Gender Inclusive Ministries
Thanks to Rowan Larson (they/them) and Lauren Kay (they/them) both of Building Faith for sharing these two Great Ideas!
Rowan Larson offers six simple steps to take to move toward a more gender-open and gender-inclusive ministry – throughout your building and programming.
Steps include:
- Don’t ask children to sort themselves by gender.
- Reminder children that hobbies, interest, clothes, haircuts, names, and more can be for all of us, regardless of gender.
- Don’t simply stop gender-based teasing or bullying (or any such harm), but talk through the preconceived notions that drive it.
- Offer pronoun buttons to allow older kids to self-identify when using name tags.
- Respect parent and/or child self-identification preferences for younger children.
- If they don’t exist already, start the conversation about all-gender restrooms.
See the full article for more specifics on each of these.
~~~
Lauren Kay shares links to a A Service of Renaming, from The Episcopal Church’s Book of Occasional Services (p. 120) and they offer a compelling discussion of the power of names and the power of celebrating renaming in our faith communities.
Read the full article here.
~~~
You might also engage gender-identity discussions with young children/families and/or people expecting a child utilizing Be Who You Are, It’s Okay to Be Different, Introducing Teddy or other books found in our Sexuality & Gender Identity lib guide.
To support parents engaging gender identity, body image, and sexuality conversations at home, you might share the UCC’s It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing UP, Sex, and Sexual Health or other books found in our Tweens & Teens Sexuality & Gender Identity lib guide.
