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Mark Wingfield is associate pastor at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. He has a piece on the Baptist News Global site that is worth reading. It begins:
The truth is that I don’t know any transgender persons — at least I don’t think I do. But with the help of a pediatrician friend and a geneticist friend, I’m listening and trying to learn. This is hard, though, because understanding the transgender experience seems so far outside what I have ever contemplated before. And the more I learn, the more theological questions I face as well. This is hard, even for a pastor.
Here is a taste of Wingfield’s seven things. Some may seem very basic, but as Wingfield say himself, most of us haven’t been challenged until now to look at these things. These seven may also give transgender advocates some starting points for their conversations with us who are still learning.
1. Even though LGBT gets lumped together in one tagline, the T is quite different than the LG and B.
2. What you see is not always what you get.
3. Stuff happens at birth that most of us never know.
4. Transgender persons are not “transvestites.”
5. Transgender persons are not pedophiles.
6. Transgender persons hate all the attention they’re getting.
7. Transgender persons are the product of nature much more than nurture.
Wingfield doesn’t come to any conclusions, but he seems honest in his inquiry. Read the full essay: Seven things I’m learning about transgender persons.
