Walking With Integrity: Transgender Priest Testifies in Massachusetts

In Support of HB 1722, An Act Relative to Gender Based Discrimination andHate CrimesMassachusetts Judiciary Committee, March 4, 2008The Reverend Cameron Elliot Partridge My name is Cameron Partridge and I testify to you today as a Massachusettsresident since 1995 and a transgender man. My vocation takes place in twoarenas, one as a doctoral student in the Religion, Gender, and CultureProgram at Harvard Divinity School and the other as a priest of theEpiscopal Diocese of Massachusetts serving in Allston/Brighton, wheretransgender woman Rita Hester was murdered in 1998. I am here in support ofHB 1722 because I care deeply about the need to protect all people fromdiscrimination and hate crimes. I care not only because I myself would becovered by this legislation in my secular work but also because many peopleI know and work with—friends, family, students, parishioners, fellow clergyand people of various faiths—want these protections to become law. Since my transition from female to male six years ago, I have learned thatalthough many people are not well informed about transgender people, theyare able to learn, able to be respectful, and in many cases able to besupportive, in all sorts of settings. My transition as a first year graduatestudent interfaced with many different departments of the university, frommy doctoral adviser, to the Registrar, to my physicians in the university'shealth services, to the people who take photos for campus identificationcards. In all cases people were more than accommodating. My favorite momentcame from the Registrar who declared "I want to welcome you to the malegender—it's served me well." I am proud that since then Harvard has joinedthe growing group of universities and corporations across the country thatare adding gender-based protections to their non-discrimination codes.Protecting people of diverse gender identities and expressions is clearlythe right thing to do, and it also need not cause institutional confusion orinterpersonal difficulty. The world won't come to an end because weacknowledge and protect people of various gender identities and expressions.

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