QUEER VIRTUE: WHAT LGBTQ PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT LIFE AND LOVE AND HOW IT CAN REVITALIZE CHRISTIANITY by Rev.  Elizabeth Edman. The author builds her entire book around describing these two paths: the queer path and the Christian path.  Both paths lead individuals and communities to risk proclaiming their identities (“I am queer!” “I am Christian!”); to touch others despite risks to oneself; and to participate in a community that demands integrity, justice toward others, and a constant widening of the margins to take in those who had previously been excluded.

An interview with Rev. Edman. 

“Edman writes with the tender hand, approachable intelligence, and wise humility of that super-smart, big-hearted priest you always want yet rarely find. Her warm and personal words engage Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as pop culture. She returns us to the radical roots of our faith, while showing us how relevant its teachings still are. She calls us to community—a powerful message for queer people who have been alienated from the church. She takes words we think we know—‘scandal,’ ‘pride,’ ‘queerness’—and encourages us to consider them in a new light. And at a time when narratives about Christianity are often hyperindividualistic and oversimplified, she reminds us of a vibrant gospel that’s richly relational, comfortingly complex, and inherently hopeful. A vital read.” —Jeff Chu, author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America

TRANSGENDERING FAITH:  Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality ed. Leanne McCall Tigert & Maren C. Tirabassi.  This book is a resource for churches to give them tools to respond with love and care to transgender people, both those within the Christian community and those who find themselves--unhappily--outside its doors. It is also a book for transgender Christians, their families, pastoral counselors, and clergy. The first section, The Basics for Everyone, includes essays written by professionals and therapists who give readers a basic understanding of the transgender issue. Part Two--In Our Own Words--features stories of transgender persons from diverse denominational, age, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. These are stories of their painful experiences of rejection, self-doubt, and Bible-flavoured condemnation, but also stories celebrating God's blessing of who they are and their church and family experiences of hospitality, affirmation, and reconciliation. Part Three includes worship resources, Bible studies, and transgender resources for individual and community use. 

 

On the face of it, THROUGH THE DOOR OF LIFE A JEWISH JOURNEY BETWEEN GENDERS  is the story of Joy Ladin, an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, and her transition. But it’s Ladin’s relationship with Judaism that anchors this book and makes it stand out. Not only a memoir of transgender experience, it’s also a story of family heartbreak and family love; of growth as a teacher and writer; and, not least, of a self deeply connected to God and Judaism throughout a life lived between genders. This is a fierce and tender story of regular old human life: hideous choices, endless repercussions, occasional splendour, and frequent humiliation.