Recently I was reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, An Alter in the World and I found a quote that is very appropriate for today.  Taylor says:

“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self – to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.  All you have to do is recognize another you “out there”- your other self in the world – for whom you may care as instinctively as you care for yourself.  To become that person, even for a moment, is to understand what it means to die to your self.  This can be as frightening as it is liberating.  It may be the only real spiritual discipline there is.”

A few weeks ago many of us stopped to observe Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR).  In Atlanta that evening there were names called and stories shared of persons who were brutalized for simply living their truth.  The list gets longer each year.   Perhaps there are those among us who are so disconnected from their own truth that they are challenged or angered when they meet someone clearly being their authentic self.

I have been asked why I am so concerned about transgender persons.  After I spoke at one of the TDOR commemorations someone said to one of the members of the church I served, “I didn’t know Rev. Kathi was transgender”.   That showed me how much some of us do not realize sameness is not a prerequisite for care and concern.  The truth is, I looked in the eyes and listened to the words of a transgender church member and suddenly I saw myself in her eyes.  After that moment her issues were my issues, her rights were my rights, her safety was my safety, and her hopes were my hopes.  In short, she was able and willing to “spring me from the prison of myself” and I was able and willing to recognize my other self in the world.

It is going to take more than the transgender community to stop the lengthening of the TDOR list.  Only love and understanding among all persons will illuminate the fear that leads to violence.   When we see our neighbors as our self maybe we will be more dedicated to justice, safety, and human rights for persons we once considered “The Other “.