A Prayer for Trans Day of Visibility

Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV), every year, seems increasingly important to celebrate. We live in a world that increasingly sees and names trans-ness as a threat, something that should be hidden or denied. Here in the state of Missouri, and around the USA, there are countless bills that are going through the house and senate that aims to make the life of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming folks more challenging. It can be easy to get caught up in the despair, heartache, and exhaustion.

So, I am grateful for a day like TDOV, that recenters me on the joy, celebration, and the beauty it is to both be trans and know and love other trans people. TDOV brings me back to the sacred truth that trans life is holy, radiant, creative, and oh so joyful.

On this Trans Day of Visibility, I want to honor and uplift the people in my life whose becoming made it possible for me to live more fully and authentically. I am held by trans elders who made ways out of no way, who dared to bloom in conditions that were never meant for their thriving; whose blooming made me realize that I was allowed to bloom too.

Today, I am especially holding onto the truth that joy and play are not a distraction from struggle, but that joy and play are key to resistance. Joy and play are survival. Joy and play are divine. I am reminded that trans delight is intentional.

My prayer for this Trans Day of Visibility is wrap every trans person, known and unknown, in a warm and loving embrace. I pray we find time to play, create, and dance. I pray we imagine new worlds and get glimpses of the world as it is meant to be. I pray for rest and nourishment to wash over our bodies. I pray for delight to find us, in small and in big ways. I pray for our own becoming(s) to feel more and more possibile as each day passes. I pray for all of us to be reminded the more wholly we our ourselves, the closer we are to God.

And I pray that we remember, deep in our bones, that we can trust our hearts. That we are grounded in the truth that there is nothing accidental about our existence. I pray we call can shout with confidence and love that trans-ness is sacred, holy, and beautiful. I pray for a day that everyone can see, know, affirm that truth.

With love to each of you,
Pastor Eli

This past Tuesday, I traveled to Jefferson City to testify against the removal of the sunset on bills that could permanently ban gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Missouri and permanently bar trans youth from participating in sports alongside their peers.

What happens in Missouri matters. Many states look to Missouri to see what is possible legislatively, so what gets passed here — and what does not — carries weight far beyond our borders.

As I’ve been reflecting on this week, I keep returning to our theme: By a Different Light. On Sunday, we will talk about day — about how daylight exposes what has been hidden, how it calls things out into the open. And that truth feels especially present right now.

There is a growing number of trans adults, parents of trans kids, and even medical professionals who are afraid to testify publicly against these bills. They are afraid of retaliation, professional consequences, harassment, and real harm. To speak in the light right now comes with real risk.

I am deeply grateful, and humbled, to serve in a role where I can speak not only as a faith leader, but as a trans faith leader, calling our representatives toward a deeper practice of justice, mercy, and compassion. To invite them into holy curiosity about the lives that are most impacted by these decisions. To ask them to truly listen to those who are being harmed.

On Wednesday morning, I also joined dozens of organizations from across the state at a rally in the Capitol rotunda. We linked arms and stood shoulder to shoulder, singing and chanting, reminding one another that we show up for one another. We show up for Black lives. For immigrant lives. For trans lives. For queer lives. For workers’ lives. Because together, our voices carry a deeply moving power.

That rally was deeply needed after the heartbreaking and exhausting hearing on Tuesday. Missourians have been fighting these anti-trans bills for years now, and at times it feels as though those in power have not heard a word, as though harm is dismissed in the pursuit of an agenda at any cost.

And yet, I remain honored to be one voice among many who continue to speak love into the hearing rooms. Love for trans youth who desperately need to know they are not alone. Love for parents doing everything they can to protect their children. Love for trans adults who are not only advocating for today’s youth, but also for the younger versions of themselves, the children who always knew who they were.

For such a time as this, my friends, it is urgent that we keep showing up. Each in the ways we can. Whether that looks like someone who knits blankets for trans folks who testify, wrapping them in warmth and protection. Whether it means traveling to Jefferson City, attending a rally, having hard conversations with loved ones, or choosing to hope even when hope feels fragile and distant and perhaps beyond our reach.

This work is not easy. But it is sacred. And it matters deeply. When we share our light and our love, when we refuse to turn away from one another, we participate in bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice, peace, freedom, and love for all. May we keep showing up. May we keep loving boldly. And may we continue to believe that what we do, as we link arm in arm, truly matters.

In Solidarity,
Pastor Eli