Our Bodies Will Be Heard: A meditation for grief, healing, and TGNC liberation (TDOR 2020)

I offered this guided meditation as part of our local Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is a simple practice, using our breath to help us get in touch with our hearts. I invite you to participate in whatever way you are comfortable in this meditation for grief, healing, and transgender and collective liberation.

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We return tonight to where we had to begin: by listening to our bodies. In the face of a society that told us we couldn’t, shouldn’t, or didn’t exist as transgender and gender expansive folx, we dared to listen to ourselves. And our bodies told us: “This is what this body is like.”

Breathing in, I am aware of my body. Breathing out, I listen to my body. (bell) 

After All the Votes are Cast: A Call to Continuous Action

I delivered these reflections at the Community Christian Church on November 8, 2020. It is lightly edited. 

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Despite Tuesday’s election results, Donald Trump received widespread support across the USA, signaling a tolerance for, and, in many cases, a celebration of, Trump’s performative fascism and a growing normalization of White nationalism. Understanding that the popularity of authoritarian leaders is a symptom of these deeper problems in our society, we realize that we still have vital work to do to close up the vulnerabilities that make fascism possible. Now is not only a moment to celebrate, but a moment to rededicate ourselves to creating a future where kindness and compassion, justice and wisdom, are not only possible, but real.

Performative Fascism as a Way of Life