Standing Against the Headwind of Hatred

A Prayer of Cisgender Confession and Commitment

by Tammerie Day

“We are experiencing a headwind of hatred
and intolerance in the United States.”

~ Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez,
Civil Rights Conference on Hate Crimes,
University of Texas at Arlington

We rise each day into a world that fits
our natures, our understandings, our assumptions.
The clay of our bodies and faces
conform to our spirits:
            male, female.

We are learning it is not so for all of us.
Some of us are born of a wilder imagination.
We are learning new language and new images
for those Spirit is coloring outside our lines:
            transgender, intersex, gender-variant.

We confess that we have slumbered
while members of our family are slaughtered.
The headwind of hatred batters
bodies and minds and spirits:
           the diverse beauties that continue to arise.

We commit to standing against this headwind of hate,
           a bulwark to end the battering.
We commit to seeing the diverse beauty, all around us,
           every gendered and gender-free expression, every form of love.
We commit to loving difference, and becoming.
We commit to learning the new language(s)
            that enable our beloveds to exist, and thrive.

Love, make us bold, to live our own lives fully and abundantly.
Love, give us passion, to work for everyone’s full abundance.
Love, gather us together, that no one you have created
            is not seen
            is not allowed to live
            is ever lost to the hurricane of hate again.