Last Thursday someone from the Massachusetts Family Institute messaged Rev. Dr. Cody J. Sanders of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church seeking assistance in repealing the new transgender public accommodations law enacted by the Massachusetts government this summer.
The call followed two days after a letter. The Institute is “troubled” by the ways church bathrooms will be impacted by this bill, arguing by phone and letter that churches are the “best places” to accomplish their goal of repealing the law by ballot initiative “because this issue challenges God’s very creation of male and female.”
Rev. Dr. Sanders' response has gone viral.
He didn’t know that Old Cambridge Baptist Church has celebrated the gift of LGBTQ lives for over three decades, led by lesbian and gay pastors for the past 33 years. He didn’t know that OCBC joined with many others in working many, many months for this trans rights bill to become law. (Even in a liberal state like Massachusetts, it was a political struggle.)
He didn’t know that at OCBC, our bathrooms already are gender neutral and we’ve not once felt threatened by this.
--Sanders
Here’s a prayer our congregation prayed week after week until the trans public accommodations bill was passed. Of course, we didn’t just pray with our words, we prayed through our faithful actions: collecting signatures and calling our representatives and writing the governor and hosting trans education and giving our communion offering to our state’s trans rights group.
But as a congregation planted firmly in the gospel of peace rooted in justice, seeing the imago Dei in every face, we also prayed:
Prayer for Transgender Justice from Old Cambridge Baptist Church
For our transgender siblings who embody your divine work of transformation in their own lives, we give you thanks and pray for their protection against violence and for their well-being in our world.
For our intersex siblings who embody the complexity of your creation in ways that sometimes take us by surprise, we give you thanks and pray for their protection against violence and for their well-being in our world.
For our genderqueer siblings who embody your divine transcendence of gender for all to witness, we give you thanks and pray for their protection against violence and for their well-being in our world.
For our state and for our nation, we pray for justice to be realized for our transgender, intersex, and genderqueer siblings and we commit ourselves to bringing about that justice.
May we always revel in the goodness of your creation, O God. Amen.
Let’s keep praying together, with our heartfelt words and with our faithful actions, so that the good work we’ve done is not undone, and the justice still to come is ushered swiftly in.
--Sanders
Massachusetts AG Maura Healy has released guidelines for the new law, which takes effect on October 1, 2016.
Some highlights:
Places of public accommodation may still maintain sex-segregated restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms. However, under this law, individuals may use whichever sex-segregated space is most consistent with their gender identity.
If a patron complains about the mere presence of a transgender person in a sex-segregated facility, or a patron expresses concern that someone may be using the incorrect facility based on that person’s appearance, a place of public accommodation should first assess whether there is any reasonable basis to believe that person is not using the appropriate facility most consistent with their gender identity.
If there is no legitimate reason to question, or that person confirms, that they are using the facility most consistent with their sincerely held gender identity, a place of public accommodation may still take certain steps to address the privacy concerns of the complaining patron. A place of public accommodation may:
- Remind the complaining patron that Massachusetts law protects the right of all people, including transgender people, to access sex-segregated facilities most consistent with their gender identity, as long as the individual is not engaged in any improper or unlawful conduct;
- Offer any patron seeking additional privacy, including the complaining patron, an accommodation, such as a privacy screen, curtained area, or private changing room, if available;
- Offer any patron, including the complaining patron, the opportunity to use a private facility, such as a unisex bathroom or changing room, if available (see below); or
- Institute a neutral policy that applies to all patrons regardless of gender identity to address privacy concerns, such as a requirement that clothing be worn in certain areas of a facility.
Any referral to law enforcement must be based on an individual’s unlawful conduct, and not on the individual’s gender-related identity or appearance. In no event may a place of public accommodation seek to use law enforcement or security to harass or embarrass a person based on gender identity.