Well, here is a copy of what I said in church today:

I am transgender.

You might have guessed that, I mean, I don’t really know how well I “pass” so maybe you can tell by looking at me.

But just in case you didn’t know ... yeah. I was born a boy.

But I’ve always been more of a girl in my mind and heart.

There are a couple of things you should know about me.

The first is, I didn’t choose to be like this. I showed signs of femininity long before I could have made any such choice, if a choice in such a thing is even possible.

Another is I fought against this as hard as I could, for as long as I could. I tried to “man up” every way I could think of, I sought help from anybody who I could find, and I prayed.

Oh yeah, I prayed a lot.

If anybody could be changed by prayer, it should have been me, but nothing ever changed.

Except I started to think God hated me.

And I sat on the edge of suicide, more than once.

Its not easy being trans. I have friends who have lost jobs, lost friends, lost family, who have been beaten up for no other reason than because of being trans.

In a recent survey. forty-one percent of trans people admitted to having attempted suicide at least once.
Think about that for a moment.

Among straight people the attempted suicide rate is something like 10 percent. Among gays and lesbians, its around twice that.
Almost half of trans people admit to at least one attempt.

And those are the ones still alive to make the admission.

I’m not sure how I can help you see what being trans is like. Most people don’t think about their gender very much.

I have to think about mine far more.

Maybe you could imagine being given a pair of shoes that are a half size too small, and told those will be your footwear for the rest of your life.

You can function, but you never would forget that your shoes dont fit.

Being male doesn’t fit me.

And I hurt myself and those I love trying to make it fit.

Finally, when I was at my lowest point, someone challenged me to pray to God as Dorothy.

Some of you may have heard the result of that prayer, because I said it from this pulpit - “Dear God”.

And I got an answer - a vision of myself as a little girl, being swung around by the arms of God, laughing and drinking in His total love and acceptance of me, just as I was.

And so I began a transition, to the point where you see me now, and honestly, I’m a lot happier, a lot more at ease with myself like this.

There is more I could say about how this is a birth defect, something that went sideways while I was still in my mother’s womb, that just like having a cleft palate can be fixed by surgery without it being a sin the same can be said of my condition, but I don’t want to keep you here all day, and if you really want to know more about this, I’ll be proud to talk to you privately.

So let me just finish by saying I’ve been blessed with amazing love and support, especially from this congregation.

I hope to be worthy of it.

Thank you for listening, and God bless you all.

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People kept coming up to me afterward and telling me how amazing they thought it was, and that I said it perfectly, and they really understand trans a little better because of it.

I was humbled by the response ...