Transitioning Out of Mediocrity

Cisgender dysphoria, transgender identity, etc., were not part of my formal curriculum in theology or religious studies, which ended at 3:00 p.m. on graduation day, December 14th, 1956. The earliest known use of the term “transgender” was in 1974, and it entered dictionaries only after 1988. “Trans-” was joined by sibling “cis-” even more recently. The phenomena to which these terms point have arrived in the clinic, the court, the classroom, and the sanctuary with such force that some alert citizens, religious or not, have found themselves struggling to find a way in the wake of their arrival. In our theologically and politically polarized society, not all the related discourse or actions have been civil, or manifest “the fruit of the Spirit.”