My Journey at the Outreach 2024 Conference: Transgender Catholics & Community Building
Join me as I share my experiences and reflections from the recent Outreach Conference! 🌟 (from a zoom discussion where I shared with a LGBTQ Catholic church group)
In this video, I discuss my journey from a small farm in rural Ohio to speaking on a panel about Transgender Catholics and their place in the church. I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Maureen Rasmussen, a transwoman and Catholic, and Craig Ford, a moral theologian, moderated by Katie Collins Scott of the National Catholic Reporter.
Discover the significance of this panel and hear my personal takeaways, including:
-The profound impact of gathering with other LGBTQ Catholics.
-A touching moment with Sister Jeanine Grammick, a pioneering advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church.
-Insights from the final keynote with Father James Martin and Christopher White on the current state of transgender issues in the Catholic Church.
-I also delve into the importance of connecting LGBTQ+ ministries and voices across the country to amplify our message and foster change.
Whether you're interested in LGBTQ+ advocacy, Catholicism, or just looking for inspiration and connection, this video offers valuable insights and reflections.
Full Transcript of the Video:
Okay hello I'm Max, so I’m calling from Ohio, and I live on a farm that’s about an hour east of Columbus. So very rural, very small town. But as far as what brought me to the Outreach conference probably the primary motivation was that I was invited to speak on the panel for the Transgender Catholics and the church. I spoke alongside Maureen Rasmussen and Craig Ford, who's a moral theologian. Maureen is a transwoman and a Catholic. And the leader of that panel was the moderator was Katie Collins Scott, who is a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter, who kind of has developed a beat writing about how trans issues kind of come up in, in dioceses and churches and covering that sort of stuff.
I would say that beyond that, so beyond having the opportunity to speak and share my story, which is very important to me because I know that there are plenty of transgender Catholics, but they don't always have the opportunity to be heard from or or want to speak. And also with trans issues being extra relevant in our country right now, especially politically, that was a huge motivation. But beyond that, I would say that just in general, the opportunity to be with the LGBTQ community, to gather with other LGBTQ Catholics, that is a huge draw for me.
I think it's critical that we have the opportunity to gather together, to learn from each other. And probably most importantly, to have the opportunity to see that we're not alone. Again, one of my big motivations is I always think of when I was in high school, and I was typing into Google, “gay and Catholic,” “transgender and Catholic,” all these different words, like what is out there? What resource can I find that affirms me both in my identity and in my Catholicity? And so that's probably my biggest motivation.
(Question 2 — Takeaways from the Conference )
Could say so much, so many different positive conversations, connections, getting to see people that I kind of only get to see at the outreach conference because we're scattered all over.
But two standouts that I thought of. First, if you're familiar with Sister Jeanine Grammick, she is one of the founders of New Ways Ministry and is a character kind of like Father James Martin in that she has worked tirelessly regarding LGBTQ advocacy for Catholics, including meeting with the Pope, writing letters to the Pope, him responding. It's been reported in NCR if you want to look more into that, but I was able to actually, I've kind of formed a little bit of a connection with her. Part of that is through the writing that I've done for New Ways. And actually prior to Outreach, when I was at that Imago Dei conference (end of June 2024), that was kind of the first time I really got to meet her and have a conversation with her.
And then at Outreach, it was really touching to me because right before my panel, I had the opportunity to sit down with her. Like I, I kind of, I saw her and I was like, you know, can I get some advice or, or like words of, of encouragement? And it was just, it just really is moving to know that there are people who have been working for so many years tirelessly who are allies too. So, you know, a big part of it [the conference] is meeting the people who are also in the community. But to me in, in doing advocacy work and sharing my story and doing all the writing that I do and speaking, seeing that there are also allies, and that there are allies who are religious. That's just really powerful to me.
And, it was just really powerful to have her encourage me before I had to go on the panel. The second one that I thought of was, so during the final keynote, which was between father James Martin and Christopher White. He's the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. They were kind of, I can't remember the exact purview of the whole keynote, but it was kind of talking about, uh, what the Holy Father has been bringing up, just kind of those issues. But in the Q and A, I thought it was really interesting because a large percentage of those questions were about transgender issues. And I think that just stood out to me because you know, again, trans issues are really a big deal right now for society with politics and, you know, what are the rights of trans people? What are we gonna allow trans people to do? Are we gonna let people trans people play sports? Are we gonna let trans people go into different bathrooms? Like how do we feel about all that stuff? And so hearing that, hearing the fact that the people who were attending the conference were on that and were like, yeah, let's ask Father James. He’s someone who talks to Pope Francis often, who is in communication with him. Let's ask directly.
And unfortunately, there are not too many answers right now. Pope Francis has done a lot of pastorally supportive things for trans people. And he has also shown that trans people can serve as godparents in baptisms and witnesses in weddings. So he has done some really positive things, but it's just interesting thing that these, these trans issues are definitely coming forward and people are definitely talking about it. So those are two takeaways from me.
You know there are a lot of places around the country, a lot of diocese, small towns, etc, where there are not like affirming places, affirming churches or affirming groups like you guys have here; there are places where that just would not be allowed. So I kind of think of the answer to this question as “connecting the connectors.” You know, all these people that are all over and all doing different ministries and different things and something like the Outreach conference is where all those different people can come together and actually be like, okay, like “I'm doing this over here. What are you doing over here? How can what you're doing inform what I'm doing? How can we, you know, use our voices most effectively together?” Because I really think that we need to have all of these voices really being amplified to show this really is a need just because, you know, in that small town, wherever it is, they don't have an LGBTQ ministry, doesn't mean it's not needed. And so, yeah, to me, it's just we need to, we need these people to be all connected because it's those connections that will ripple out to change throughout the entire church.
I was also at the 2023 Outreach Conference at Fordham University in New York City, and Father James was on a panel that part of it was talking about his practice of like Ignatian spirituality and those types of practices that keep you connected. So for me personally, as a transgender person, especially discernment, it has been a huge thing, not just for my own identity, but the interplay between that identity and my Catholic identity. Additionally, I would say contemplative prayer has been huge. Just the ability to sit with myself and with God and to kind of find that center, find that still quiet voice that is consistent underneath all the noise. And the noise can be so many different things, you know, that can be the busyness of life, that can be all the political stuff, you know, as a transgender person, that can be what is going to happen to me when I transition. You know, in my case, I came from a more conservative Catholic community, and so I lost connections with a lot of people, including my parents who were not at all supportive of my transition.
So that has been really huge. And I will also say that living where I do is probably a huge part of my ability to stay centered, you know, kind of in the middle of nowhere. The town that I live in has a population of 200 people. It's all farmers and big farms and a lot of wild country. Like, you know, I can take a walk outside of my house and pretty soon I can hit an area that's just woods and fields. And when you're just alone in nature, in the natural world, it's very easy in my experience to feel that connection to God.
You know, I know a lot of people who live in busier areas, you know, they have to go on retreat to these quiet places and I just live in this very beautiful, quiet place, which has been really significant to me. And so, yeah, ultimately, I would say for me, it's been just staying consistent and connected to that process of discernment and the contemplative prayer, which allows me to connect to God and to know who God made me to be.
I think when it comes to experiencing hostility about different parts of your identity, but particularly, like, as a Christian, I think that it's a very dualistic error. It's this error of us versus them and there has to be “one right way.” There's only two choices and there has to be one right pick. So to that end, kind of what has helped me personally along the lines of the contemplative prayer. There's an interesting book actually that kind of bridges the conversation between Christianity and Buddhism actually. It's called Living Buddha, Living Christ by the monk, Tic Nhat Hanh. And basically it's an interesting book because he takes you into the Buddhist perspective by using examples from Christianity. And reading that book really helped me to kind of break some of that black and white thinking.
There's multiple ways that you can work on breaking that. You don't have to read that specific book. But being able to look at situations beyond just there has to be one clear winner and then in your interactions with people who are hostile, when you bring in that perspective that it isn't a fight, when I don't immediately bristle in response to someone who is bristling at me, in some way it does diffuse them. Not perfectly, but that is like a human psychology thing is that we respond to the energy of other people. And so that's just something I wanted to throw out there is when I maintain this calm attitude and am able to kind of look beyond this black and white thing that they're maybe arguing about and kind of get to those deeper issues kind of as Dan said, the things we can connect with, the things we can agree on. That's where I've seen powerful progress.
I don't think I have any real advice to the question, which is why I didn't speak up right away. My partner is not Catholic and honestly has seen me kind of go through some of the rejection and the difficult things with the conservative community I was in, but has also seen me finding a community like Outreach, like the Imago Dei Conference, connecting with people like Sister Jeanine, etc. And it's been kind of amazing to see her reaction, her ability to recognize how meaningful it's been for me to kind of find that affirming community. And so I don't know how that exactly plays to your question, but for me that has been just really powerful and has helped my faith in many ways to see someone holding a mirror and saying, “hey, look at how far you've come. Look at what has happened when you have found people who also are on this journey like you are.”
So that's what I would say. I will always be Catholic. I was raised Catholic. This is something that even if I were to, for example, get married in a church like in the Episcopal Church or something like that in a church that would affirm me as a transgender person because that's another layer too. Even if I were to do that, I wouldn't see that as taking away something from my Catholic faith or my Catholic identity. And I see my practice of my faith tied to representing my transgender identity. So for me, it's not so much like I need to find a church that where everything fully aligns and everything, we're on the same page about absolutely everything. For me, it's more of this is a part of my identity.
This is part of how I was raised. And I'm a small drop in a huge ocean. And again, I don't know even if in my lifetime, if there will be changes on certain things that are important to me, but it's like I'm still part of that body of Christ. And so I see myself as a necessary part even if it doesn't all line up perfectly, you know, the way that it does for a cisgender heterosexual person.
