Quakers, Hummingbird Fly Zones, and Queers
One of these things is not like the other. But it isn't Quakers.
We Think He Might Be a Boy is a sensitive and loving article from the mother of a transgender child. By the time the child was 2, she knew that her biological daughter thought of himself as a boy.
The story itself is not only a beautiful example of the most supportive and accepting of loving parents; it's a story of religious principles.
For the first five years of my life, I was raised Quaker. Then the family moved back to Southern Baptist land and I became a proud rejector of organized religion. Thirty years after leaving the SouthBab influence, I've been reconnecting to my Quaker roots. Quakers believe the light of spirit is in every individual. They believe that the only important conversation with god is the one the individual has directly with "the spark of spirit" inside them. They believe in civil disobedience and in equality of the sexes--and they always have. They marched with abolitionists and suffragettes, and they march today against violence in their communities.
Today, Quakers are still contemplating issues like abortion, because on the one hand it's a violent act but on the other, no individual has the right to impose his/her beliefs on the woman carrying the fetus, and her decisions about her body ultimately rest between her and her god.
But Quakers aren't arguing about gender identity. This article so moved me, I wanted to share it with anybody who ever questioned, or felt threatened by, the experience of gender identity or sexual orientation.
The hummingbird fly zone? That's apparently a real thing, as reported by Sandy some years back. Sadly, the link to the pic (that shows a woman with hummingbirds seeming to swarm around her in her back yard) is broken.
cross-posted from dreamwidth. http://charlottechill.dreamwidth.org/23384.html#comments
We Think He Might Be a Boy is a sensitive and loving article from the mother of a transgender child. By the time the child was 2, she knew that her biological daughter thought of himself as a boy.
The story itself is not only a beautiful example of the most supportive and accepting of loving parents; it's a story of religious principles.
For the first five years of my life, I was raised Quaker. Then the family moved back to Southern Baptist land and I became a proud rejector of organized religion. Thirty years after leaving the SouthBab influence, I've been reconnecting to my Quaker roots. Quakers believe the light of spirit is in every individual. They believe that the only important conversation with god is the one the individual has directly with "the spark of spirit" inside them. They believe in civil disobedience and in equality of the sexes--and they always have. They marched with abolitionists and suffragettes, and they march today against violence in their communities.
Today, Quakers are still contemplating issues like abortion, because on the one hand it's a violent act but on the other, no individual has the right to impose his/her beliefs on the woman carrying the fetus, and her decisions about her body ultimately rest between her and her god.
But Quakers aren't arguing about gender identity. This article so moved me, I wanted to share it with anybody who ever questioned, or felt threatened by, the experience of gender identity or sexual orientation.
The hummingbird fly zone? That's apparently a real thing, as reported by Sandy some years back. Sadly, the link to the pic (that shows a woman with hummingbirds seeming to swarm around her in her back yard) is broken.
cross-posted from dreamwidth. http://charlottechill.dreamwidth.org/23384.html#comments