Internet Archive's in-browser audio player requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

The life experiences hispanic gender

by: cvuus.org

Publication date: 2022-06-08

Topics: hispanic, gender, people, the life experiences, unitarian universalist, sermon

Contributor: https://divining.app

Language: English

The life experiences hispanic gender: It means assuming that we are all the same there's nothing significantly different about the life experiences of a person who's gay or person who is lesbian or person who is trans or person was non-binary or for that matter of person who's african-american or person who is treated as female.

Addeddate: 2022-06-08 08:00:58

Church: cvuus.org

Identifier: cvuus_org-Track15

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Scanner: Internet Archive Python library 3.0.1

Text: Let me preface this sermon with a disclaimer about what it is not. This is not gender identity 101. Or gender anything 101. This is not 101 at all. Cbus doesn't feel like a 101 kind of place. If you don't know what this means. If gender non-binary in gender non-conforming and genderqueer or equally obscure to you. If the distinction between sex and gender and gender expression in gender retribution and romantic and sexual attraction don't make sense. And if a gender an asexual and gray sexual and demi sexual sounds like word soup to you. Then i expect ali invite you not. To tune out. But the sermon is not going to find any of those terms. I mean i could do that. But it would be a lecturer not a sermon. If you want some reference material there's a hand up by the sanctuary door to the foyer it's not a list of definition. But it does set up a framework. You're talking about the nuances of maleness. And femaleness. Masculinity. And femininity. And gender performance. And there are a number of us who would be happy to talk more. Icoffee hour. What i intend to do. What i hope to do. It's make the case that for your own spiritual growth. And commitment to love injustice. You need to become. Familiar with the language of gender. Just as you will become familiar with the languages of racial justice. A feminism. Every other awakenings. The call upon us. To see our fellow humans not through the lenses that society has created for them. But through the identities that they have claimed. Themselves. So this is gender 201 or maybe 301. It's about intentional. Purposeful awareness. Of the deep ways in which gender is embodied in our institutions. Our society and yes in cbus. And why this awareness is indispensable. If we wish to create the community. Cbus aspires to be. So what start with y in old white guy. Assist. Queer non-binary gender non-conforming old white guy. Is doing a sermon about living your truth within meaningful community in the context of gender. And why is that worth bringing up. It's worth bringing up. Because the work we are talking about. Navigating the interfaces between personal identity. Our intentions. Our interactions with one another. And cv us as a community. That work. You spaced and identity. So it's been a minute on that for what does it mean for work to be based in identity. My experience of unitarian-universalism from high school onwards. Has been that are teaching from the pulpit is traditionally been much more about the content. Of the message. Then about. The identity of the messenger. What many of us have come to learn over the past several years. As we critically examine ourselves the institutions we love like cbus. And the broader institutions of our society. Is that the identity of the messenger. Cannot be separated from the message. The messages i see in shape. To share with you. Are created from my experience as a cyst hat old white guy. They are couched in terms that are familiar to me. They speak to the things that i have seen and experienced. And that my vision and experience are inseparable. From who i am. From who people think i am. From people's reaction. Tumi. And the friction. Among. No everyone here does not share that identity and only a minority of you share all of the p. You heterosexual old white guys know who you are. And if you don't know if your sis then you probably are. And there are people here who do not appear to share that identity. Yet in their own experience. They share many aspects of it. And similarly there are people here who do appear to share that identity. Yet even their own experience. So here's one thing you can do in pursuit of meaningful community. Be open to the fact that the apparent diversity. Among your fellows and community. If you us may not be as great as you think. You may have more in common than. By the same token. Be mindful that the homogeneity the lack of diversity. But you see may not reflect a homogeneity of experience. Almost all of us have hidden aspects of our identities. Better not appear. Let's just say for simplicity's sake that what you see is not necessarily what you get. Because when you assume that what-you-see-is-what-you-get you erase important parts of the identities of the people you are talking to. So what does erasing identity mean. It means assuming that we are all the same there's nothing significantly different about the life experiences of a person who's gay or person who is lesbian or person who is trans or person was non-binary or for that matter of person who's african-american or person who is treated as female. There's nothing significantly different about their life experiences from the experiences of a purse. Who is perceived as white and male. So there are two pieces to that. And the perception. There will always be parts of my identity that are not visible. Here's one example. Depending on how you define hispanic. either qualify or i don't. One side of my family does not speak english as their first language their brazilian. I've discovered that there are parts of my early childhood experience. That i share with children of mexican parents. Yet the government's guidance as to whether brazilians should check the hispanic box is a really ambiguous. I'm the kind of person who would do that i would. Website okay what are the instructions instructions are not clear. So when i get to the box that says hispanic on the form there's no checkbox for sort of. There's no checkbox for will not in the way you think. In fact there's only one checkbox. Hispanic. Because if you're normal you just don't check the hispanic box. Most people don't. It's only a few different. So that aspect of myself will never be visible. My discomfort it being perceived as male on identifying with masculinity as expressed in our culture was also invisible foremost. As long as i dress like a man i can be expected to act like a man or to nuance the words to. The effects of my identity that or genderqueer did not get express. They could not be perceived. They were erased. I don't have all the answers i do not have a. Bulletproof intellectually watertight argument as to what it means to be a man who doesn't identify with masculine roles. As distinct from. A man who doesn't entirely identify with being a man. I know i'm more of the ladder. Man who doesn't entirely identify with being a man. Denying the former a man who doesn't.. Enroll. A few years ago i chose to start presenting in gender-nonconforming ways to be seen in a way that reflect more of how i feel and interact with the world and incidentally to make it easy. For people who see me to figure out. That for me what you see is not necessarily what you. And i appreciate the tv you us has been a safe annex. But i want to challenge you to recognize that while our acceptance and celebration of diversity of wonderful things. They are not enough. Much of what follows rests on the assertion that white male people have been centered in our culture. Our society and our institutions and it had the power. The access to resources. And the voice. To create the institutions of our culture. And the cathedrals of thought and power that surround them. If that assertion troubles you then that's a conversation for another time. In a conversation that connects directly with the work of the unitarian universalist. And many others. But they've been doing on whatsapp. Being racist. While writing these words for today i really listen to dd delgado sermon for december. September 29th here on direct reparations. Black women. Energy challenges us to reconceptualize giving. In ways that decenter the value it provides. Three economically privileged people. And donors. And it's centers the experience of people whose lives have been. Impacted. By the institute. Culture. Took a reconceptualizing. Similarly i want challenges to reconceptualize seaview us in a way. Dissenters binary gender. And it centers on the experience. Of people of all. Genders and of no gender. In pursuit of meaningful community. From our history we're all about new england white anglo-saxon protestant tradition. From our intellectual heritage. Governments to order of service to our relationship to time. What would cvudeos look like if our beloved community reflected the personal truths and lives. Not only the people who are here. But all the people who could be here. Or would be here. If they felt not just tolerated. Not just celebrated. But if they felt that this community was about. Honestly. I don't know. So there's another thing the today's service is not going to do it's not going to offer a checklist of things. You could do as an individual or the tv us could do as a community to be a more welcoming congregation. In their personal testimony back in november. Illegal for a talk eloquently about the difference between the many things tvus does and could do. To be welcoming congregation. And they pointed out the distance between that. In the community seaview us aspires to be. Do use all these words. As welcome as it is to have a pride flag outside a rainbow nametag gender-neutral bathrooms and pamphlets i do not yet feel able to bring my whole self. Doing these checklist things pronoun stickers fighting to have non-gendered bathrooms. Approved by the building inspector yes that was a thing. And reverend barnaby and some others will be on hand during coffee hour i think to do. Name tag. Gender pronoun exercise yes. And we have stickers to help out. All those things are great and necessary. But that and a flag and bathroom signage are not enough. Instead we are feeling our way towards and understanding. Of what it would take. Cbus to feel like a queer space and by that i mean. A space where we commit ourselves to an ongoing dance. Among many identities. And many center. Can we aspire to be a place where each of us can claim the center when we need it. And step aside when others needed. Can we aspire to be a place where those of us. Who may have felt entitled to claim center. Probably without even knowing that that's what we were doing. Can become mindful of that fact. Mindful of leaving that space for others. Are those of us who felt most comfortable with the way cd us works willing to feel uncomfortable. Because now it works in ways that feel most comfortable to someone else. Are we willing to grow into our disk. It feels like a big part of that work that growth is creating space. The community the works to free itself from the traditional white male systems of power and privilege. That system is inseparable from the marginalization of queer people. Along with in different ways the marginalization. Of people of color of women of youth and of others. Meaningful community. Is community where among other things everyone feels equally valued for who they are. Not in spite of who they are. Where the community assumes that you are the way you are. Not that you are the way. Are norms. It's about a commitment to question your own assumptions and actions in pursuit of justice and transformation. This is not so different from the message of dd delgado with those were motivating us towards racial justice. Because decentering people like me or white guys. Is the way we create institution. But center people with other identities. Experiences. It's a matter of being accountable. Each of us individually. And collectively one to another. Not waiting for someone else to hold you accountable. Not waiting for someone. Speak the ways in which they feel invisible or uncared-for but to seek out different ways of relating to one another. As a rule of thumb the more privileged you feel in this community whether it's a privilege by age. Or gender or race or income or intellect or the art of time you've been here and remember patience stoddard back in the day. The greater your opportunity is. Ahold yourself. Accountable. For your privilege. This is scary. If it's not scary you're probably not doing it right. Me and mingus a writer educator and community organizer for disability justice and transformative justice. Challenges of this way. What she says. What is accountability wasn't scare. It will never be easy or comfortable but what if it wasn't scary. What if our own accountability wasn't something we ran from. But something we ran towards. And desire. Appreciate it and held a sacred. What if we cherish the opportunity to take accountability. As precious opportunities to prep. Liberation. The practice love. Practice two kinds of people the kinds of elders to be kind of souls. We want to be. So what is accountability was something. What if we did cherish those opportunities. To take accountability. To practice love. Practice b. We invite you. To run. Towards. Are closing him is. 1oo 8in the fuel handle. We are blessed with love and amazing grace when our heart is in a holy place. Nrr is a mile.