preparing for lent

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 24, 2009

What day is today? Right!  It's Day Two of "Transgender Awareness Week" -- at Seattle's Jesuit university, at any rate, where the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Trans & Allies Club are teaming up to deliver on the classic boast of Jesuit education: give us a boy, and we'll give you back a ... we'll give you back a ... well, we'll have to get back to you.

Here are the offerings:

• Feb. 23, Passing as Yourself (6:30-8:30 p.m., OMA Lounge): What “passing” means to trans people and why or if we do it. This will be hosted as a round table discussion.
• Feb. 24, Transgender Bible Study (6-9 p.m., OMA Lounge): Ever wondered if there was a connection between transgender people and the Bible? Shannon Buzzard will be presenting Bible Study on Bible heroes and heroines.
• Feb. 25, Field Trip to Ingersoll (7-9 p.m., Seattle Counseling Center): Ingersoll, the gender support group, welcomes trans people and allies for a discussion of naturopathic trans male and trans female medicine. Meet at the first floor STNCR hearth at 6:15 p.m.
• Feb. 26, Criss-Cross Day (6-7:30 p.m., OMA Lounge): Come dressed for the day in your best gender-bending outfit! Then stop by at OMA lounge between 6-7:30 p.m. for a Trans and Allies Club open house. Snacks and refreshments will be served.
• Feb. 27, Non-Trans Privilege 101 (Noon-1 p.m., OMA Lounge) Come discuss how cis-gender privilege (aka non-transgender privilege) affects your life and the lives of those without it. Discussion facilitated by Jay Robertson-Howell from CAPS.

Were you the parent of a young person going through a period of intense sexual confusion, would you be comforted to know he was in the hands of proselytizing mentors even more confused than he?  The fact of the matter is that you can't grow up -- and a fortiori you can't help others grow up -- if you're clueless about the nature of the human person you should grow up to be. And while coaching despair of the truth may bewilder the pupil, it must certainly corrupt the educator. Coincidentally, the Oregon Jesuit Province, with which Seattle University is associated, declared itself buggered into bankruptcy last week.  

Surprised?