My name is Rev. Drew Phoenix.
I am an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church have served churches
in Maryland for 20 years and now pastor in Alaska. In 2007 I became the first
United Methodist minister to publicly transition from female to male and retain
my ordination. But it came at a cost. What should have remained deeply intimate
and personal became unnecessarily controversial and political. Defamatory
statements were made against me, charges filed to discredit me, and several attempts
made to end my employment with The United Methodist Church – all of this
in spite of the fact that I am a highly qualified, effective minister in good
standing in my denomination.
I am not alone. Tens of
thousands of transgender people across the country, each and every day, are
subject to hate-motivated violence and job discrimination born of fear and
ignorance.
ORIGINAL TEXT BY REV. DREW
PHOENIX
The unemployment rate for transgender
Americans is disproportionately high (roughly 35%) and an even larger number
are grossly unemployed.
COUNTER-POINT
FACT
1:As validated by the ongoing existence of the “Glass Ceiling” and
other measures of social, political and economic equality, LGBTs practice and
enforce the same racist and sexist White-privilege-based economics and
politics used by their non-LGBT peers. For example, Apple’s President/CEO Tim
Cook is gay, but as usual, the clear majority of Apple’s employees and
management team are White. White men and White women already have
"White privilege," and the LGBT movement does NOT correct the
everlasting racial inequity between White people and racial minorities. And as clearly validated throughout U.S. history, it’s perfectly okay for
White people to do whatever the fuck they want! Just ask Native Americans (https://youtu.be/8tEuaj4h8dw)!
FACT 2:Black
male unemployment for working age Black men (16 to 64 years of age)
consistently ranges from 40% to over
65%, and consequently, there's a direct correlation between cities with
the highest crime rate and cities with the highest levels of Black male unemployment. Source: Black Male Employment Rates in
Milwaukee and the Nation’s Largest Metro Areas 2010, by Marc V. Levine,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, January 2012.
ORIGINAL TEXT BY REV. DREW
PHOENIX
My experience has opened my
eyes to the pastoral implications of similar situations when they occur in
non-religious settings and today I speak to you as a pastor for those who
cannot always speak for themselves. While the discrimination I experienced in
the church gives me a keen understanding of the job discrimination transgender
people face every day, it is important to note that the bills we’re promoting
exempt churches from their effects because we so respect the free exercise of
religion.
As a person of faith and an
ordained minister, I call on Congress to enact legislation that brings an end
to both the violence and the discrimination.
ORIGINAL TEXT BY REV. DREW
PHOENIX
As religious leaders and
people of faith, we cannot sit by while our transgender sisters and brothers,
made in the image of the Divine, continue to be oppressed.
COUNTER-POINT
First, if the Bible “is” the
word of God, then God does NOT make mistakes:
2
Samuel 22:31
31 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the
LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.
Second, if the Bible “is” the
word of God, then God intentionally and without error, made a “man” and a
“woman” in his own image; and he created a “man” and a “woman” to reproduce
through their joining:
Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV)
27 So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl
of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Third, if the Bible "is" the word of God, and if there's truly a desire to establish "marriage equality," then the full scope of Bible-based relationships must be considered, including bigamy and polygamy:
1 Kings 11:2-3 (KJV)
2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
3 And he (Solomon) had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
2 Chronicles 11:21 (KJV)
21 And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines; and begat twenty and eight sons, and threescore daughters.)
2 Samuel 5:13 (KJV)
13 And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
Now that the LBGT lifestyle is acceptable socially, politically and successfully coerced throughout the faith-based community, what about the rights of bigamists and polygamists?? Don't they have "rights" too?? What wrong with having multiple wives and multiple husbands?? Since the church and government have opened the door on "marriage equality," where's the so-called high-and-righteous moral compass to enable individuals and groups to have multiple marriages? There's a class action lawsuit (bigamists and polygamists vs. the U.S. Government) just waiting to happen, and the ACLU and the U.S. Supreme Court better get ready!
Even before the dawn of religious scriptures (Tora, Quran, Bible, Book of Mormon, etc.), birth defects of some form or another occurred (and always will), so dealing with people born with both male and female genitalia is nothing new. Yet, for some reason, those "crazy people" who wrote religious scriptures"inspired by the word of God" determined that human relationships would be best served by anchoring societal development to a linear bonding of "males" and "females." But now, since the church and government have opened the door on "marriage equality," it's hypocrisy to give significance to any so-called high-and-righteous religious principles, because unlike the Ten Commandments, the moral compass was never etched in stone:
L
Lesbian
A female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females.
G
Gay
A Male who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other males.
B
Bisexual
Females or males who experience romantic love or sexual attraction to both females and males.
T
Transgender
People who have a gender identity, or gender expression, that differs from their assigned sex. Transgender people are sometimes called transsexual if they desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another.
Q
Queer
People who identify as or are questioning their sexual identity.
I
Intersex
An intersex human or other animal is one possessing any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".[1] Such variations may involve genital ambiguity, and combinations of chromosomal genotype and sexual phenotype other than XY-male and XX-female. Intersex people were previously referred to as hermaphrodites, "congenital eunuchs," or even congenitally "frigid." Some intersex infants and children, such as those with ambiguous outer genitalia, are surgically or hormonally altered to create more socially acceptable sex characteristics. However, this is considered controversial, with no firm evidence of good outcomes.
B
Bigamist
Bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another.
P
Polygamist
A man married to more than one wife at a time (polygyny); or a woman married to more than one husband at a time (polyandry).
P
Pedophiles
Adults or older adolescents sexually attracted to prepubescent children, especially Catholic Priests.
Q
Questioning
The questioning of one's sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender, or all three is a process of exploration by people who may be unsure, still exploring, or concerned about applying a social label to themselves for various reasons.
A
Asexual
Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity.
A
Ally
Adding the term "allies" to this perpetually growing acronymism has sparked controversy, with some seeing the inclusion of "ally" in place of "asexual" as a form of asexual erasure. Gray asexuality or gray-sexuality is the spectrum between asexuality and sexuality. Individuals who identify with gray asexuality are referred to as being gray-A, or a gray ace, and make up what is referred to as the "ace umbrella". Within this spectrum are terms such as demisexual, semisexual, asexual-ish and sexual-ish.
P
Pansexual
The terms pansexual, omnisexual, fluid and queer-identified are regarded as falling under the umbrella term bisexual (and therefore are considered a part of the bisexual community).
X
The Kitchen Sink
Gender-binary, Gender and Sexual Diversities (GSD), MSM ("men who have sex with men"), WSW ("women who have sex with women"), Cisgender (the opposite of the word transgender, or people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth), SGL ("same gender loving"), GSRM (gender, sexual, and romantic minorities), QUILTBAG (queer and questioning, unsure, intersex, lesbian, transgender and two-spirit, bisexual, asexual and aromantic, and gay and genderqueer), Non-binary (of gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine - identities that are outside the gender binary), and whatever sexual and/or non-sexual identities human beings conceive.
Fourth, if the Bible “is” the
word of God, then “God” never created a “transgender” person or the term
“transgender.” If the Bible “is” the word of God, then there is no “third”
gender. Man came up with that crap!
ORIGINAL TEXT BY REV. DREW
PHOENIX
We have a moral
responsibility to care for the most marginalized among us.
COUNTER-POINT
This
is double-talk and pointless rhetoric frequently spoken by many White people to defer
any immediate responsibility to correct injustice, racism, and oppression,
particularly against minorities. Before granting so-called "equal rights" to sub-cultures within sub-cultures, why not give equal rights to the most oppressed and enslaved people in the U.S., Native Americans and Black people?
As validated with the June 2014 issue of
“The Atlantic” magazine, as mandated by
White-privilege, the race card has been played on Black people during 250 years of slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, 60 years of separate but equal, 35 years of state-sanctioned redlining.
Again, as
clearly validated throughout U.S. history, it’s perfectly okay for White
people to do whatever the fuck they want! Just ask Native Americans (https://youtu.be/8tEuaj4h8dw)!
ORIGINAL TEXT BY REV. DREW
PHOENIX
Justice demands that we take
action and put in place, safeguards against violence and workplace
discrimination, for the most vulnerable.
COUNTER-POINT
In summary,
according to Rev. Drew
Phoenix (formerly “Rev. Ann Gordon”), “GOD MAKES MISTAKES, AND IT’S UP TO MAN
TO CORRECT GOD’S ERRORS, GOD’S STUPIDITY, GOD’S FAILURES.”
White men are the most privileged race and gender
on the planet, which establishes Rev. Drew as yet another White person
seeking to promote his sexual perversions at the immediate expenses of
others.
For the record, the author has absolutely nothing against the LGBTQIBPP+QAAPX community; in fact, the author doesn't care any more or any less about LGBTQIBPP+QAAPXs than for White people or Latinos or Asians or Native Americans or the disabled or anyone else. Again, before granting so-called "equal rights" to sub-cultures within sub-cultures, why not give equal rights to the most oppressed and enslaved people in the U.S., Native Americans and Black people?FACT: As validated by the ongoing existence of the “Glass Ceiling” and other measures of social, political and economic equality, LGBTQIBPP+QAAPXs practice and enforce the same racist and sexist White-privilege-based economics and politics used by their non-LGBT peers. For example, Apple’s President/CEO Tim Cook is gay, but as usual, the clear majority of Apple’s employees and management team are White. White men and White women already have "White privilege," and the LGBT movement does NOT correct the everlasting racial inequity between White people and racial minorities. And as clearly validated throughout U.S. history, it’s perfectly okay for White people to do whatever the fuck they want! Just ask Native Americans [https://youtu.be/8tEuaj4h8dw]!
