HOUSTON, Texas — Controversy is stirring over Bruce Jenner’s recent visit to a megachurch in Texas, where he prayed with a pastor who stood against an ordinance allowing men who identify as women to use womens’ restrooms and vice versa.
According to reports, the former Olympian visited Ed Young, Sr.’s Second Baptist Church of Houston last week with other transgender activists during a children’s holiday program. Young was among a number of local ministers who had been vocal about their opposition to Houston’s “bathroom bill,” which was also referred to by some as HERO or the Human Equal Rights Ordinance.
“Those of us who believe men should use men’s facilities and women should use women’s facilities, we will be discriminated against,” Young preached to his over 60,000-member congregation in September, calling the proposed measure “Godless.” “It is totally deceptive and deadly, and I trust that you will vote no, no, no.”
A transgender who goes by the name of Jennifer Boylan blogged this past week that Jenner took the opportunity during his visit to scold Young for his words.
“At the end of the evening, Pastor Young approached us. We all stood up. And Caitlyn Jenner looked him in the eye and told him how much his actions and his words had harmed our people,” Boylan wrote. “The pastor seemed to me to have never spoken face to face with transgender people before, and he clearly did not understand our lives, given some of the things he said to us.”
At the end of the discussion, Young asked those present if he could pray with them. They obliged.
“He asked us if we’d participate in a prayer,” Boylan, who professes to be Christian, outlined. “We bowed our heads.”
Photographs show Young and Jenner praying together in a small group huddle.
“Dad always taught me to love and pray for everyone. Tonight he prayed with @caitlynjenner, who attended their service,” Young’s son, Ed Young, Jr., Tweeted on Friday.
Jenner also attended Grace Church, led by Garrett Booth, during his visit to Houston. Booth had likewise been opposed to the bathroom bill, which as previously reported, was overwhelmingly repealed by popular vote during the November election, being defeated 61 to 39 percent.
Following word of the visits, some praised Jenner for scolding Young.
“Proud of @Caitlyn_Jenner, saying to @EdYoung’s father’s face that the pastor’s #transphobic hate videos r highly offensive to all #trans ppl,” Tweeted activist Kate Bornstein, who was stated to have been present.
Some blasted him for not having any local representation from Houston, especially people of color. TransGriot Editor Monica Roberts complained in a blog post that Jenner was wrong to “compound the melanin-free photo screw-up by going to the Christmas pageant at Second Baptist (Hate) Church…”
Others viewed Jenner’s visit to the churches as a publicity stunt, but also an opportunity to remember to reach transgendered persons with the heart-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.
“The photo ops conducted by Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner in at least two Houston megachurches who were very active in defeating Mayor Parker’s Bathroom Ordinance, were transparent and prove that the battle for decency, freedom and faith is far from over,” Dave Welch, executive director of the U.S. Pastor Council, told Breitbart.
“The tragic stories of Mr. Jenner and those like him who have become confused about how God designed them as male or female, call for our compassion to help heal them, and our determination to never let their plight be our new normal,” he said.
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December 20, 2015
Belgrade Lakes, ME
Good morning from Maine, where I woke up in my own bed with my own dogs this morning, after almost two solid months on the road with Caitlyn Jenner and a band of other trans women. We have travelled the country this fall having conversations with a wide range of trans people and their parents and children and their allies. I hope that when I Am Cait, season two, airs in spring viewers will see and hear a lot of interesting conversations that reflect the full diversity of our great community.
Our last stop on the long journey was Houston, where, among other things, we hoped to meet with the pastors whose intolerant, cruel exhortations to their congregations helped the HERO bill go down to defeat in November. Getting my friend Caitlyn to understand the way social conservatives have used lies about trans people to further their agenda has been one of my goals since I first met her, and this struck me as progress. I do believe her eyes are opening.
We visited pastor Ed Young’s church on Friday, Ed Young being the minister of a megachurch that took the lead on promoting anti-trans hysteria as a means of defeating HERO.
We went there without cameras, without microphones. We did not go there for a photo op. We went there in hopes we could have an off-the-record conversation with the pastor, so that we could tell him to his face the damage that he has caused. This struck me as good work to do.
I can tell you that going into that church was one of the scariest moments of my life. You cannot imagine what it is like to be surrounded by people who have denied your humanity, who have worked to take away your dignity. It is even stranger, and scarier, to have this feeling in a church.
My mother told me to love your enemies, though. So I sat in a pew with my heart pounding, trying to find the love I would need in order to have a conversation with one of our bitterest foes.
My own faith is a private matter that I generally do not speak about in public. But I can say that I believe with all my heart that love is what can change the world.
You can say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.
At the end of the evening, Pastor Young approached us. We all stood up. And Caitlyn Jenner looked him in the eye and told him how much his actions and his words had harmed our people. I was proud of her— given her conservative beliefs, it struck me as a sign of great progress, a first step into activism, gentle though it may have been. The pastor seemed to me to have never spoken face to face with transgender people before, and he clearly did not understand our lives, given some of the things he said to us.
But we were calm and polite and dignified. We told him about our lives, and he paused to listen. He really did seem to consider our humanity. I thought that moment was breathtaking.
He asked us if we’d participate in a prayer. As a Christian, when people ask me to pray, I am glad to do so. We bowed our heads. My prayer was pretty simple. Please god, open this man’s heart. Please open the hearts of all of those who would do us harm.
The season of Advent asks us to light one red candle each Sunday: one for Hope, one for Joy, one for Love, one for Peace, and on Christmas Day to light a pink one. It was in the spirit of all four of these that I accompanied Caitlyn Jenner to this church to do just as my mother commanded— to love my enemies.
I am hoping that we lit a candle.
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New York City to Fine Employers Who Refer to ‘Transgendered’ Workers by Birth Gender
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes
NEW YORK — The New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced new guidelines under the city’s Human Rights Law that may impose fines on employers who use masculine pronouns for male workers who wish to identify as women and vice versa.
The Commission released its interpretive guide to the law on Monday, which includes a prohibition on “[i]ntentionally failing to use an individual’s preferred name, pronoun or title,” such as “repeatedly calling a transgender woman ‘him’ or ‘Mr.’ when she has made it clear that she prefers female pronouns and a female title.”
The guidelines state that employers should ask all workers to provide their preferred pronoun, and “should not limit the options for identification to male and female only.”
“Some transgender and gender non-conforming people prefer to use pronouns other than he/him/his or she/her/hers, such as they/them/theirs or ze/hir,” the document outlines.
Employers are also banned from having dress codes that would require men to dress as men and women to dress as women or to require workers to use the restroom that correlates with their birth gender. Businesses are likewise required to offer health benefits for employees seeking to obtain sex change treatments.
Violations could result in penalties up to $125,000 and up to $250,000 for transgressions of the law that are considered to be “willfull, wanton or malicious conduct.”
“Today’s guidance provides bold and explicit examples of violations, sending a clear message to employers, landlords, business owners, and the general public what the City considers to be discrimination under the law,” the Commission wrote in its announcement.
Commissioner Carmelyn Malalis specifically threatened aggressive enforcement.
“Today’s guidance makes it abundantly clear what the City considers to be discrimination under the law and the Commission will continue to aggressively enforce protections to make that promise a reality,” she said in a statement.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio made similar comments in support of the release of the guidelines.
“New York has always been a diverse and welcoming city and our laws are designed to protect every New Yorker, regardless of their gender identity,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Today’s new guidelines strengthen those laws by ensuring that every transgender and gender non-conforming person in New York receives the dignity and respect they deserve.”
But not all believe that one must support and affirm a person’s desire to live as those of the opposite sex. As previously reported, Walt Heyer, a 75-year-old man who obtained a sex change operation in the 1980’s to live as a woman for eight years before reverting back to his biological gender, is now sharing his story with the world of how Christ redeemed his life and gave him hope.
“Nobody’s ever born a transgender,” he told the Daily Mail in January. “They’re manufactured as a result of something, a developmental childhood issue that has yet to be determined for many people.”
“All of them have some level of depression, and we’re not treating them,” Heyer lamented. “We’re just cutting off body parts and giving them a new name and a new gender.”
“God designed man; He designed women,” he also said in a video recorded last year. “God will redeem the lives of people who struggle with gender identity issues just like I did. He redeemed my life, and I’ve been free from it as a result of that.”
