Spiritual Dimensions of Gender Variance

Our expectations and objectives for the week ~
While transgender people frequently (some would say always) view their world through the lens of gender, that focused perspective does result in some spiritual insights into the roles that gender identity and gender expression play in shaping our faith communities, deepening our shared worship, and building our interpersonal relationships on the basis of deep respect for the personhood of the other. We hope that this workshop will help participants reach a deeper understanding of their own unique spiritual gifts as gendered individuals, and how these gifts might enrich our faith communities, our relationships with others, and our own lives.

A list of the specific areas or topics that we expect to cover ~
The workshop will cover the implications of the binary gender premise as it shapes our characters, our relationships, and our faith communities.

A rough description of the format ~
The workshop will open with the two presenters sharing their own personal journeys of their respective transgender transitions from male to female, together with some intentionally provocative insights into what it means to be male or female in society, even the Society of Friends. We’ll also share some of the poetry of Joy Ladin (also a transsexual woman), and begin to unpack the relationship between authentic identity and gender expression. Workshop participants will be invited to share their own insights about their gender identity and expression.

The second day will be used to explore some Quaker thought, feelings, and writings on gender expression from historical times to the present, and to see if there is anything unique about the Quaker view of gender identity and gender expression.

During the third day, we will examine the discomfort many people may feel (including not only gender variant people, but also people who interact with them) when dissonance between identity and gender expression manifests itself. We will then use this opening to help workshop participants to understand and discuss ways in which their own gender identity and expression may obstruct or facilitate their individual expression of identity, dignity, vulnerability, and personhood both within the Quaker community and beyond.

On the fourth day, we will try to understand whether there are particular spiritual gifts that may only manifest themselves through the lens of gender (and gender variance).

Finally, on the fifth day, we will use worship sharing as a tool to explore our own understandings of the relationship between “Quaker testimonies” and gender identity and gender expression. We will consider ways that each of us might feel led to use these insights to enrich our own lives and that of our home meetings and communities.

Specific recommendations for advanced reading, or reading assignments during the Gathering ~
For advance reading and reading during the course:
• Transitioning in the Light, by Chloe Schwenke, Friends Journal, June 2009
• Gender, Integrity, and Spirituality - A Personal Journey, by Petra Doan Friends Journal:. January 2002.
• Wilmer Cooper, The Testimony of Integrity in the Society of Friends, Pendle Hill Pamphlet # 296,

Together with excerpts from:
• “The Tyranny of Gendered Space: Reflections from Beyond the Gender Dichotomy,” by Petra Doan accepted for publication in Gender, Place, and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography
• “The Moral Search for Self,” paper by Chloe Schwenke
• Psalms, a poem by Joy Ladin