Trans thoughts....

 There are some "funny" memes and gifs going around about Identifying as a pirate or identifying as a lawyer ... making fun of trans people and other LGBTQ souls.  (And  these are good Christian people sharing these over and over.) 

Where's the compassion?  Where's the Christ like love?   

IT's not funny... and if they ( who ever they are?)  ever sat and talked to my friend Jaime or  my friend's daughter B,  or spent some time with  one of our old YSA's- B.  They would know how difficult this choice - this crucible truly is.    

Wayne finally got tired of it and this is his reply:   

.  Ok - I hope this comes across in the spirit of love that is intended. I know of no finer group of men collectively and individually than the BBB’s. You each have qualities and attributes that I can only hope to someday achieve - and I mean that in all sincerity. 

I think it is very easy to take a super complex and nuanced issue like being transgender and oversimplify it with short anecdotes and analogies. Having met with and counseled a few transgender individuals let me suggest a few things that are very easy for us to overlook. 

The pirate analogy is not anything like feeling like you were born in t he wrong body. When we were young and wanted to be pirates, we were not afraid to let our parents know about it. We didn’t feel broken or scared or wonder how we fit into the great eternal plan. We didn’t have suicide ideation because we had this desire to be a pirate. 

Almost all Transgender individuals do not grow up thinking it would be so cool to be the other gender. They fight and wrestle with it for years alone, isolated and in the dark. The vast majority of parents and adults would not suggest and encourage that someone with those feelings should do anything surgical and permanent about it until they are old enough (an adult) to make that kind of decision, regardless of what the media would have you believe. 

My hope is that (and I’m not suggesting that you are not all this way already) is that we can follow the words of Thomas Monson's favorite poems. 

I have wept in the night

For the shortness of sight 

That to somebody’s need made me blind.

But I never have yet

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind

On Melinda’s dad's grave marker we inscribed the words “He was kind”. I can think of no greater tribute. 

______________

I'm always proud of my Wayne.   

It's not easy sticking up for the marginalized......but it's what we as followers of Jesus are called to do.