text:
S. 39 (116th)
S. 39: No Budget, No Pay Act
(Select) H.R. 129 No Budget, No Pay Act (IH) H.R. 1612 Nonpartisan Bill For the People Act of 2019 (IH)
The text of the bill below is as of Jan 8, 2019 (Introduced).
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. Braun (for himself and Mr. Manchin) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
To provide that Members of Congress may not receive pay after October 1 of any fiscal year in which Congress has not approved a concurrent resolution on the budget and passed the regular appropriations bills.
This Act may be cited as the No Budget, No Pay Act .
In this Act, the term Member of Congress—
has the meaning given under section 2106 of title 5, United States Code; and
does not include the Vice President.
Timely approval of concurrent resolution on the budget and the appropriations bills
If both Houses of Congress have not approved a concurrent resolution on the budget as described under section 301 of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 632) for a fiscal year before October 1 of that fiscal year and have not passed all the regular appropriations bills for the next fiscal year before October 1 of that fiscal year, the pay of each Member of Congress may not be paid for each day following that October 1 until the date on which both Houses of Congress approve a concurrent resolution on the budget for that fiscal year and all the regular appropriations bills.
No pay without concurrent resolution on the budget and the appropriations bills
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds may be appropriated or otherwise be made available from the United States Treasury for the pay of any Member of Congress during any period determined by the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate or the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives under section 5.
No retroactive pay
A Member of Congress may not receive pay for any period determined by the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate or the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives under section 5, at any time after the end of that period.
Request for certifications
On October 1 of each year, the Secretary of the Senate shall submit a request to the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate for certification of determinations made under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2).
The Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate shall—
on October 1 of each year, make a determination of whether Congress is in compliance with section 3 and whether Senators may not be paid under that section;
determine the period of days following each October 1 that Senators may not be paid under section 3; and
provide timely certification of the determinations under subparagraphs (A) and (B) upon the request of the Secretary of the Senate.
On October 1 of each year, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives shall submit a request to the Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives for certification of determinations made under subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (2).
The Chairpersons of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives shall—
on October 1 of each year, make a determination of whether Congress is in compliance with section 3 and whether Members of the House of Representatives may not be paid under that section;
determine the period of days following each October 1 that Members of the House of Representatives may not be paid under section 3; and
provide timely certification of the determinations under subparagraphs (A) and (B) upon the request of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives.
This Act shall take effect on February 1, 2021.


Alpha's Chairman Geoff Greenwood has more than 40 years of experience at the highest levels of the National Health Service. A director of finance and a chief executive, Geoff was at the forefront of campaigns to get cancer patients seen more quickly, and to give them a better quality of service.
That remains his drive at Alpha. Always challenging existing methods and looking for improvements, Geoff is committed to helping Alpha move forwards and develop for current, and future, residents.
Away from the boardroom Geoff is a busy granddad, a keen golfer and a dedicated Tranmere Rovers fan.
Kieran is a very experienced Finance Director who has worked in Merseyside public sector organisations for over 20 years including being Deputy Chief Executive and Treasurer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority where he had a national profile supporting the Local Government Association and the Chief Fire Officer's association. Kieran has worked as FD at a number of Housing Associations and is currently Group Finance Director at Prima Housing Group.
Sarah joined the Board at the end of 2016 and brings over a decade's worth of experience in PR and communications within the housing sector. She is currently Account Director at Hough Bellis Communications, working across the housing, construction, charity and energy sectors.
In her previous role she was Head of PR and Public Affairs for Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, an organisation set up by the government to support and drive the growth of the local economy. She had previously spent six years working in social housing in Merseyside and Cheshire and is focussed on helping the Alpha team raise its profile as an expert in older people's housing, and drive forward the organisations brand, vision and values.
Dan brings extensive knowledge to the Alpha boardroom as he is currently the Group Director of Asset Management and Development for Torus 62 Ltd - who have over 22,000 homes in the North West of England.
Another keen cyclist, since joining the Board in 2016 Dan has been involved in the asset management working group which is aiming to understand better how Alpha's stock is performing.
Our second resident board member is Frances, who became an Alpha resident just over five years ago and joined the Board soon after.
A qualified florist, Frances enjoys taking an active part in her local community.
She is secretary of her local bowling club in Port Sunlight, and also a member of Neston Flower Club. She enjoys theatre going and at present is an ambassador for her local theatre in Port Sunlight.
Dave moved into an Alpha scheme in 2015 and was invited to join the Board as a resident member a year later.
Dave has more than 20 years of experience in the banking sector, before he moved into the welfare state, working in income support and jobseekers' allowance.
An avid Manchester United fan throughout his life, Salford-born Dave's main sporting activity is now crown green bowls.
Janet is a public health doctor who comes to Alpha with nearly twenty years experience working at Director level in the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector.
She has been Director of Public Health in both Wirral and Sefton, was a founder member of the local Champs public health network and served as President of the Association of Directors of Public Health.
In 2015 Janet was awarded an OBE for her services to public health.
Janet currently works part time as a senior adviser to Public Health England and runs her own leadership consultancy. She is also a trustee of Cycling UK - the national cycling charity.
She moved to Wirral 23 years ago, and in her spare time can be found cycling the lanes of Wirral and beyond, discovering new places while touring on her bike.
Lorri Holding has worked in the Supported Housing sector for over 25 years commissioning and developing a range of Young & Older Persons supported and care related accommodation.
Lorri currently works as the Strategic Housing Consultant for a number of specialist housing providers who focus on complex clients from Leaving Care and Asylum-seeking young people within the North West.
She is passionate about shaping services to deliver high quality housing related support that produces planned, tangible and measured outcomes.
Lorri has sat on a range of boards over the years, more recently Arawak Housing Association in Manchester where she also chaired the Remuneration and Selection Committee for 9 years.
In her down time, Lorri volunteers for a number of LGBT and homelessness charities and delivers a weekend street support team in city centre Manchester that work directly with those affected by homelessness, illness and mental health issues.
Sue Lorimer is a finance professional spending most of her career on NHS boards at director level in Merseyside and Cheshire. She is a firm believer in using strong financial performance as an enabler to improve services and has been heavily involved in major capital projects the most recent of which was securing government approval for the new Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool. She has also worked in NHS oversight and regulation for the NHS Trust Development Authority (later NHS Improvement) and was finance lead for the North of England until her retirement from full time work in 2016. She has been a non-executive director of Wirral University Hospitals since 2017.
Sue has maintained a keen interest in training and development throughout her career, spending 9 years on the board of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and was national president in 2015. Sue is a native Liverpudlian and lives in Liverpool with her partner John and her 2 cats.
Gill joined the Board in 2018 with over 30 years of experience working at a senior level in housing organisations. She also spent eight years working for the Audit Commission, where she inspected housing services and led a number of improvement projects in poorly performing organisations.
Gill is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and is currently Head of Business Excellence at Stockport Homes. In the past, she has served as Board Member and as Chair of the Service Excellence Sub-Committee at Aire Valley Homes. Her particular focus is on engaging customers and communities in decision making and ensuring services meet their needs.
Away from the Boardroom Gill is a keen photographer, beekeeper and gardener.
Claire is Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Education at Wrexham Glyndŵr University. She brings to the Board 30 years' experience working with learners within the school and higher education sectors including senior roles focussed on leadership and governance. Claire is committed to the provision of educational opportunity for all and is keen to support the further development of an inter-generational approach to lifelong learning for the benefit of our communities.


Long story short, it ended up looking (and tasting) like a big chocolate hockey puck – not exactly one of my trophy mom moments.
To redeem myself, I went to work on this cake to get it juuuuuust right. And, thankfully, I think I've succeeded. I was able to perfect it by the time our youngest daughter had her second birthday. I've served it several times now – to SCD dieters, Paleo eaters as well as gluten-loving "normal" people and it's gotten raves so far.
Shared on Allergy Free Wednesdays, Whole Food Fridays, Healing with Food Friday, and Gluten Free Fridays.
NOTE: navy beans need to be soaked 24 hours, drained, cooked until soft and then drained again. Eden Foods canned beans uses this method for their beans.
Grease a 9 inch baking pan with coconut oil or palm shortening and, if not using [url href="http://mybigfatgrainfreelife.com/2011/10/life-baking-pans-and-other-sundry-things.html" target="_blank"]my favorite pan[/url], line the bottom with parchment paper.
In food processor, process the first six ingredients (beans through 1/3 cup melted coconut oil) until smooth.
In medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, cacao powder, baking soda and salt.
Add dry ingredients to food processor and process again until smooth. Scrape down sides and process again.
Add in chocolate chips and stir in by hand.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Give the pan a tap on the counter to remove air bubbles.
Bake 20-30 minutes, being careful not to over bake. Top should spring back when touched.
In small bowl, toss pecans with 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil and salt.
Lay pecans on parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 300F until fragrant. Test in 5 to 10 minute increments to prevent burning. Allow to cool.
Process nuts in nut chopper or mini food processor. Set aside.
Allow cake to cool completely then top with chocolate mousse, spreading to the edge of top layer (not on sides).
Finally, sprinkle edges (or entire top) with ground salted pecans.
We're doing great. Hope the same for you all!
I would like to make this but I cannot access the chocolate mousse recipe.
Cany you help me with this? Thanks!
I clicked the link in the recipe and it worked for me. Here it is again. It goes to a Chocolate Fudgsicle recipe that can be used as a mousse. Let me know if it works!
Um, okay. This comment is WAAAAAAY overdue. First off, ha ha ha…I've so been there with the winging it situation. You think you got it, but no! Oh I've been there.
As usual, you made me smile reading your post. And this cake, my oh my, Jen. Seriously. This cake looks like perfection. I've made your banana white bean cake more times than I can count…so I just know this chocolate cake is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Looks delicious but … I can't eat legumes. Can I replace the navy beans with anything non-legumy?
I haven't tested the recipe with any substitutions. So sorry!


Hi there. Its with regards to sponsorship of dependents. Normally children finish school at about 17 or 18 years here.
Males under the sponsorship of their parent have to leave the country on turning 21, or have to find work and sponsor themselves, or be enrolled in a tertiary institution (with the relevant visa).
Female dependents (daughters) can stay on under your sponsorship until they are married.
The Post is indeed helpful for newbies, but I feel to add some other costs along with the basic necessities of life like Education costs. Education which is a vital part of everyone's life becomes an issue when it comes to UAE. But some days back, i saw a Blog post on an Off-shore company's page which unveiled solution of this problem. The post discussed If you from any other Country living in UAE as a foreigner, there is a solution to this Problem. Most Asian and European countries have established schools with collaboration of their embassies to provide quality education at economical rates to their citizens working over seas.
Thanks a lot... Great info.
what about Cost living in0 Al Ain?
according to you living in Dubai is expensive.
dbxsoul ,For your day to day work and business related inquiry check Yellowpages.ae. There you will get businesses and UAE companies details and their contact numbers.


I have bursitis in my right shoulder and have ordered some patches on line. They are natural, which is what I am looking for without having to go through the shot or surgery. Do you know if they really work. I've read the testimonies, but...not really sure they will work for me.
Chronic bursitis is usually caused by long-term overuse of one muscle-tendon unit, for example a joint. The repeated motion of that muscle-tendon unit causes friction in the bursa. As the activity continues, the bursa becomes inflamed and may fill with fluid. The bursa thickens and does not function well. Both bursa and tendon may become irritated.
* Do not overdo sports and other activities.
* When doing a new activity, gradually increase the length of time you do it.
* Make sure you perform activities correctly.
* Wear protective pads if you play contact sports.
Please let us know if this helps you, and we hope you feel better soon.


Social and natural history of the area, Oriental decorative arts, ethnography and Egyptology. Building in Victorian-Gothic style. Butterfly house.
Special exhibitions throughout the year, featuring contemporary art, craft and photography.


On Tuesday morning, a series of terrorist attacks hit Brussels, Belgium, killing at least 34 people and wounding at least 187, leaving some in serious condition. The bombings took place at the city's major airport and in one if its metro stations. Videos taken at the sites of the attacks in the aftermath of the blasts show scenes of fear and chaos, as survivors are evacuated from both locations.
The majority of videos, taken by people at the scenes and posted to social media, are obscured by smoke, showing groups huddled together or hurrying to escape the area. Arguably most chilling is the clip taken from a parking garage outside the airport immediately following the bombings. Smoke billows out of broken windows as people sprint away from the building, some dragging their suitcases behind them.
The city remained on lockdown for several hours after the attacks, though it is now being reported that the metro system will reopen at 4 p.m. local time with increased military surveillance.
The videos below may be disturbing to some viewers.
If you wish to help the victims and their families, there are several ways to do so.


text:
The sculpted cheeks of The Devil With the Yellow Eyes | All photos courtesy of MastersFX
'Legion': Creating "The Devil With the Yellow Eyes"
by Chris Koseluk
As the 2017 TV season unfolds, one show is generating a lot of excitement in the fandom world: FX's Legion. Based on a Marvel Comics character that debuted in 1985, Legion is actually just one person: David Charles Haller—the mutant son of X-Men professor Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller. More antihero than superhero, David has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and confined to a psychiatric hospital. His illness leads him to take on different personas, each with a unique power all its own. It also results in his constant questioning of reality. With Dan Stevens as David, the series also stars Rachel Keller, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Irwin and Jean Smart.
Finished make-up for The Devil With the Yellow Eyes
Of the many images playing tricks with David's mind, the one generating buzz is "The Devil With the Yellow Eyes." This towering, ominous figure with glowing eyes and bloated facial features has been haunting the title character since episode one. As the story unfolds, it appears he's another foreboding member of the Marvel Universe.
Shop of Choice
Series creator Noah Hawley called upon MastersFX (MFX) to bring The Devil With the Yellow Eyes to life. "All of us are pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the character and the show in general," says Todd Masters, Legion's special effects make-up supervisor. "This one was definitely a favorite of ours and also kind of a mystery meat. We didn't really know what the hell it was. We put our shoulders into it, like we do every show, but the team here really knocked out a unique character. It's great to see the reaction—total watercooler conversation."
Confessing that he's not a big comic-book fan, Masters didn't even realize he was delving into the genre when Hawley approached him to do the effects. In fact, to keep the project under wraps, Legion was developed under the title Clubland. The shop was in the final stages of design when Masters learned the origin of the material. As a result, the character was completely conceptualized by Masters and shop designer Sarah Pickersgill.
"At one point, Noah and the production company gave us an image of an overweight guy," continues Master. "And that was really the only thing we got. There wasn't a whole bunch else. It was really a matter of circling until we found something that seemed to hit."
To do that, Masters began picking Hawley's brain. He knew the image was in there somewhere. The key was asking the right questions to draw it out. Once he did, Masters created some preliminary sketches.
Hawley indicated a concept he liked and Masters gave it to Pickersgill to run with.
Going to the Dark Side
"I'm similar to Todd in that I don't come from a superhero fandom background. I have more of a horror sensibility," says Pickersgill. "I came at it from a dark angle, not knowing at that point what the feel of the show was going to be. I just thought I'd try and make [The Devil] as creepy and disgusting and sinister as possible."
"Sarah took it into Photoshop and really hammered it home," adds Masters. "She was able to make that thing believable. I think that was the breakthrough because it's not supposed to be a believable character. It's supposed to be this figment of an imagination. But it needed to be better realized and more organic."
Based on the Photoshop images and a clay sculpture that Pickersgill created, MFX was given the green-light to do the make-up. The only requested change was to reverse an earlier choice to make The Devil look more sympathetic. Instead, the producers decided to amp up the sinister.
Quinton Boisclair with sculpted hands for The Devil With the Yellow Eyes character
Perfect Casting
A lucky fluke was key to making the effect work. One day, in a comic-book store of all places, an MFX employee spotted Quinton Boisclair. At 6 feet 10 inches tall, he was hard to miss. Sleek and lanky, Boisclair's frame was custom-made for creature design."We pitched him to production and when they saw him, they were ecstatic," says Lori Sandnes, who coordinates Legion's make-up effects for MFX. "He had this perfect physique to build our creature onto."
Although Boisclair had no acting experience, he agreed to become The Devil With the Yellow Eyes. And much to everyone's surprise, he embraced the character. "He took direction really well. And he took the make-up well," continues Sandnes.
"I think we were surprised at how much expression he gave out, considering how much was on his face," adds Pickersgill.
"And it's funny because Quinton is not a super expressive guy. But when he was put on camera in make-up, he actually was quite expressive."
Sarah Pickersgill working on make-up for The Devil With the Yellow Eyes
The commitment meant sitting through a four-hour-plus application. The process begins with a cowl that encompasses Boisclair's head and sets the tone for the character's exaggerated facial features. Cheek, chin and forehead pieces are layered over it. All are made of foam latex and each piece was pre-painted using Illustrator.
"We would have liked silicone, especially for that nice translucent feel. We ended up going with foam just out of practicality," explains Pickersgill, who does the application along with Harlow MacFarlane. "Silicone would have been really heavy and quite uncomfortable after a long day."
They faked a translucent look by layering colors, adds Pickersgill.
Boisclair wears a fat suit, but to increase the surreal nature of the character, it doesn't cover his arms and legs; they are body painted. At first, Pickersgill used PAX Paint, but switched to European Body Art's Endura to save removal time.
To complete the look, the make-up team stained Boisclair's teeth and inserted contact lenses to give his eyes their yellow color. Except for a little computer trickery to make his eyes glow, the effects are completely physical.
As soon as The Devil was unveiled, the MFX team knew they nailed it.
"We brought him into the room for a test and as everyone came around the corner, you could see them just look up and start smiling," says Sandnes.
"Noah is not known for big reactions, so if you get a little bit of a smile out of him, you know you've done a good job," says Pickersgill.
The producers asked for some last-minute tweaks, such as adding eyebrows to The Devil and bumping up the color of his skin so it wouldn't look so pale. But it was obvious to all that the producers liked what they saw and wanted more screen time for The Devil. Shooting days for the character continually increased as the first season evolved. Negotiations for a new WGA contract slowed the start of Legion's second season. But all indications are that the character will play a prominent role in the plotline.
Putting character hands on Quinton Boisclair
Complete make-up
Forehead sculpture
Sculpted hands
Boisclair in full make-up on set
featured Legion Marvel MastersFX MFX top story
MastersFX Celebrates Anniversary With Outstanding Makeup Nomination
A Galaxy of Make-up
Creating 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' Vision Make-up
Ryan Reynolds Plays the Disfigured Antihero in 'Deadpool'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


He's not an activist judge, though!
ABC News reports that the Republican game plan is to simply bully their way through the confirmation hearings. It's not as if they know how to win without cheating!
At his Senate confirmation hearings next week, Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh is not expected to offer any commitment to recuse himself from cases involving investigations of President Trump, including a possible constitutional fight over a subpoena of the president, sources familiar with Kavanaugh's preparations tell ABC News.
Senate Democrats say they plan to press Kavanaugh over recusal during questioning. "He doesn't believe a sitting president should be investigated or prosecuted -- in other words, is above the law," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday.
"Pledging a decision on a particular matter or case – including the decision whether to hear the case – for political reasons, like obtaining confirmation votes, would violate the bedrock constitutional principle of judicial independence," said deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah, who is overseeing the administration's Kavanaugh confirmation strategy.
What would you like to bet that Kavanaugh has already pledged his loyalty to Trump?
Democrats have said they plan to use the confirmation hearings to spotlight Kavanaugh's potential legal and ethical conflicts should Mueller bring any case involving the president before the high court. As part of that strategy, Democrats announced former White House Counsel John Dean, who helped bring down former President Richard Nixon, will testify as an outside witness.


TRUMP 2020 God bless our president! San Antonio is the best!
I support Trump 100% . He is doing good for the USA and Israel.
God bless this brave man .
If you "LIKE" Trump you get a 🦅 and a 🐐 because he's the goat.
God protect you mr president!
President Trump gets things done, in spite of the obstructionist Democrats. Why in the world are they still on a defunct witch hunt when there's a crisis at the border?
EL PASO, TX Republican in the house President Donald Trump 2020 🇺🇸💪🏽 !!!!!
Welcome to Texas Mr. President.
God bless President Trump. Be aware that Mexican President AMLO is communist and a member of a satanic sect.
We have the most going-est President! President Trump never stops working and he loves it! God bless this man!


text:
Nonbinary Resources
Off and Running
Shortly after arriving, TransEpiscopal members and friends gathered in the booth area.
General Convention 2012: Off and Running
The TransEpiscopal team has hit the ground running here at The Episcopal Church's 77th General Convention in steamy Indianapolis. Most of us arrived on Monday, and yesterday was a day of joy and discovery, as many people who knew each other only online finally got to meet in person. For the first time we have our own booth in the Convention exhibit hall, and over the last two days we have been meeting people from across the church in that space. As in 2009, I am so struck by the sense of interconnection, and especially the unexpected ways that people from all across the church are connected specifically to trans people.
Yesterday I met a priest from a Midwestern diocese who had watched the documentary Out of the Box last Saturday evening. She was moved to make a connection in her sermon between the gospel passage last Sunday and the idea of being and acting "out of the box." She talked about how our church would be looking at resolutions adding "gender identity and expression" to the church's nondiscrimination canons here at General Convention. Two parishioners then thanked her for her words and shared that each of them were parents of transgender people. This was the second instance of a priest I know preaching about transgender equality this past Sunday.
The other one was a friend in Massachusetts where our state nondiscrimination law just went into effect on Sunday. I was moved to see coverage of this law in a headline at the top of the Boston Globe metro section as I flew to Indianapolis Monday morning. The sense of celebration and of momentum coming into General Convention has been powerful.
There are three resolutions that TransEpiscopal is supporting along with our coalition partners in IntegrityUSA, the Consultation, and the Chicago Consultation:
D002 "Affirming Access to the Discernment Process for Ministry"
This resolution would add "gender identity and expression" to Canon 3.1.2, the church's nondiscrimination canon for access to the ordination process. This addition would make explicit that ordained ministry is open to transgender people.
D019 "Amend Canon I.17.5 - Extending the Rights of Laity"
This resolution would add "gender identity and expression" to Canon 1.17.5, the church's nondiscrimination canon for access of lay people to all levels of the life of the church.
D022 "Church wide Response to Bullying"
This resolution calls for a church wide response to the epidemic of bullying, including those targeted because of their gender identity or gender expression.
D002 and D019 were assigned to the Ministry Committee, and hearings on them will take place tomorrow at 2pm. TransEpiscopal members and allies are preparing now to testify. Once the hearings take place, the committee has to decide whether to send them along to one of the two Houses in The Episcopal Church's bicameral system. So stay tuned for more on that front, as well as the fate of D022, the resolution on bullying.
Meanwhile, today has been packed with hearings on various other numerous resolutions, including marriage equality, the impact of DOMA on couples with an immigrant member, and many, many more.
This afternoon, I was joined by Rev. Dr. Christina Beardsley (of Changing Attutude) at the Consultation's Speaker's Corner in the exhibit hall. We gave an overview of the trans-related resolutions before us, and the broader context for movement on trans equality in the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion. We emphasized that the last General Convention passed four transgender supportive resolutions, falling short only on C061, now called D002. Tina also spoke about the longstanding presence of transgender clergy in the Church of England, as well as the collaborative work that has been taking place between various "LGB and T"(as she puts it) and allied groups.
Between the end of the Speaker's Corner and Integrity's double feature of Out of the Box and Love Free Or Die, we learned that resolutions D002 and D019 were going to receive a joint hearing tomorrow at 2pm in the Ministry Committee.
With that knowledge, we came into the room packed for the double feature. Out of the Box had begun when I scooted into a free row to grab a seat. After sitting down I looked up and realized I was directly behind my bishop Tom Shaw who plays a prominent part in Love Free or Die. He turned around and grinned at my comment in Out of the Box about my decision to transition feeling like Christmas morning. I laughed out loud at the scene of him in the water fight. Seeing each of us up on the big screen was a little surreal. As Bishop Gene Robinson went on to say in the panel afterward, as difficult a time it is in the life of the church, it is also such an amazing, wondrous time. What a privilege to be part of this holy work of transformation.
So now at the end of this second full day in Indianapolis, we prepare for our hearing tomorrow. Please keep us all in your prayers, that minds would be clear and hearts be open.
- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge
The Reverend Dr. Tina Beardsley of Changing Attitude UK speaking at the Consultation Speaker's Corner
Panel for the film Voices of Witness: Out of the Box. From right to left: Bishop Gene Robinson, the Reverend Deacon Carolyn Woodall, the Reverend Dante Tavolaro, the Reverend Carla Robinson, the Reverend Cameron Partridge
Truth to the Table
From Historic Trans ENDA Testimony to the "Stalling" of a 2006 Antibullying Guide in MA
Today has been a historic day for transgender people in the U.S. Kylar Broadus, founder of the Trans People of Color Coalition, became the first openly transgender person to testify before the U.S. Senate. The subject of his testimony was the Federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act – ENDA — that has been stalled in Congress for several years now. At our last General Convention in 2009, The Episcopal Church passed resolutions D012 and C048, putting us on record in support of an ENDA inclusive of gender identity and expression as well as of sexual orientation.
In his testimony, video of which can be viewed here, and a transcript of which can be found here, Broadus spoke of his transition (from female to male) as well as his work history. Transition was for him "a matter of living the truth, and sharing the truth with the world, rather than living a lie and pretending to be somebody every day that I was not…. [I decided to] bring my full self to the table and to the world."
He explained that as he came into a fuller sense of himself in the late 1980s-early 1990s, his work attire gradually shifted from women's to men's business attire, and his haircut significantly shortened. His colleagues treated him well, but within six months of telling management of his decision to transition, he "was 'constructively discharged'…. While my supervisors could tolerate a somewhat masculine-appearing black woman, they were not prepared to deal with my transition to being a black man." He concluded stating, "it's devastating, demoralizing, and dehumanizing to be put in th[e] position" of being denied work because of being trans.
As it also emerged today, the same thing can be said for an anti-bullying guide produced under the Romney administration here in Massachusetts in 2006. The Boston Globe reported this morning: "Former governor Mitt Romney's administration in 2006 blocked publication of a state antibullying guide for Massachusetts public schools because officials objected to use of the terms 'bisexual' and 'transgender' in passages about protecting certain students from harassment, according to state records and interviews with current and former state officials." While at the time aides to the governor publicly attributed the delay to a standard review process, in fact an email from May, 2006 revealed otherwise: "Because this is using the terms 'bisexual' and 'transgendered,' DPH's name may not be used in this publication,'' wrote an official in the Department of Public Health.
In other words, the governor did not want to be associated with a guide for protecting youth who might grow up to be like Kylar Broadus, or any of the participants in Integrity's new video Voices of Witness: Out of the Box. Gay and lesbian youth might be one thing, but bisexual and transgender youth were something else entirely.
A year and a half removed from the devastating landslide of LGBT suicides last fall, that covert distancing and delay looks even more unconscionable. This afternoon Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley commented, "For the Romney administration to block a discussion on the impact of bullying on LGBT students was to fail to protect some of our most vulnerable children.''
As General Convention draws near, one of the major priorities of both TransEpiscopal and IntegrityUSA is for The Episcopal Church to pass a resolution on the problem of LGBT bullying. As Harry Knox recently reported, Integrity will be showing the film "Bullied" on July 8th. Today's Senate testimony and Globe stories underscore the urgency of this work, particularly for bi and trans people, that, as Broadus put it, all of us might be empowered to "liv[e] the truth and share [that] truth with the world."
- The Rev'd Dr. Cameron Partridge
Voices of Witness: Out of the Box
After years of planning, IntegrityUSA, in collaboration with TransEpiscopal, has created the documentary Voices of Witness: Out of the Box. As Integrity Director of Communications Louise Brooks has described it,
"'Voices of Witness: Out of the Box' is a groundbreaking documentary giving voice to the witness of transgender people of faith courageously telling their stories of hope, healing and wholeness.
"Gender identity and gender expression are issues that can easily be misunderstood and cannot be wrapped up in a neat little box. So the goal of "Out of the Box" was to answer some of the most frequently asked questions. We have been blessed by a truly amazing cloud of witnesses who shared their stories and their lives with us. It has been a privilege to work with them to take this project from a dream to a reality as we offer their voices of witness to the church and to the world." -- Louise Brooks, Executive Producer
As one of the participants in the film I see this as both an intersection and an opening. It is an intersection of trans people and church-- church as site of ongoing growth and striving, and potential source of empowerment. It is also an opening-- an opening for non-trans folks who have never seriously contemplated trans people before, an opening for trans people who have not been able to imagine church as an empowering communal space, and an opening even of trans narrative itself, a first fruits of a much larger process for all of us of listening to the variety of ways in which we identify and narrate our lives.
A huge thank you to IntegrityUSA, to the entire production team for Out of the Box, and particularly to Louise Brooks, for her incredible work on this beautiful documentary. Please share widely!
Making "all" mean "all" in the Diocese of San Joaquin
A post by Louise Brooks, cross-posted from the Walking with Integrity blog
Carolyn Louise Woodall got ordained last Saturday to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin -- smack dab in the middle of California's conservative Central Valley. There was no fanfare, there were no media and there were no protesters. I was there with a film crew to document the event for Integrity's VOICES OF WITNESS project entitled "Out Of The Box" -- celebrating the lives and witness of transgender Episcopalians.
As the service began we had our cameras ready when the Bishop asked "... if any of you know any impediment or crime because of which we should not proceed, come forward now, and make it known." We were ready … but no one came forward. It was the people's will that Carolyn be ordained and it was their will to uphold her in her ministry – and they said so, loud and clear. On the surface this was your typical ordinary ordination … but truth be told it was anything but.
As I sat in the tiny church watching this ordinary/extraordinary ordination unfold, I remembered my last trip to the Diocese of San Joaquin. It was five years ago – just after the then-sitting Bishop Schofield tried to take the diocese out of the Episcopal Church and become the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin: a schismatic response to the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same sex unions.
Bishop Schofield – arguably one of the most reactionary bishops in the Episcopal Church – would not ordain women to the priesthood and would not give communion to gay persons. People joked that he was more catholic than the Catholics – and when he became a bishop he added the name John to his birth-name David becoming Bishop John-David.
Four of us, LGBT leaders from the Diocese of Los Angeles, traveled the long Central Valley highway lined with citrus trees, table grapes, raisins, almond groves and other visually interesting crops, to meet with the Remain Episcopal team. They were the folks who stayed. And that day this faithful remnant of Episcopalians described to us the goals they had set for San Joaquin: to rebuild the diocese, to ordain women, to welcome and include all the strangers at the gate. And as I sat there in the pew in St. Anne's, Stockton at the ordination of Carolyn Louise Woodall, I was aware that they have come a long way in those five years. A very long way.
Carolyn Louise Woodall was born out of the box. "I had known I was different since I was four or five years old, I just didn't figure out the extent of my differences until much later in life. It isn't as if there weren't clues, it was just that I had gotten very good at denial. I never even heard the word 'transsexual' until college, and then I had a passing thought that it might apply to me, but quickly buried that thought. As time went on, however, the thought that I might be transsexual kept resurfacing and I continued to bury it as best I could."
But she couldn't bury it forever. "I could learn to live with it, start living as a woman, and move on with life or, I could kill myself. I decided on suicide that night. I sat there convinced of a couple of things. One was that I was an abomination before God. God made me male at birth and I would be unfaithful to God by changing that. Additionally, this was wrong. So was suicide, but that night I prayed that God would consider suicide the lesser sin and forgive me for what I was about to do."
Fate intervened and Carolyn was relieved." I quickly realized that I had been looking for a reason not to go through with it and was very glad I had found one."
Carolyn Woodall always loved the church. She sang in choirs from a young age and felt a call to ministry as early as she can remember. She entered the discernment process as a transgender woman and the Church received her call last Saturday.
She was ordained by one of the great champions of inclusion and giants of justice in the Episcopal Church: Bishop Chet Talton. Bishop Talton – who previously served as Bishop Suffragan in my diocese of Los Angeles so I can brag on him a bit -- has thrown down a gauntlet of welcome in the Diocese of San Joaquin: "Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself, you are welcome here." And they are.
Carolyn's ordination service was hosted by the Reverend Lyn Morlan, Rector of St. Anne's Church in Stockton. Five years ago she wouldn't have been licensed to serve in the Diocese of San Joaquin, let alone called to be the rector of a parish. And tears came to my eyes as I watched a gay couple come forward to the communion rail as I remembered the horror story of a another gay couple being turned away at the altar a few short years ago.
So here's my message to those who are discouraged and think the church is not moving fast enough: take heart, it is happening. Giants of justice like Bishop Chet Talton are making it happen. Integrity USA is making it happen. Each and every one of you is making it happen. We set audacious goals and we achieve incremental victories every day. Saturday's ordination of Carolyn Louise Woodall was surely an audacious victory in the Diocese of San Joaquin. And if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.
In Texas and Tallahassee; South Florida and South Carolina – and in all the other places where the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments is still a goal and not a reality. It's just a matter of time. We are at the tipping point. And we are in it to win it.
Many thanks to those brave leaders who didn't give up. To the Remain Episcopal folks who rebuilt a diocese. To Bishop Chet Talton for being the right shepherd in the right place at the right time. And especially to Deacon Carolyn Louise Woodall for modeling for us God's mission: to be your true and authentic self so you can have a true and authentic relationship with Him in order to call others into the circle of God's inclusive love.
Louise Brooks serves on Integrity's Board of Directors and is their Director of Communications. She is currently the Executive Producer of VOICES OF WITNESS: Out Of The Box....a video that celebrates the lives and witness of transgender Episcopalians. The DVD, complete with a study guide, will be released in May, 2012 as a gift to the church from Integrity.
Believing Out Loud in Orlando
Over the Columbus Day weekend, October 8-11, I attended the Believe Out Loud Power Summit in Orlando, Florida, representing TransEpiscopal and, together with Oasis California chair Tom Jackson and St. Aidan's San Francisco Rector Tommy Dillon, the Bay Area Oasis/Integrity community. It was an inspiring, empowering conference in which the transgender – and specifically TransEpiscopal – community was seen and heard…and welcomed as full participants. My participation was funded in good part by Integrity and Oasis and I am grateful to both.
The conference, sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Institute for Welcoming Resources, brought together 300 members of eight mainline denominations. These included:
– the ELCA's Lutherans Concerned;
– the UCC's Coalition for LGBT Concerns;
– "More Light" Presbyterians;
– Gay and Lesbian Affirming Disciples (GLAD) within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ);
– the United Methodists' Reconciling Ministries Network;
– the Welcoming Community Network of the Community of Christ;
– the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists; and
– our own Integrity
The goal of the conference was to exchange denominational experiences of resistance and success and to explore collective values, vision, and modes of collaboration with an eye to increasing the number of Believe Out Loud (i.e., welcoming) congregations and developing LGBT leadership within our faith communities. The conference also provided a golden opportunity for networking across denominational lines and, in our TransEpiscopal case, within Integrity and in the transgender caucus pulled together by Barbara Satin, Faith Work Associate of the NGLT's Institute for Welcoming Resources. I and my Bay Area Lutheran colleagues, for example, cemented our ties and undertook to build a closer working relationship.
The Integrity contingent numbered about 60 people, including the new Executive Director Max Niedzwiecki, President Rev. David Norgard, Stakeholders Council Chair Rev. Susan McCann, and the entire Stakeholders Council. As a representative of TransEpiscopal, I participated in the Sunday evening meeting of the Council and the Eucharist presided over by Susan McCann.
Based on the discussions at the stakeholders council meeting and one-on-one conversations with Max, Susan and others, it is clear that Integrity and TransEpiscopal are very much on the same wavelength concerning issues facing us at the 2012 General Convention. In particular, we are of the same mind concerning revisiting CO61 which would add gender identity/expression non-discrimination to the ordination canon. There was also great receptivity to ensuring that the work underway to collect new liturgies for blessing same-sex couples be broadened to include rites to mark major steps in gender transition.
The transgender presence was visible and welcomed at the Summit and two trans people participated in the general worship service. Eight people attended the Saturday evening transgender caucus, including one gender queer person and the father of child just beginning the FtM transition. There were several other trans/gender queer people at the Summit who, perhaps less ready to come out, chose not to attend the transgender caucus.
Much of the weekend was devoted to attending one of the four break-out sessions offered on campaigns, communications, leadership development, and – the one I and sixty others attended – "Barriers, Resistance, and Conflict." Spanning over nine hours in four sessions that stretched into the evenings, participants in the latter learned how to identify and deal with conflict and resistance in our congregations and the church at large. Though ample scope was given to differences in context and styles, emphasis was placed on graceful engagement.
Around the edges of the Summit, several organizations offered a variety of resources that might be helpful in congregational and denominational settings. Among those available from the NGLTF's Institute for Welcoming Resources (http://www.welcomingresources.org/) were the visually stunning "Shower of Stoles" of LGBT clergy; a half-hour DVD "So Great a Cloud of Witnesses;" and "TransAction," a down-loadable three-session "transgender curriculum for churches and religious institutions." The Family Diversity Project also offered four exhibits/books: Love Makes a Family: Portraits of LGBT People and Their Families; In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families; Pioneering Voices: Portraits of Transgender People; and We Have Faith: Portraits of LGBT Clergy. The Project seeks new faces and stories to add to these exhibits. They can be contacted at www.familydiv.org.
Looking to the future, the next major event of this sort will be "Practice Spirit, Do Justice," a national multi-faith gathering at the "Creating Change," the National Conference on LGBT Equality in Minneapolis, February 2-6, 2011. Information on that conference is at www.CreatingChange.org. Also worth noting is the ongoing National Religious Leadership Roundtable of the NGLTF. You can find out more by e-mailing Dave Noble at dnoble@thetaskforce.org.
For its part, Integrity will be sponsoring a series of one-day "Believe Out Loud" workshops around the country. Information is available at www.integrityusa.org. In the Bay Area, Oasis California (www.oasisca.org) will team up with Integrity to hold a one-day training session for "Believe Out Loud"/Welcoming Congregations at St. Paul's, Oakland on January 12. It is also planning a conference later in the year devoted to issues of aging in the LGBT community. Stay tuned.
In closing, it should be noted that the October 9-11 Believe Out Loud Power Summit in Orlando took place at a particularly difficult moment for the LGBT community, as news spread of the bullying, murders, and suicides that have afflicted our young people. Indeed, the uniformly positive media coverage of the conference focused on the reaction of conference participants to the horrible murders that had just unfolded in the Bronx. Typical was Orlando's WESH-TV interview with Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, the NGLTF's Faith Work Director (http://www.welcomingresources.org/videos.htm).
As Rev. Voelkel's colleague Darlene Nipper told USA Today, the New York murders were "heavy on the minds" of those gathered in Orlando and "touched us all." The names of the victims were read and silence observed at the opening worship October 9 and many participants recorded messages for the "It Gets Better" project.
And, thanks to the sort of solidarity exhibited in Orlando, it will get better!
- The Rev'd Dr. Vicki Gray
Coverage of Trans Gains at General Convention 2009
The following article, the first journalistic coverage of trans people and concerns in the Episcopal Church, was published in the Bay Area Reporter on August 26, 2009.
Episcopal Church adopts trans-inclusive policies
by Chuck Colbert
They were a party of eight, four transgender women, two transmen, a gay man, and straight woman ally. They told friends, "We're going to Anaheim," not too far away from Disneyland.
They were also change agents. By the end of their church's triennial gathering last month this band of sisters and brothers made Episcopalian history with the advent of trans-inclusive action and convention-floor testimony from a 19-year-old man believed to be the first openly transgender deputy.
"Members of TransEpiscopal made an incredible difference by giving incarnational witness to the "T" in LGBT and – in the process – moving the Episcopal Church further toward its goal of being a truly inclusive and welcoming church," said the Reverend Susan Russell of All Saints Church in Pasadena, California.
Russell is president of Integrity, the denomination's LGBT advocacy group.
Dedicated to spiritual enrichment and empowerment, TransEpiscopal ( http://blog.transepiscopal.com/) serves as a support and advocacy group for the denomination's transgender members and significant others, families, friends, and allies.
Altogether, the 2009 General Convention of the Episcopal Church, held July 8-17, adopted four resolutions. Two of them support enactment of civil sector anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation protecting transgender people at local, state, and federal levels.
Voting in separate legislative bodies, the House of Delegates and the House of Bishops, convention deputies – lay persons, clergy and bishops – also adopted two other resolutions, one adding "gender identity and expression" to its non-discrimination policy for hiring lay employees and another calling for the revision of church paper and electronic forms to allow a wider range of gender identifications.
Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of the California Episcopal Diocese, an outspoken advocate against Proposition 8 last year, enthusiastically supported all four trans-inclusive resolutions.
A fifth resolution, an effort to add "gender identity and expression" to the church's non-discrimination canons, or church laws, passed in one house and was amended in another house by striking various categories – for instance, race, age, and ethnicity, among others – and substituting "all people."
That move "puts us back to square one in explaining 'all really means all' to those who want to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, etc, etc, etc.," explained Russell. "So we opted to let the resolution die by not bringing it back to the floor of the first house for concurrence."
"Anyway," she added, "we'll come back around that one next time out. I am convinced that by doing the education in the next three years, it will get passed in both houses."
Nonetheless, the trans-inclusive steps already taken are a remarkable turnaround from the last triennial gathering.
"We're taking the 'T' out of LGBT and letting it stand alone," said Dante Tavolaro, a convention deputy and college student from Lincoln, Rhode Island. Three years ago, an effort failed to bring even one resolution out of committee, he explained.
This time, however, Tavolaro, along with straight ally Sarah Lawton and Massachusetts state Representative Byron Rushing, successfully co-authored two resolutions, both of which were adopted. Tavolaro even testified in favor of trans inclusion at a committee hearing, as well as on the floor of the House of Deputies.
"For the church to take [trans-inclusion] on in such a supportive way gives me hope that the church I love so much has in a very clear way said that it does care about me and what those in the larger society think and say," he said.
For secular society, Tavolaro added, "The church sends to the LGBT community such a wonderful message that we are an inclusive church, not perfect, but we're trying hard."
A self-described "overall church geek," Tavolaro has served in Episcopal parishes in music, youth, and acolyte ministries. This summer he is a staff member for vacation Bible school. Tavolaro is also considering – "discerning" in church language – a vocational call to the priesthood.
Comparatively speaking, the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, is not the first to advance trans-inclusive denominational policy. And yet, with the adoption of four transgender resolutions in Anaheim, the Episcopal Church, often considered a denominational bellwether, is now the largest American church to go officially pro-trans.
For a church "most people think of as the closest to mainstream Protestantism," said national transgender activist and Episcopalian Donna Cartwright of Baltimore, the Anaheim convention is a significant development for the transgender community.
"It tells [us] that our stories and journeys can be honored in a religious way," said Cartwright, who was part of the eight-person group in Anaheim. "The body that grappled with sexual orientation is now doing so with gender identity. There is a path for all of us to full acceptance in the body of Christ."
By comparison, the United Church of Christ at its 2003 General Synod passed a lengthy resolution in support of transgender people. In 2007, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations adopted two trans-inclusive resolutions at its General Assembly.
Two years ago, Reform Judaism included several prayers for sanctifying the sex-change process in its publication "Kalanu," (Hebrew for "all of us.") First published in 1996, the original version of "Kalanu" was a 150-page collection of texts and resources for gay and lesbian inclusion. The 2007 update is comprehensively expanded, including liturgy for same-sex union ceremonies, a divorce document for same-sex couples, and a prayer for coming out.
Meanwhile, back in Anaheim, the power of personal story – its ability to transform abstract concepts like gender identity and expression into concrete human reality – seemed to win over hearts and minds.
"What blew me away," said the Reverend Cameron Partridge, a transgender priest and TransEpiscopal leader, "was how many people came out of the woodwork. More people are connected to the transgender community than one might imagine."
As Partridge, originally from the Bay Area, now serving as vicar of a Boston parish, explained further, "When we brought up the [resolutions] people stepped forward to say, 'My neighbor is trans, or my son or daughter is.' In other cases, and random places, people came forward and told me, 'I am so glad that you testified at that committee hearing. I would never have thought about [transgender concerns] before.'"
In sum, Cameron, another among the party of eight, added, "People were amazing."
For straight ally and convention deputy Lawton, gender identity and expression is all in the family. Her sister is a transgender woman, and Lawton spoke to delegates from the convention floor for two minutes, telling some of her sister's story.
"When someone comes out transgender in a family," Lawton said recently during a telephone interview, everyone "goes through a process. I know that my parish church was helpful to me in my own transition because you have to go through this as a family."
St. John's the Evangelist, located in San Francisco's Mission District, Lawton went on to say, "offered me as well as my sister pastoral support. I know how helpful that was. I rejoice in how much progress we made at this convention through education and visibility, and in raising our voices in welcome."
A Trans Perspective on General Convention 2009
CONCERNING EXPECTATIONS
Last year, before I journeyed to Canterbury for the Lambeth Conference, I wrote of my low expectations for that every-ten-year gathering of the Anglican Communion's bishops. Upon my return, I reported in sadness how it had lived down to my expectations.
In truth my expectations for the every-three-year General Convention of the Episcopal Church – our 76th – were not much higher. Indeed, given the tension and, among some, anger surrounding BO33, a 2006 resolution promising "restraint" on same-sex unions and the consecration of gay bishops, and the threats since by the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning our membership in the Anglican Communion, I was not the only one who feared an explosion of one sort or another this July in Anaheim.
That explosion never occurred. Instead, both the House of Deputies and House of Bishops passed by overwhelming majorities of two-to-one a positive, forward-looking resolution – DO25 – that allowed BO33 to fade into the mists of a fearful past, boldly stated the inclusive truth of the current consensus within the church, and charted a course for moving forward in continuing fealty to the Anglican Communion.
Against that background, the goals and expectations of the transgender community, of which I am a member, paled in comparison. As we gathered two blocks from Disneyland, we probably were not even on the horizon of most deputies and bishops. The hope of our nascent transgender organization – TransEpiscopal – was simple and modest. Of the four trans-specific resolutions originally submitted, our hope was that one would make it to the floor of the House of Deputies where discussion of it would lead to recognition of our existence and begin an education process around the issues that confront us on a daily basis.
Our little team of eight, embedded in the larger and very supportive Integrity team, succeeded, however, beyond our wildest dreams.
What follows is my attempt to chronicle what happened and to describe my feelings as events unfolded and, now, in their warm afterglow.
PUTTING TOGETHER A TEAM AND A PROGRAM
This adventure started for us in the chill of February. Communicating through the spring by e-mail and conference calls, we tracked the several resolutions being submitted by dioceses and obtained the support of non-trans allies such as Sarah Lawton and Byron Rushing, coordinated our efforts with key LGBT advocacy groups such as Integrity and the Consultation, produced a brochure to hand out at convention and elsewhere, raised money, divided up tasks at convention, and steeled ourselves for the unknown.
And there was a lot that was unknown, for this would be the first time that there would be a visible, vocal transgender presence at a general convention. Would anyone notice? Would anyone care? Would there be a hostile backlash?
There were eight of us and we were, despite our common cause, amazingly diverse. We were five trans women, two trans men, and a gay male ally; three priests, one deacon, and four lay people; and one of our number, Dante Tavalaro, a 19-year-old layman, would be the first trans deputy in the House of Deputies. We hailed, moreover, from every corner of the country – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, and, yes, California – and spanned the age spectrum from nineteen to seventy.
We also brought to the task a variety of skills that included expertise with computers and audio/visual equipment, writing, editing (the New York Times no less), and labor organizing. Leadership flowed rather naturally to The Rev. Cameron Partridge, a Massachusetts priest, ably assisted by Donna Cartwright, the editor/organizer from Baltimore and The Rev. Michelle Hansen, a retired priest from Connecticut. All three had been at earlier conventions and educated the rest of us on the ins and outs of the sometimes arcane legislative process.* Cam and I had also shared the experience of Lambeth last year and, with Michelle, the Pacific School of Religion's Transgender Religious Summit in Berkeley the year before.
And so we left our homes and families, telling our friends: "I'm going to Disneyland!"
HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING
Our arrivals were only slightly staggered with all of us on the ground for the start of the convention. The only one to drive, I arrived about 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 7, joining up with the others between an ongoing meeting of the National and International Affairs Committee (which had two of our resolutions) and a regular 10:00 p.m. meeting of the Integrity team. The latter, a Lambeth reunion of sorts, was followed by the first of a dozen or so meetings of our TransEpiscopal team.
At that first meeting, we divided assignments for testimony before the two committees that would be hearing our resolutions. The World Missions Committee would, we learned, consider our resolutions on Canon revisions opening up access to the ordination process to the transgendered (i.e., prohibiting exclusion of the basis of gender identity or expression)…and it would do so at 7:30 the next morning.
Getting back to my Travelodge room around midnight, I scribbled some notes on a yellow legal pad and, falling into a bed that would become familiar, enjoyed the sleep of exhaustion.
Four of us testified the next morning – Wednesday. It was the first act in a whirlwind of sixteen-hour days that soon became a blur – 7:00 a.m. committee meeting, bagel, 9:30 House of Deputies and House of Bishops meetings, Eucharist, a hot dog in the exhibit hall food court, 2:00 p.m. meetings of the two houses, 7:00 p.m. committee meeting, a veggie Panini at the Courtyard, 10:00 p.m. Integrity team meeting, 11:00 p.m. TransEpiscopal meeting to lay out plans for the next day. For Cameron, who also had responsibilities with Integrity and the Consultation, whilst all the while blogging non-stop, the schedule was even more intense.
In the "breaks," there were opportunities to lobby potential allies, to meet folks at the Integrity booth, to make new friends, and to just soak in the Spirit that permeated the place, the people, the proceedings. Whatever exhaustion had crept in evaporated in the growing exhilaration. Running into House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson between meetings, I could honestly answer "Yes!" – to which I added a hug and a "Thank you" - when she asked "Are you having fun?"
And it soon became apparent that our decision to be in place for the start of convention was a wise one, for it was a very much front-loaded affair with regard to the resolutions we had put forward. Already the second morning, for example, we found ourselves testifying before the National and International Affairs Committee which had on its plate our resolutions on hate crimes and employment non-discrimination. The next mornings and evenings were devoted to following the discussion of the resolutions by the two committees.
Chaired by Bishop John Chane of Washington and including around the table familiar faces like Integrity's Louie Crew and California's Sarah Lawton and Bishop Marc Andrus, the National and International Affairs Committee seemed the more simpatico of the two groups. It was an impression reinforced by the nods and smiles that greeted our testimony. Despite a mild hiccup concerning the addition of "disability" to the list of protected classes in the resolutions under consideration and the perception of some that that might imply that LGBT people suffered from some disability, both resolutions passed with overwhelming majorities.
It was also clear that the World Missions Committee was an unlikely one to be asked to consider BO33 and our transgender resolutions. The rationale for the assignments seemed to be that BO33 related to relations with the Anglican Communion and that transgender issues related to BO33. That said, some members of the committee found their task awkward and unfamiliar and an early attempt was made to fob off our resolutions to the Commission on Canons…a move that would have been very understandable. The Chair, Gay Jennings, pointed out, however, that to do so would mean bumping our trans issues to the end of the line of a long list of issues facing Canons and losing them in the rush of last minute business as they were in 2006. "We have been dealt these issues," she insisted, "and it is up to us to deal with them."
And deal with them they did…in a movingly thoughtful and spiritual manner. There was, to be sure, considerable misunderstanding about what it means to be transgendered and the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation. One bishop, for example, objected that there was no need for our resolution CO61, since "Sexual orientation is already in the canon." In response, Ian Douglas gave one of the clearest explanations of the differences between identity and orientation, stressing the relational aspect of the latter. (Thanking him two days later, I added that even I, a transgendered person, had learned from what he said.)
Bottom line, the resolution passed 19-8 among the deputies, with the four bishops voting "No," and, indeed, was strengthened by adding upfront words to the effect that all are welcome.
As our team drifted out into the hallway to take a celebratory breath and plan next steps, we were joined by the committee's Michael Barlowe, tears behind his eyes, who spoke of how the Spirit had moved in the room we had just left. He then relayed a request from the chair for a list of authoritative definitions that could be handed out in the House of Deputies and a brief statement she could make in presenting the resolution to the House. We readily agreed to take on the task. In the course of the next hours, our Donna Cartwright obtained from Lisa Motet of the Washington office of the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force a list of definitions on NLGTF letterhead and Cameron Partridge produced the desired statement. With a helpful addition by Michael Barlowe, it was used by Gay Jennings in introducing the resolution.
Entering the third day, we had already exceeded our pre-conference goals – three resolutions would make it to the floor of the House of Deputies and two more, introduced by Dante Tavolaro, were wending their way through the committees. The latter concerned non-discrimination in the hiring of lay employees and making ordination forms less gender particular. Time to take a deep breath, savor the moment, and prepare to track what we had wrought.
THE SPIRIT TAKES WING
Literally! Taking a seat for the first time in the visitors' gallery of the House of Deputies, I was amazed by the solitary pigeon (aka dove) that hovered over the deputies, continuing to fly about the hall the next several days. And, it became clear, the Spirit was stirring not only above, but within the deputies.
First came the overwhelming 2-1 vote for DO25, the action on which then moved to the House of Bishops. Meanwhile those of us in TransEpiscopal awaited in tense anticipation the introduction in the House Deputies of our trans-specific resolutions, the first of which would be DO12 on hate crimes legislation. We waited and waited…and waited through the afternoon of Monday, July 13. Getting the impression that it would not be brought up till the next morning and hearing that the bishops were in the midst of the historic debate on DO25, Donna and I made our way upstairs to the House of Bishops…arriving just in time to hear the impassioned intervention of Rochester's Bishop Singh who spoke of how the church had been planted and prospered in India among the untouchables, the outcasts. Soon thereafter the vote began. Of all the votes, the one that rang clearest to my ears was the crisp, unwavering "Aye!" of the Presiding Bishop.
The deed was done, the final vote being 99-33. It was as if a festering boil had been lanced. One could feel the tension, the fear, the pain leave the room, leave the church. The doors opened and the people rushed out, too, making their way – in silence – down the long, steep escalator. Bishop Steven Charleston and I shared a silent, smiling high five as he stepped onto its moving corrugated metal.
Making my own way down to the lobby, I made my way back to the House of Deputies, there to learn that our resolution DO12 on hate crimes and violence had made it to the floor and that Dante, Sarah Lawton, and Michael Barlowe had spoken movingly on behalf of it, as had several others. While the omens were good, the vote had been taken by orders and the results, therefore, would not be made known till the next morning.
Sarah, Michael, and other members of the California delegation were in the midst of an impromptu celebration at the back of the hall. It was a moveable feast that made is way through the lobbies of the Convention Center and Hilton and up a freight elevator to Bishop Marc's seventh floor hospitality suite. From there I caught a glimpse in the distance of Disneyland and its Matterhorn – as close as I would get – as the celebrating gave way to planning the next day's and, indeed, the evening's legislative work.
For my part, I had planned to leave first thing the next morning to begin my journey home by way of a visit with my mother-in-law in Ojai. I could not, however, leave without returning to the House of Deputies the next morning to learn the vote. DO12 passed overwhelmingly! The tears welled up. Getting up to leave, I was exchanging farewell hugs with my transgender sisters and brothers, when Dante and World Missions Chair Gay Jennings rushed from the floor to join us. Squeezing out a feeble "Thank You," I turned and walked through a now silent lobby and, stopping only long enough to share my joy with three new deacons, traced a well-worn path to the Travelodge…my car…and home.
I was home a day on Friday when I got the telephoned news from Cam that the bishops had passed DO12 following what Episcopal Life called a "lively debate" – a debate that included supportive statements by Cam's Bishop Tom Shaw and my Bishop Marc Andrus.
At home I also learned that our resolutions on ENDA, on non-discrimination in the hiring of transgedender lay employees, and on making church forms more trans-friendly had also been approved with flying colors. I learned, however, that there had been a long and contentious debate about changing Canon III concerning ordinations (our original CO61). The bishops could not bring themselves to add gender identity or expression to the list of classes that could not be excluded from the ordination process. Instead, by a very split vote, they eliminated any mention of any specific group and bounced back to the World Missions Committee and thence to the House of Deputies a resolution that opened the ordination process to "all baptized Christians." With TranEpiscopal's support, that was voted down in the House of Deputies in the hope that three years hence, after further education, we might succeed in getting "gender identity or expression" added explicitly to the canon.
Despite this last minute disappointment, we succeeded in getting four trans-important resolutions passed and the canon change is now on our horizon and the bishops' radar screens. Above all we incarnated an otherwise abstract issue and educated a broad spectrum of the church about the reality of our lives. I have little doubt that, by continuing a visible presence in the councils of the church and ramping up our education efforts, we will, three years hence in Indianapolis, complete the job of fully including transgendered people in the life of the church.
A SPECIAL EUCHARIST
This has been an important, inspiring start for TransEpiscopal and, as we look forward to Indianapolis and beyond, it is worth noting a little noticed Eucharist held in a small Integrity meeting room at the Courtyard Marriott the evening of Saturday, July 10.
Seeking to mark the departure the next morning of one of our team members Gari Green, we decided to hold a first Transgender Eucharist at General Convention. We were encouraged by our Integrity allies, especially Jim Toy, who recalled the first Integrity Eucharist in 1988 attended in just such a room by a handful of people.
And so we gathered – about twenty of us. Gari, assisted by Cam and Michelle, presided, I served as deacon, and Donna read the first lesson. In lieu of a sermon, everyone in the room reflected on the experience of the previous few days and the importance of what had already transpired to their own spiritual lives and to that of the church. We then formed a circle and passed the bread and cup to each other…one bread, one cup, one family.
Of all the splendid Eucharists that graced convention, including the Integrity Eucharist that had grown to 1,500 people, this was the one I will remember most. It is a memory I have carried home and will carry with me the rest of my life. It is a special memory of a time and place in which our lives became more fully a part of the life of the church and an earnest that that communion will become fuller still.
- the Rev'd Deacon Vicki Gray
*actually, in 2009 only Donna Cartwright had been to a previous General Convention (2006)
Concluding Press Conference Comments on Transgender Related Resolutions
At the conclusion of the 76th General Convention, Neva Rae Fox, Program Officer of the Office of Public Affairs at the Episcopal Church Center, led the final press conference. Answering questions were the President of the House of Deputies, Dr. Bonnie Anderson, the Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, the Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno.
I was very grateful to Integrity USA for using one of their two questions to ask the panel about the historic passage of transgender specific resolutions.
The video of the press conference [was originally] embedded in the below post with TransEpiscopal's and Integrity's press releases, but because the trans question was the penultimate one, and because I have found the video difficult to scroll through, I have transcribed the question and responses below.
Rachel Swan with Integrity USA. I'm wondering if any of you—all of you—can comment on the passage of the resolutions that deal with advocacy for transgender people, kind of a first for our church.
Neva Rae Fox: Thank you. Bishop Bruno?
Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno:
Well, transgender people are part of the congregations in this diocese, and they're part of the world community. And it's a good thing that we're dealing with this openly. We need to talk about the fact that humanity is different wherever you go, and that we are all called to be loved as children of God, and dealt with, with equity and love.
Dr. Bonnie Anderson:
Let me just add that in the House of Deputies we had testimony from transgender persons. It was very moving. It was very well received in the House of Deputies. I believe that it helped us to see and learn about that particular way of being. We welcomed that and did pass resolutions to include all people, including transgender persons.
"Naming, Naming is Very Important"
Cameron Partridge, Donna Cartwright, and Michelle Hansen confer with Bishops Barbara Harris and Tom Shaw. General Convention, 2009. Photo by Jon Richardson
An unbelievable four trans-positive resolutions passed at this General Convention. Two of them (D090 and D032) have been mentioned in earlier blog posts. But what happened with D012 and C048 in the House of Bishops? In the rush of Convention's completion, grabbing a moment to give a detailed report on the unfolding of their passage proved impossible.
Just to be clear about their distinctions, D012 put the Episcopal Church on record in a broad support of non-discrimination and hate-crimes legislation at municipal, state, and federal levels. C048 spoke to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) currently pending in Congress. Both of these resolutions passed, but in different ways.
I had expected D012, which passed resoundingly in the House of Deputies earlier in the week, to come up in the House of Bishops on Thursday, but that didn't happen. This made me worry it could slip through the cracks, as some legislation can in the massive crunch of this ten-day event. After the bishops' session ended on Thursday, I approached my bishop, Tom Shaw, to ask if he might be able to help me locate it. He connected me with Bishop Johnson of West Tennessee who represented the official Dispatch of Business committee for the House of Bishops (the House of Deputies has a parallel person). Bishop Johnson took me to the office of the Secretariat of the House of Bishops, where I ran into two fellow Bryn Mawr graduates, one of whom was working for the office. We took a picture of ourselves in our bemusement. With the help of this office and the parallel office of House of Deputies and Bishop, we found the crack into which the resolution had fallen. And so, after some extra running around, D012 came up during the morning session of the House of Bishops on the last day of the Convention.
As it so happened, I was out of the room when the debate began, and I now know from viewing the notes of my fellow Integrity Legislative Team tracker, that my own bishop Tom Shaw spoke first in support. I so wish I could have heard that. As I walked in, Bishop Love of the Diocese of Albany was speaking against the resolution. He had no issue with the nondiscrimination language, but wanted to remove the language of "hate crimes." His concern was that preaching against particular "lifestyles" on moral grounds could be construed as a hate crime. He did not, however, move an amendment.
Bishop Marc Andrus spoke strongly in favor of the resolution, as he had with C061. He began by emphasizing how this resolution differed from C061. This was about basic civil rights for transgender people—nondiscrimination in the workplace, access to education and public accommodation, extra resources to law enforcement when investigating a hate crime. He spoke of the vulnerability of transgender people to job loss and violence. He was impassioned and eloquent. Bishop Andrus has been such an amazing ally throughout this Convention.
Bishop Barbara Harris, retired suffragan bishop of Massachusetts and one of my personal heroes, then spoke in favor of the resolution. She underscored the vulnerability of trans people to violence and in particular the high death rate around the globe.
Bishop Catherine Roskam of New York then spoke in favor of the resolution, including the hate crimes language, arguing that it was important for this resolution to have that specific language because of the profound vulnerability of trans people. She went on to say she knew from personal experience that this was not only an issue in the United States but also around the Anglican Communion. She had visited a congregation in India that has a partner relationship with a congregation in her diocese. This Indian congregation has a ministry to transgender people there, and she knows from visiting that they too are a vulnerable population. I have heard of this congregation and its relationship and was so glad to hear the bishop bring it to the House's attention.
Bishop Catherine Waynick of Indianapolis then rose to speak in support of D012. She began by saying that she had felt some tension within herself about the way their previous discussion of C061 had used the term "all." "All" does not means "all" to everyone. There was a time, she said, when we thought the word "mankind" meant everyone. Except we all knew when it didn't. We need to be specific, she said.
Bishop Otis Charles, retired bishop of Utah, then spoke in favor of the resolution. He spoke as an openly gay man, having come out in recent years, after his retirement. From that perspective he underscored both the vulnerability and invisibility of trans people. He called on people to ask themselves what and whom they fail to see. He told of a time when he was dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, when a student had requested not to sing a particular hymn in the chapel. He had no idea what could be wrong with the hymn, only to realize as they went ahead and sang it that it was riddled with masculine pronouns. He had not previously been able to see to what made student object. "I know in myself I have been blind, and naming, naming is very important," he concluded.
Bishop Charles turned out to be the last speaker. I have no doubt that Bishop Gene Robinson also would have spoken in support, as he did with C061, but he was in bed with a terrible fever for two days, and could not be present.
At this point, someone called the question, and a vote was held. It was nearly unanimous — I could only hear one "no."
In my notes, I wrote "THANK GOD!!!"
After the session ended, Donna and I tried to personally thank everyone who had spoken in favor of the resolution, as well as others who had helped us in various ways along the road. I thanked Bishop Shaw and Bishop Barbara Harris, as well as my suffragan bishops, Gayle Harris and Bud Cederholm, for their support. Donna thanked bishops she has known from her time in the Diocese of Newark. We looked for Bishop Andrus, who was so very supportive throughout the Convention, but we missed him. We thanked Bishops Charles, Roskam and Waynick, as well as Bishop Chane of Washington D.C. who co-chaired the committee from which this resolution emerged. I was particularly moved when he spontaneously gave us a hug.
After descending the escalators once more, Donna handed me notes for the beginnings of a press release, which I completed later in the day. We then gave each other a big hug before Donna headed off to the airport. Donna is the one who got TransEpiscopal going after beginning to connect with other transgender Episcopalians in 2004, including some who had been involved in previous General Conventions, and this Convention marks a huge milestone in these efforts.
I was even happier to be able to leave her a voicemail later in the afternoon, letting her know that C048, the ENDA resolution, passed the House of Bishops without any further discussion. That marked the fourth and final transgender related resolution to pass at the 76th General Convention.
There was one last stressful moment before it was all over for this triennium, however—a coda of sorts. Resolution C061, as you may recall, had passed by a respectable margin in the House of Deputies, only to be transformed in the House of Bishops a day later. Not only had the language of "gender identity and expression" been taken out of the proposed addition to the nondiscrimination canon, but all the categories already listed in the canon were now threatened if the House of Deputies concurred. Our fear was that there might be some confusion in the House of Deputies about what they should do. We tried to get the word out that our preference was for them not to concur, so that the resolution would essentially die and we could try to add the trans-inclusive language again in three years.
Because the Deputies worked so efficiently, the resolution did indeed come back up in the late afternoon, just before the Convention drew to a close. I didn't get down the escalator in time to hear the debate but learned that Dante Tavolaro had spoken and clarified our position about the resolution. I also understand that, among other speakers, at least one spoke in favor of concurrence. But the Deputies thankfully did not vote that way.
And that marked the end of our General Convention saga.
(with thanks to Deniray Mueller of Integrity's Legislative team for allowing me to check my notes against hers, and to Jon Richardson, also of the legislative team, for the photo of TE folks with Bishops Shaw and Harris)
Anaheim, CA (July 17, 2009): For the first time in its history, the Episcopal Church has taken official actions in support of transgender civil rights and inclusion at its 76th General Convention.
"It was a true privilege to participate in the legislative process of this Church, to bear witness to transgender lives and experiences, and to urge the Episcopal Church to fully include and to stand in solidarity with us," commented the Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, a member of TransEpiscopal and Integrity USA. "I am thrilled to be able to say that the General Convention voted overwhelmingly to put the Episcopal Church on record in support of such legislation as the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act and the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, and analogous efforts at municipal and state levels. But I am even more moved to say how many people spontaneously shared with us how their eyes have been opened, their hearts turned, by our presence and stories here. To have someone stop me in a coffee line to say, 'I had never thought about this issue before, and I'm going to take what I have learned here and share it with my little congregation in the Ozarks' means more than I can say."
Today the Convention completed approval of resolutions supporting the enactment of anti-discrimination and hate crimes legislation protecting transgender people at local, state and federal levels. The House of Deputies passed these resolutions overwhelmingly on Wednesday, and the House of Bishops then approved these resolutions today in near-unanimous votes.
These actions took place as the United States Congress debates both the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act and the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which respectively address hate crimes and discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, and disability as well as gender identity and expression.
Testifying in hearings at various levels of the Convention were representatives of the organizations TransEpiscopal and Integrity USA, including the Episcopal Church's first openly transgender Deputy, Dante Tavolaro of Rhode Island.
In addition to today's actions, earlier this week the Convention approved two other transgender related resolutions. The first adds "gender identity and expression" to its nondiscrimination policy for hiring lay employees, while the second calls for the revision of church paper and electronic forms to allow a wider range of gender identifications.
"As we celebrate this moment and give thanks for the amazing allies walking with us, particularly Integrity USA and the Consultation, we look forward to progressing further toward full inclusion of transgender people —and, indeed, all people -- in all areas of ministry in The Episcopal Church."
Contacts: Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge at cepart@yahoo.com
Rev. Michelle Hansen at hansen_michelle@sbcglobal.net
And see our blog coverage of Convention at blog.transepiscopal.com
****************************************************************************************
From Integrity USA
ANAHEIM, CA (July 17, 2009)--The Episcopal Church turned an important corner at this General Convention and Integrity applauds the hard, faithful work of the bishops and deputies who brought us closer to the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments. We came to this convention committed to moving the church beyond B033 and forward on equality for the blessing of same-sex unions--and we are beyond gratified that we have realized both of those goals.
Thirty three years after promising a "full and equal claim" to the gay and lesbian baptized, the Episcopal Church has affirmed equal access to ordination processes for all orders of ministry for all the baptized, has approved a broad local option for the blessings of our relationships, and has called the church to work together toward common liturgical expressions of those blessings.
It is a great day for the church and a greater day for the witness to God's inclusive love.
"While Integrity's advocacy work is not yet done," said Integrity President Susan Russell, "the actions here in Anaheim liberate us to get on with our evangelism work--proclaiming the good news of an Episcopal Church that welcomes not only LGBT people looking for a spiritual home but ALL those seeking a faith community that shares their core values of justice, compassion, inclusion, and love."
"We celebrate this historic movement forward and we commit ourselves to this church we love and serve to continue to witness to the good news of Christ Jesus present in our lives, our vocations, and our relationships. We call others to 'come and see' what we have found and seen and experienced in the Episcopal Church."
"Integrity applauds the hard work of all our allies in this struggle and lifts up particularly the witness of our TransEpiscopal colleagues whose courageous work at this convention has been truly extraordinary. We look forward to working with all our allies as we move forward together into God's future, giving thanks for the good work here in Anaheim that has brought us closer to that church with 'no outcasts' to which former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning called us.
Louise Brooks, Director of Communications, tvprod@earthlink.net, (626) 993-4605
77th General Convention
Allston/Brighton
Anglican Communion Listening Process
Anglican Comprehensiveness
Anglican Primates Dar Es Salaam Communiqué
Anti Trans Violence
Anti-trans Violence
Archbishop Of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Author Anderson C.
Author: Bear
Author: Cameron Partridge
Author: Charley Labonte
Author: Christina Beardsley
Author: Dante Tavolaro
Author: Donna Cartwright
Author: Gari Green
Author: Gwen Fry
Author: Iain Stanford
Author: Jim Toy
Author: Kit Wang
Author: Kori Pacyniak
Author: Liz
Author: Louise Brooks
Author: Meredith Bacon
Author: Mia Nikasimo
Author: Michelle Hansen
Author: Penny Larson
Author: Sarah Lawton
Author: Shelly Fayette
Author: Teal Van Dyck
Author: Vicki Gray
B012 2018
Baptismal Covenant
Bishop Barbara Harris
Bishop Bill Swing
Bishop Bud Cederholm
Bishop Catherine Roskam
Bishop Catherine Waynick
Bishop Chet Talton
Bishop Dabney Smith
Bishop Dorsey Henderson
Bishop Duncan Gray
Bishop Gene Robinson
Bishop Geralyn Wolf
Bishop Ian Douglas
Bishop J. Clark Grew
Bishop John Chane
Bishop Jon Bruno
Bishop Larry Benfield
Bishop Marc Andrus
Bishop Mark Beckwith
Bishop Mark Lawrence
Bishop Mary Glasspool
Bishop Otis Charles
Bishop Prince Singh
Bishop Samuel Howard
Bishop Steven Charleston
Bishop Tom Shaw
Bishop William Love
Blackburn Motion
Brandon Teena
C001 2009
C001-2009
Cameron Partridge
Camp Aranu'tiq
Cathedral Church Of St. Paul
Chanelle Pickett
Changing Attitude Nigeria
Chris Ashley
Church Of The Advocate
Complementarianism
D002 2012
D012-2009
Dallas Transgender Advocates And Allies
Damien De Veuster
Dante Tavolaro
Davis Mac-Iyalla
Debra Forte
Diatesseron
Diocese Of Arkansas
Diocese Of California
Diocese Of Connecticut
Diocese Of Los Angeles
Diocese Of Massachusetts
Diocese Of New York
Diocese Of San Joaquin
Donna Cartwright
Drew Phoenix
Easter Embodiment
ELCA New England Synod
Elizabeth Clark
Episcopal Divinity School
Eunuchs
Families Of Trans People
Family Diversity Project
Fringe Festivals
Gendered Language
Gender Neutral Restrooms
Gwen Araujo
Harvard Divinity School
Hawaii HB 546
Hinge Days
House Of Deputies
Indaba Groups
Institute For Welcoming Resources
Integrity Eucharist
IntegrityUSA
Interfaith Coalition For Transgender Equality
Iowa Equal Marriage
Jendi Reiter
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Jim Toy
Kintsukuroi
Kylar Broadus
Labor Organizing
Lay Ministry
LGBTQ Africans
LGBTQ Anglicans
Liminality
Louie Crew
Lutherans Concerned North America
Maryland HB 235
Massachusetts HB 1722
Massachusetts HB 1728/SB 1687
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Michelle Kosilek
Myra Chanel Ical
Name Change In Church Records
Name Change Liturgy
Narrativity
National Transgender Discrimination Survey
Oasis California
Other Sheep
Parents Of Trans People
Passion Narratives
Prayer Book Revision
President Of The House Of Deputies Bonnie Anderson
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Public Accomodations
Queer Youth
Reign Of God
Remain Episcopal
Renaming Service
Rhiannon O'Donnabhain
Rita Hester
Same Sex Blessings
San Francisco Night Ministry
Sarah Lawton
Sedementation
Sexuality Debates
Sexual Minorities Uganda
Side-wound
Sonia Burgess
St. Anne's
Stephanie Spellers
St. Luke's And St. Margaret's Allston
St. Martin In The Fields
TDOR
The Briggs Initiative
The Honorable Byron Rushing
The Laramie Project
The Philadelphia Eleven
The Rev'd David Weekley
The Rev'd Deacon Carolyn Woodall
The Rev'd Deacon Vicki Gray
The Rev'd Dr. Christina Beardsley
The Rev'd Drew Phoenix
The Rev'd Gari Green
The Rev'd Gay Clark Jennings
The Rev'd Gwen Fry
The Rev'd Junia Joplin
The Rev'd Michael Barlowe
The Rev'd Paul Washington
The Rev'd Susan Russell
The Sibyls
The Task Force
Transafro
Trans Civil Rights
Trans Clergy
TransEpiscopal Eucharist
Transgender Faith Leaders
Transgender Moment
Transgender Non Discrimination
Transgender Non-discrimination
Trans Inclusion
Trans Justice
Trans Lesbian
TransLutherans
Trans Medical Care
Trans Misogyny
Trans Narratives
Trans Ordination
Trans Ordinations
Trans People Of Faith
Trans Representation In Media
Trans Sermons
Trans Spirituality
Trans Studies
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Sacramento
Trump Gender Memo
UMC General Conference
UUA
Vendela Vida
Vermont Equal Marriage
Viktor Juliet Mukasa
Voices Of Witness Africa
Voices Of Witness Out Of The Box
Welcome One Another Fellowship
Women Bishops
Women's Ordination
World Mission Committee


text:
package mealplaner.gui.tabbedpanes.ingredientsedit;

import static java.text.MessageFormat.format;
import static java.util.Optional.empty;
import static java.util.stream.Collectors.toList;
import static javax.swing.JOptionPane.YES_OPTION;
import static mealplaner.commons.BundleStore.BUNDLES;
import static mealplaner.commons.gui.GridPanel.gridPanel;
import static mealplaner.commons.gui.inputfields.ComboBoxTextInputField.inputField;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

import mealplaner.commons.gui.GuiPanel;
import mealplaner.commons.gui.inputfields.InputField;
import mealplaner.model.recipes.Ingredient;

final class ReplaceIngredientDialog {
  private ReplaceIngredientDialog() {
  }

  public static Optional<Ingredient> showReplaceDialog(JFrame frame,
      List<Ingredient> ingredients,
      Ingredient ingredient) {

    InputField<String> ingredientField = createInputFieldWithAutoComplete(ingredients, ingredient, 0);
    GuiPanel optionPanel = gridPanel(1, 2);
    ingredientField.addToPanel(optionPanel);

    int result = showDialogForEitherNotDeletingOrReplacing(frame, optionPanel);

    // YES_OPTION == first button pressed
    return result == YES_OPTION ? empty() : findReplacingIngredient(ingredients, ingredientField);
  }

  private static InputField<String> createInputFieldWithAutoComplete(
      List<Ingredient> ingredients, Ingredient ingredient, int orderNumber) {
    List<String> ingredientAlternatives = ingredients.stream()
        .map(Ingredient::getName)
        .collect(toList());
    return inputField(
        format(BUNDLES.message("replaceIngredient"), ingredient.getName()),
        "ReplacingIngredient",
        ingredients.isEmpty() ? "" : ingredients.get(0).getName(),
        ingredientAlternatives, orderNumber);
  }

  private static int showDialogForEitherNotDeletingOrReplacing(JFrame frame, GuiPanel optionPanel) {
    Object[] options = { BUNDLES.message("donotDeleteIngredientButton"),
        BUNDLES.message("replaceIngredientButton") };
    return JOptionPane.showOptionDialog(frame,
        optionPanel.getComponent(),
        BUNDLES.message("replaceIngredientDialogTitle"),
        JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION,
        JOptionPane.QUESTION_MESSAGE,
        null,
        options,
        options[0]);
  }

  private static Optional<Ingredient> findReplacingIngredient(List<Ingredient> ingredients,
      InputField<String> ingredientField) {
    return ingredients.stream()
        .filter(ing -> ing.getName().equals(ingredientField.getUserInput()))
        .findFirst();
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub