Oct 19, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH PERRY  | COMMENTS     

President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general is facing new questions about his stance on gay and transgender issues — this time in his role as a high-ranking official in the United Methodist Church.

Three months after questioning Dr. James Holsinger about a paper he wrote for the church in which he condemned gay sex, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, is still waiting for him to answer its follow-up questions.

Also waiting for answers are Rev. Drew Phoenix, a transgender United Methodist minister in Baltimore, and gays who have been kicked out of their congregations. They are anxious to see how Holsinger’s votes on gay issues will affect their futures. Holsinger will sit on the United Methodist Judicial Council at the church’s national meeting in San Francisco Oct. 24-27. In 2004, Holsinger was elected president of the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church.

Some of the gay issues that will be addressed at the conference include acceptance of gays in church membership, ordination of transgender individuals, how much United Methodist campus ministries should reach out to gay students and domestic partner benefits for gay employees of United Methodist organizations and institutions.

The conference will include three days of witness by gays and straight allies from Bay Area congregations, starting with a candlelight march and prayer vigil, as well as nightly worship services led by transgender clergy and seminarians. Reconciling Ministries is organizing the witness activities to call for greater acceptance of diversity in the church.

At the center of debate will be the reappointment of Phoenix as pastor of St. John’s United Methodist Church in Baltimore by Bishop John Schol of the denomination’s Baltimore-Washington Conference. Phoenix was ordained in 1989 as Rev. Ann Gordon and has led the St. John’s congregation for five years. He completed his physical transition in the spring of 2006 and decided last fall to change his name. He said he always knew he was male on the inside.

“I would look in the mirror and think, ‘this is not what I expected. This isn’t the body I was supposed to be in,’” he said. “I didn’t feel comfortable with my body. Now I feel very self-possessed. I like looking in the mirror and get a feeling of great relief.”

Phoenix said his congregation has been supportive and the experience of gender transition has been one of self-discovery, spiritual growth and physical integration. To those who have a hard time accepting his decision, Phoenix said humans were given the ability to reason and to develop the science to create procedures such as gender reassignment. He said discrimination against transgender individuals is based on fear and discomfort with ambiguity.

“We don’t know what God would say is the natural order of things,” he said.

Troy Plummer, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network, a group for gay United Methodists, said Holsinger wields significant influence on the nine-member judicial council of which he is the leader. In a 5-4 majority decision two years ago, the council voted to uphold a South Hill, Va., pastor’s decision to bar a man from church membership because he is gay.

Eventually the pastor transferred out of the congregation and the man was welcomed into the community by the new pastor, but Decision 1032 has been used to justify the refusal of membership to other gay United Methodists. Plummer said the church’s constitution does not mention barring gays from membership in the church, nor does it mention discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

“Since 1032 I wonder what else they will make up,” he said. “Every four years there is an international General Conference. The next one is April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, where we will seek to reverse 1032 and whatever harmful thing they do to Drew Phoenix. We also want to elect a progressive or moderate majority to the judicial council.”

During his Senate confirmation hearing in July, Holsinger said his 1991 paper, which described gay male sex as unhealthy, no longer reflects his views.

“I am deeply troubled personally by these claims, which do not reflect who I am, what I believe or how I have practiced medicine for the past 40 years,” he told the committee. “I think that I can serve all Americans, including gay and lesbian Americans. I can only say I have a deep, deep appreciation of everybody, regardless of their personal circumstance, ...