Reflections on the Senate Judiciary Hearing

We are grateful to Edith Guffey for her witness and her commitment to the United Church of Christ which proclaims that all of God's children deserve to be treated with dignity, fairness, and love.

I was surprised to receive a call from PFLAG a week ago with an invitation to potentially give testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Equality Act. As the PFLAG staff person quickly rattled off pertinent details, I stopped her and said, WHAT? I learned then that my name had been submitted and I was among those being considered by Senator Dick Durbin’s staff and the call was to ask if I was interested.  I have seen snippets of these hearings on TV before; but I confess I have never given any hearing my full attention and I certainly had no idea what went into preparing for a hearing. After determining exactly what PFLAG and Senator Durbin’s office was looking for, I agreed to be considered.

It won’t surprise you that I never want to be in a situation I am not prepared for, so I wanted to be clear on a few things: I am not a legal expert on the Equality Act, and I refuse to speak for the LGBTQIA community.  I knew if that was what they were looking for, I couldn’t fill those shoes. What I heard from PFLAG and from Stephanie, Senator Durbin’s staff person, was that they wanted me to speak as a parent of trans adult child and as a person of faith. I could do that.

In fact, I felt that I had to do that. I know that one of the objections to the Equality Act comes from faith communities that don’t support equal rights for LGBTQIA persons. Too often in these discussions, we hear about people of faith who object to and are offended by LGBTQIA persons as if that is true of ALL people of faith. We know that characterization doesn’t fit many in the United Church of Christ or other more progressive and welcoming voices of faith and many in the LGBTQIA community have been and continue to be deeply traumatized by the church. They still don’t know that there are churches like the UCC that will welcome and celebrate who they are, just as they are. This was a prime opportunity to extend a word of grace and welcome; I have no idea if someone needed to hear a word like that or not; but I had the opportunity to say it.

While I was clear what my message would be I didn’t know what questions I might receive. Stephanie from Senator Durbin’s office told me that they couldn’t protect me from senators on the committee who might be less than civil or supportive. Imagine that!  So I wanted to make sure I had a basic foundation on the objections “out there”. While this opportunity came through PFLAG, I turned to our UCC staff for support and they readily responded. Staff in the UCC Washington Office, Sandy Sorenson and Katie Adams, Andy Lang from the Open and Affirming Coalition, and Barbara Satin who was the first transgender woman to serve on the Executive Council when I worked in the national offices years ago, as well as Michael Schuenemeyer also on the UCC national staff gathered on a ZOOM call to help prepare me for questions I might receive. That’s what we call covenantal partnership. Thank you to these partners.

I also had the opportunity to work with wonderful PFLAG staff, especially Diego Sanchez, who is the Director of Advocacy, Policy and Partnership at PFLAG National. Diego is the only person at PFLAG who has ever given testimony before Congress, so he was my guide and walked me through the process. When other staff were tempted to turn my words more into an advocacy platform with facts and figures than my personal story, Diego stepped in. He allowed me to do what they assured me they wanted me to do: to be authentically me, a mother and a person of faith; the rest was covered with the other two persons Stella Keating, a High School Student from Tacoma, Washington (who is transgender herself)  and  Alphonso David, President of the Human Rights Campaign. Both were excellent.

The hearing itself was troubling in many ways. While I should not have been surprised, I was still dismayed.  I was prepared for the usual arguments about freedom of religion, but it was especially distressing to hear girls’ sports used as the newest pawn in the battle against equal rights for LGBTQIA people. This argument that passing the Equal Rights Acts will decimate girls’ sports is being used across the country because to many it appears less odious, homophobic and discriminatory against LGBTQIA people. Many see it as just protecting the rights of poor   vulnerable young girls; when in reality it is a guise to discriminate against transgender youth. No one is speaking about how painful this is to transgender youth. (A similar bill has already passed the Senate in Kansas).

When the three-hour experience was over, I had some regrets.  Witnesses can speak only when they are asked a question directly. I had only two questions and I wish I had taken better advantage of the opportunities when I had the floor. It’s  not likely that many of you watched the entire three hours (a friend in Hawaii did and she noted her bathroom and kitchen are REALLY clean).  But if you did, you know there was the implication that if the Equality Act is passed, all of the church related institutions that provide much needed social services to the public will fold their tents and go home as they don’t want to provide these services to LGBTQIA persons. I really should have noted that there are many faith-based organizations providing these services to all people now, including LGBTQIA people and will continue to do so.  There are a couple of other areas that I would also stress more forcefully. I have the opportunity to correct these areas in submitting a written supplement to the oral testimony.    

I was very nervous Wednesday morning. I received text messages of support from national staff, Conference Minister colleagues, Caroline from Plymouth Church called to pray with me; notes from KO pastors and others who knew this was happening. Thank you so much, I needed that support. The Equality Act is important and it will make a huge difference in the lives of so many. It will be an uphill battle for it to be passed, but not impossible.

It’s a fine line between saying, “hey, look at me!” and sharing an honor with a community; knowing the honor is not for the person but for the whole community. It was the latter that convinced me to share this opportunity with Michael to post on Facebook and to share in eNEWS. It was about us: KO and the United Church of Christ, and who we are together. We have work to do so that more will know and might find a place where they are loved and celebrated for who they are, just as they are.

May it be so.