As a pastor’s kid in the United Methodist Church, I know a thing or two about religion. When I was 16, after my father’s unexpected death, my faith began a slow unraveling. I went to college, lost a little faith. Got married and started grad school, lost a little more. Started a family and then a career, lost a little more. During that time, I also realized I was transgender and began an agonizing few years re-evaluating everything I thought I knew about myself and feeling incredibly alone.
The pandemic hit just as we were getting ready to move to the northeast. Trying to find a community after moving to a new state, a pandemic, and then transitioning felt both absolutely essential and absolutely impossible. I needed to feel like I belonged and was valued, but I wasn’t sure where, or how, or even if, I could possibly find that.
Through the Norfolk Democratic Town Committee, I met Sue Savoy who told me about how wonderful and welcoming FUSF was. While it intrigued me and a part of me that really wanted to find that kind of community, I wasn’t sure I wanted to try church again. A few weeks later, I went on forest retreat dedicated to connecting LGBTQ folks with the outdoors. My assigned roommate also happened to be UU. They shared what a wonderful community they had found in New Jersey. While I had stopped really believing in divine signs, there was something about being out in the forest that opened me up to the possibility that maybe the universe was sending me a gentle nudge.
Once back home after the retreat, I checked out the FUSF website. The values expressed were all things I strove to teach my children and to live by myself. So, I came to a service and heard, “Whoever you are, whomever you love, whether your spirit is heavy or light, we are glad you are here.” And you meant it!
This was the kind of place where I didn’t have to prove myself. I didn’t have to live up to anything. I was welcomed and valued. I mattered. And that is an intoxicating and contagious feeling. The world is a better place because there are spaces like FUSF. The world needs places like this one—now more than ever.