blessings abound beyond the binary

After the rally, I voted at the Urbandale Public Library.

Today, in addition to voting (go vote!) I was one of many speakers at Des Moines' Trans Rights Are Human Rights Rally.

You can find a video of the whole thing here.

If you just want a video of me, check it out here.

This is what I said:

I am Pastor Emily E. Ewing I use they/them pronouns and I am a nonbinary pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and currently serve as the Leadership Project Director for Downtown Disciples.

Me and two other members of Downtown Disciples after the rally.

Today we gather on land originally inhabited by the Ioway, or Báxoj'e, and the Sauk and Meskwaki peoples. People who were systematically targeted by white settler colonialism for extermination, and along with indigenous people throughout this land, their Two Spirit people, who frequently held places of honor and responsibility, were some of the first to be targeted and killed.  And so as we gather, it is important that we acknowledge this land and their history.

We are here to decry the cruel policies, practices, and plans of this administration and others who have and will speak are making that clear.  so I'm going to do what pastors do best and give a blessing.

To you, my fellow intersex, trans, gender expansive, gender nonconforming, and gender renegade beloveds:

You are not alone.

You carry with you a great cloud of witnesses--those Two Spirit, Third Gender, trans, intersex, gender renegades whose names we no longer know, and yet are held in love by the Source of Life.

You rest on the shoulders of the courageous ones like Marsha P. Johnson, Silvia Rivera, and Miss Major—they threw bricks and shoes and words decades ago, which continue to reverberate today.

In my tradition, we also look to Joseph in Genesis, whose beautiful dress bore the full diversity of rainbow colors and whose dreams stretched beyond their imagining, to bring you energy and empower your resistance to what this administration intended for harm.

We recognize that in Acts the Ethiopian Eunuch's gender and sex helped them break down binaries and break open the church’s barriers. May their spirit pour over you, breaking through every barrier that keeps you from wholeness.

We remember that in Genesis the very first of humanity—the intersex human from humus, the earthling from the earth—was made in the Divine image. May this one renew your connection not only to the dirt of the earth, but also to the stardust scattered throughout the cosmos, which join together to form you.  And may the Divine One, whose image you bear, breathe new life into you.

As a Christian I also recognize that the Word made flesh, who transgresses boundaries between human and divine, who we name as Jesus, was born of the woman Mary through the power of that high femme Holy Spirit, was incarcerated and executed by the state and yet prevailed, spurring us to action and nourishing us for the struggle to come.

May the One who created and creates you, who loves your whole self, who loves who you are and who you are becoming, who loves the power you hold to transform the broken world in which we all live—may this One wrap you in love that seeps to the deepest core of your being.

May you know the peace, the power, the love, the strength, and the solidarity of the one who loves you best—the one who is love and life, justice and peace, restoration and celebration of who you are and who you are becoming!

Amen