Washington state

user warning: Unknown column 'type' in 'field list' query: SELECT module, type FROM captcha_points WHERE form_id = 'google_cse_searchbox_form' in /home/inger3x/public_html/sites/all/modules/captcha/captcha.inc on line 55.

Transgender Inmate Penpal Program Started in Seattle!

Submitted by Lincolnj28 on Fri, 08/06/2010 - 10:53am

Emerald City Metropolitan Community Church Seattle starts penpal program for transgender inmates

Seattle, WA—

Raised Voices is a new ministry being offered by Emerald City MCC. Letter writing programs are often popular among inmates, since mail may be someone’s only contact with the outside.

Members of Emerald City noticed that there are many Christian programs, as well as amazing queer and trans specific penpal projects. But there wasn’t one that brought the two elements together. And so Raised Voices was born.

Why the name? “It’s a mission statement in itself,” says Lincoln Rose, program coordinator. “As queer Christians, we are mandated to speak against the evils of the prison industrial complex. This is the time to show our incarcerated TGI cousins that they are not forgotten. Our intent is to form relationships and provide support.” As of this writing, they are unable to give money to inmates who ask.

Raised Voices currently serves TGI inmates at facilities in Washington State and Oregon. They feel a regional focus will help with relationship building and resource referral.

Inmates don’t have to be wary of getting religion pushed on them if they sign up. “Absolutely not,” explains Ray Neal, Emerald City’s pastor. “You never have to talk about God if you don’t want to. The mission is to support inmates.” But he does know there’s a need for the faith aspect. “There is rarely any queer-affirming pastoral care provided in the prison system. We want to be available if people do have questions.”

If you or someone you know is incarcerated in Washington or Oregon, let them know about Raised Voices. They can send a letter to this address:

Raised Voices
C/o Emerald City MCCS

Arresting Change

Submitted by Barbara on Sat, 08/08/2009 - 8:39am
The brief winter of our community’s discontent with the state Department of Licensing is finally over. We can all party like it’s 1999. For me, I can party that like that first day in 1987.
 
It was a rare sunny January morning in Seattle in 1987 and I felt pretty — at least on the inside of my 300-pound frame. It had been a few weeks since I confessed to a magistrate of the King County Municipal Court  and to my therapist that despite my still-foreboding five-o’clock shadow, my baritone voice, and my penchant for playing with computers — I was a creature of the opposite sex. A couple of years of Ingersoll support groups, several “beauty consultants,” and a class in the mystique of the feminine walk, had convinced me that I could correct a mistake of nature. Finally, the state of Washington had graded me with an “F” on my driver’s license — a definite upgrade from the “M” that had followed me from the day that doctors in a German hospital had wrongfully diagnosed me with what was once a terminal disease for infants and a gender designation that proved more threatening  in my adult life.
 
The ink on that “F” on my driver’s license was not yet dry on this January morning when I treated myself to a Saturday morning brunch at a tasty restaurant. The license change was like a photo of your grandkids that you insist on sharing with the world at a certain age. It is Pride, Mardi Gras, and “Survival of the Fittest” all at once. I was feeling great — I was dining alone — but I was on top of the world. A few glasses of orange juice and several cups of coffee later, I was on top of something else. The sign on the door said “ladies,” and armed with my official designation, I had nothing to fear but public wetness.
Syndicate content