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Man of God

Margaret Watters

Miami University alumnus the Rev. David Weekly said he doesn't remember much about his sermon to his Oregon church Aug. 30. He doesn't remember much but in his 27 years in the church, he said it's a day he'll never forget.

That Sunday, Weekly gave a sermon titled "My Book Report" and shared his story of transitioning from a woman to man in his 20s. Weekly is the United Methodist Church's second openly transgender minister.

For nearly three decades since his surgery, Weekly, 58, and married with children, has kept his past a guarded secret from the church.

Weekly said he was nervous during the lead-up to the sermon.

"At first, it was very quiet when I started speaking," Weekly said. "I don't remember this, but I was told that people applauded."

The Church and being trans

When Weekly was 22, he was going through the medical transitioning process from woman to man in a Cleveland hospital. Weekly said he would spend hours in the back of his local library with baby name books, looking, at long last, for himself.

"I was really interested in meaning," Weekly said. "It took a long time - maybe months, but I ultimately chose (David) because of the meaning and the sound of it."

Weekly said David means "beloved of God".

Weekly is starting his third year in his congregation and throughout his successful career, had told very few people about his past. Weekly said he was scared how people, both within his congregation and the church would react.

But this insecurity vanished when Weekly took a trip with his congregation to a former Japanese internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Weekly said his congregation is made up of a lot of Japanese-Americans who were placed in the very same camp in WWII.

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Weekly said he was really touched by his parishioners' stories of persecution, hope and courage.

"I believed at some point, the time would be right to share my story, after going to Minidoka ... it just felt like the time was getting nearer and nearer," Weekly said.

Weekly said he thinks his congregation reacted favorably to the story of his transition because of the persecution they endured in the camps.

"To them, they understood," Weekly said, "It was the same, it was a justice issue."

Weekly said the United Methodist Church is very divided on the issue of transgender ministers. During his time at Boston University seminary, Weekly said he could not tell anyone about his operation for fear of being kicked out of school.

Weekly said the conservative section of the Methodist church carries the vote and in his 27 years in the church, very little has changed.

Weekly said that since announcing his past to his congregation, he's gotten negative backlash from a conservative sect within the church.

"It makes me embarrassed to see the ignorance and refusal to move forward and do any kind of self-educating," Weekly said.

Weekly said the group uses the term transsexual instead of transgender to keep the emphasis on sex.

Childhood

Weekly grew up outside Cleveland and said third grade was the first time he realized he was different than his peers. Weekly said it was the first time he noticed the gender divide.

"I didn't fit in with the girl group and my guy friends just wanted to hang out with other guys," Weekly said. "On our street, play was separated into same-sex groups."

He said that starting in fourth and fifth grade he didn't have many friends, a trend that followed him through high school.

Michael Eblin, a senior interdisciplinary studies major focusing on psychology and transgender issues, said gender is a social construct while sex is a physical one. Eblin said gender influences more than most people realize-things from non gender-neutral pronouns to standards and norms for everyday interaction.

"I think that trans people are significantly disadvantaged in the way that world is set up," Eblin said.

"Gender permeates into all kinds of things that we just accept as standards."

By high school, Weekly said he could articulate what was wrong but didn't know what to do about it. Weekly said he is thankful for a few sympathetic and helpful teachers in school that he was able to talk with openly.

He went to Cleveland State for college, where he kept an apartment and supported himself through school. It was during college that Weekly started counseling, hormone therapy and the eventual surgery to become a man.

Weekly said his family and friends were very supportive of him during the difficult transition years. While he was at school and away from his family,

Weekly had friends that would visit him in the hospital.

"They helped with the early adjustments and they were really important people in my life, just people to hang out with," Weekly said. "They were people to go out and experience the world with (as a man)."

Mama Miami and being trans

Weekly came to Oxford two years after his re-assignment surgery, when he was still exploring the world as a man.

He never belonged to a church before coming to Miami to get his graduate degree in religion. Weekly joined the Oxford United Methodist Church and said he had a very personal experience there. Although he was happy in his studies and activities, Weekly said he wasn't comfortable telling many people about his past.

"The church hasn't been a safe place like Miami wasn't really," Weekly said.

Eblin said that unfortunately, decades later, not a lot has changed on campus.

"There's still not a lot of trans-visibility on campus," Eblin said. "If at all possible people just stay under the radar."

Weekly said he came to Miami for the religion graduate program, without knowing the school's reputation for conservative values. Weekly said he had a hard time fitting in with the conservative student body.

"There was a small artistic community - those were more the friends that I made," Weekly said. "We were on the fringe."

Weekly worked at Bagel & Deli during it's early days and was involved with the campus ministry center and the Methodist church choir. Weekly said his favorite memories of Miami centered on hanging out with his friends and playing guitar outside Bagel & Deli.

Senior Marissa Sims, president of Spectrum, said there are several issues around being trans at Miami. Sims said basic considerations like "Where do I sleep?" and "Which bathroom do I use?" take on new meaning when a person is thinking about changing sex, in the process of transitioning or has just transitioned. Sims said she has a friend who graduated last year and transitioned midway through college. Sims said during the first week of classes, he would approach the professor and explain why his name on the roster didn't match his current name or gender.

"How crazy is it to think that having your gender aligned with your sex is a privilege?" Sims said.

Sims said Spectrum is lobbying the university for gender-neutral bathrooms and a bill for gender-neutral housing passed in Associated Student Government student senate Tuesday. The new bill will allow men and woman to live in the same quads in dorms like Heritage Commons and Flower.

Miami alumnus Mike Warden transitioned from female to male midway through his undergraduate years.

Warden said the university can do little things to support all students like gender-neutral housing and bathrooms.

"It's a monumental decision in favor of people like me," Warden said. "Even if I couldn't afford to use those spaces or my parents wouldn't pay for those spaces that fact that it's there makes a much bigger difference. Knowing that the university is willing to make changes to show that it's supportive means far more than they know it would."

Eblin said he's optimistic about the new bill and the impact Weekly's story will have on campus.

"I think that it's really powerful to hear about someone who is living out an d being successful professionally,

especially in a religious context," Elbin said. "I'm proud of Rev. Weekly although I don't know him."