured my imagination. The one above made me pause, and the more I reflected on what it describes, I couldn’t help but compare it to the admonition in the letter to the Hebrews, where the perspective of falling into the hands of God is described as a frightful experience. (Heb. 10.31) Because of my personal involvement a couple of years ago concerning the “Kill the Gay” Bill that eventually was passed in Uganda, I have kept an eye on the key players. These American fundamentalists are recognized as fully responsible for instigating the homophobia that resulted in the infamous legislation. In an OpEd in the Los Angeles Times on March 23, 2014, Kapya Kaoma (an Anglican priest and the senior re...

The kind of stuff I was thinking about  leading up to Easter 2014 Chapter Nine in Luke has got to be one of the most action-packed chapters you may ever encounter in the Bible. In only sixty-two verses, we see thirteen different dramatic scenes flash before us: Jesus sends out the twelve Apostles  Herod is perplexed by news about Jesus — Is he Elijah?  Jesus feeds the five thousand  Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ  Jesus foretells his death  Jesus talks about taking up your cross daily to follow him  The Transfiguration!  Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit after disciples are unable  Jesus foretells his death again  Jesus talks about who is the Greatest  Jesus talks about how anyone not against us is for us  A Samaritan village rejects Jesus after Jesus sets his face on Jerusalem  Jesus spells out the cost of following him  Each of these scenes provides a lot to think about and talk about. I’ve been reflect...

It's my wallet that decides what I do these days! Jared Leto as Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club. Anne Marie Fox — Focus Features But in the meantime, I have been reading the ongoing negative commentary about the portrayal of the transgender character “Rayon” from the perspective of the trans community.  What needs to be considered is that there is today a generational divide in the trans* community that needs to be understood. For us over 55, our experience is vastly different from those in their thirties and forties. And a universe away from those who are in their youth and into their twenties. I suspect all the clamor comes from the younger sets, which had not lived through the painful years when we did not have the nomenclature to make sense of our lives.  In 1980 I was thirty. I had been married for six years and was terrified. I didn’t know what I was. That year I came out to my wife. All I could tell her was that I felt inadequate as a man, that I felt feminine, and I...

In my blogpost of a couple of days ago, I touched on some of the things that lift me and those that, well, shoot me down. However, I have not been able to get one thing out of my mind since I received the news on Sunday evening. Let me explain. At last week's Gay Christian Network (GCN) Conference in Chicago, I met Betsy, a fellow Canadian. She attended as an ally and we had a long chat about an old friend from her high school, who like me, transitioned from male to female in her fifties, Amanda. She shared how Amanda had friends who supported her but these relationships had slowly cooled and Betsy was concerned for her friend. She thanked me for my work and was looking forward to being a more informed friend of Amanda. The note I received from Betsy on Sunday night was short; Amanda had ended her life. This my friends, is a very low low. It is a sad commentary that life is made to be so impossible for some that they cannot envision living another day. That impossibility is ...

Sometimes I preach to the choir, sometimes to the genuinely curious and sensitive; at other times to hostile skeptics, but often to myself. I had the distinct honor and privilege to do a workshop at this year's Gay Christian Network Conference (GCN) last weekend. I cannot begin to describe what it is like to be among 700 attendees who have one thing in common, a hunger and a love for God, and for whom faith is not a legalistic dogma, but a the river of life. To say that gays, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and gender-queer persons are excluded from the "banquet" of the King is to deny the essential message of the Gospel, and comes pretty close to that unforgivable sin, which is to ascribe the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil. One only needs to meet the large number of parents of LGBTQ persons who attended this year's conference, listen to their stories and see the love in their eyes to appreciate our Heavenly Father's heart more fully. No one can sit...

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...