Is the Presbyterian Church Harmful to My Health - Part 5

Well, I immediately met a ton of wonderful people on the Transfamily message board. And it didn’t turn out to be a one-time shot like the MLP message board. It was for real. Before long, I was driving up the turnpike to TransFamily’s monthly meeting. The first time I went, I admit to being a bit frightened. I walked in and just didn’t have the courage to walk out among the couple dozen transgender people floating around and introduce myself. First I petted the cats and talked to the teenagers who had come with trans parents. Then I talked to Karen Gross, the founder of the group, whose daughter transitioned into her son. Then I talked to a genetic male Catholic who had come to support trans people in his neighborhood. I met a man and woman who were there for the first time. The woman was a genetic female, and I was unsure of her friend, who was dressed as a male. I later found out he was trans when he showed up as a female online and at the next meeting. He was drawn to me because it was his first time too, and he was shy. Karen then wanted to introduce me to a man who was a Presbyterian. I later found out this person was a female-to-male transsexual. Anyway, I didn’t know at the time if he was trans or genetic. I only got to talk to him briefly, but he knew Erin and thought very highly of her. He told me to e-mail her and tell her hello because he was not much into computers.

Later, a trans airline pilot gave a very interesting talk. I was sitting by a trans woman during the talk, and she started to socialize with me. I was wearing a Pirate t-shirt, and she teased me about the Steelers. I liked her very much. After the talk, a few people were more friendly to me, and one trans woman gave me a hug before I left. I left feeling extremely positive about the group.

By now, the lesbian couple was back at church. Because they had been gone and I’d met other people, they had seemed to decide they were no longer needed to integrate me. This was probably not the best situation. In addition, I had met so many transgender people by now. I think that made them start to wonder if that wasn’t the direction I was taking, to just hang exclusively with trans people, and given who had sent me to the church, and all, they were probably wondering if they were going to fit in with me that much. I did e-mail one of them about More Light Sunday. I received an e-mail in return stating that they would be attending the big five-church More Light Sunday celebration on the North Side.

Well, More Light Sunday was very nice at Sixth Church. Then I showed up later at Community House Presbyterian Church on the North Side. Five lesbians from my church were there, but I had the feeling they did not feel completely comfortable with me. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed myself anyway. A woman minister from another congregation was in fact very friendly to me. I liked the whole program and all the ministers.
After this, I wrote Erin a couple of e-mails and letters. I tried to talk about my trans friends, but I also tried to talk about the Presbyterians and More Light people I was meeting. I tried to sound as positive as possible. But Erin never wrote back to me again, and this has NOT been good for me.

To be continued…