Outraging and disappointing many Episcopalians, Anne Lamott, made a shocking comment about Caitlyn Jenner and her coming out. Her son, Sam, has written to her about this in a strong but grace-filled rebuke:
[Lamott] made a really awful comment about Caitlyn Jenner on twitter … This was really surprising to me, and saddening. But then her son, Sam (of Operating Instructions fame) replied to her with such love and grace, it left me stunned:
“The pee pee tweet is not truth, love, or funny. I’ll explain it all. Let’s start by deleting it.”“You can be part of the noise, but when the noise quiets down…you’ll wish were part of the change, it lasts longer.”
And then just as gently and articulately he asked for grace for his mom:
“Everybody gets to make mistakes. It’s a shame this lesson is so public, but the best lessons are often painful and embarrassing.”
More here
Maria Evans, frequent essayist for Episcopal Café, has this to say on Facebook on understanding transgender persons:
In recent years I’ve had to put aside my own jealousies about transmen (“Oh, great, you get to be a man in a man’s world now, while I’m still stuck with all the crap women get in a man’s world, no matter how tough and butch I can be…”) … transwomen get all the devaluing women endure as the price of being real. I have a real concern that it’s going to be a classism thing–when you are as rich as the Kardashians, you can be a dang beautiful woman; but if you’re poor and a transwoman you will be chastised and made fun of b/c you’re “not cute enough” since you can’t look like Caitlyn Jenner. I suspect that will hit transwomen way more than it will transmen.
So in short, I think it calls all cis people to listen and feel instead of run our mouths. Anne Lamott’s statements felt very mean and hurtful to me, so I can only imagine how a transperson must feel over them.
Image by PBS
posted by Ann Fontaine