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W W W JUSTOUT C O M
NOVEMBER 5 2010
PROFILE
A Time of Transition
Portland postor reaches out to congregation and
community at large
BY CORNELIUS SWART
The Reverend David Weeldey is one of only
two publicly transgender Methodist clergy in
the United States. The 59-year-old Portland
resident began transitioning to a man in 1982,
first with hormone therapy and then through
sexual reassignment surgery. Married for 14
years, Weeldey has five children. For decades he
told few people other than his wife, Deborah,
about his origins as a biological female.
All that changed last July when he came out
to his congregation and to the local and national
press, including an appearance on CBS’ The
Early Show.
Rev. Weeldey makes no bones about his
hopes that by telling his story he can move the
United Methodist Church’s policies regarding
GLBTQ_clergy in a more progressive direction.
While he’s received countless emails, phone
calls and letters of support, he has gotten little
more than the silent treatment from the na
tional Methodist community. In fact, he recently
left his congregation after it became clear he
was no longer welcomed there.
This year Weeldey was assigned two much
smaller congregations, one with only eight
members. Though feeling marginalized, the
pastor presses on, believing his story can help
change the Methodist Church’s ways.
Just Out W hy did you choose to come out
last year?
Weeldey: The Methodists banned gay clergy
in the 1970s. In 2007, a transgender pastor
named Drew Phoenix came out to his congre
gation in Baltimore. There were votes to ouster
him, within his congregation and at the Meth
odist General Conference in 2008. Both at
tempts failed because Methodists don’t have
specific rules about transgender clergy. Part of
coming out was that I always expected to see
progress after that vote. But what we are seeing
in my organization is really a re-entrenchment.
JO : There is another general conference in
2012. Do you expect that the church will make
new rules to exclude transgender clergy?
Weeldey: It might. I’m releasing my autobi
ography soon in hopes that it will engage the
conversation early.
JO : Methodists have what are called Recon
ciling Congregations that openly welcome
JO : You’ve started coun
GLBTQ_parishioners. Was it your ambition to
seling a number of families.
make your congregation a reconciling one?
Weeldey: One of the re
Weeldey: That was my hope. But soon after
my announcement it became clear it wasn’t sults of the interview with
CBS and newspaper articles
working out.
was I started getting a tremendous amount of
JO : You had been assigned to the Epworth email. I’m in contact now with about five fami
United Methodist Church in Southeast Port lies with transgender children; the youngest was
land, a predominantly Japanese-American con age 7 when we met. I help them deal with bul
gregation. [Weekley made his announcement lying. I let them know it does get better. I help
last year during the congregation’s visit to a for them find legal advice or talk to them about
mer World War II Japanese-American intern spiritual issues.
ment camp in Idaho.] Was there tension there?
Weeldey: The congregation was more about
JO : Where do you look in the Bible to find
cultural identity than about faith. At one point support?
there was a suggestion not to have any worship
Weeldey: I go back to Psalms and the Gos
services at all in the summer, but to have Japa pel stories ... the Sermon on the Mount. I really
nese cultural activities instead. As someone who rely on that God loves everyone for being who
was led to be a pastor, I can’t agree to that. In they are, including a GLBTQ_person. M y spiri
January of this year, I asked to go to another tual nature affected my decision to come out.
congregation.
There’s so much at stake when the church is
perceived as tolerating the bullying of GLBTQ_
JO : Epworth had more than 200 members in people. I felt I had to speak out about
its congregation. Your new assignments, Capitol discrepancies.
Hill Methodist has only 60 members, and Sell-
wood Methodist had eight when you got there.
JO : W hat kind of discrepancies?
Do you feel like you’ve been pushed aside?
Weeldey: Other churches will cite Bible pas
Weeldey: It was a shock. It’s amazing how sages as proof of God’s nonacceptance of
many people don’t want to talk about it. I have GLBTQ/olks. There’s a lot of selective reading.
some gay and lesbian friends who told me once Mostly they cite Leviticus, what’s called the
I came out, “You’ll be surprised who is with you Holiness Code. But, there are also rules about
and who isn’t.” It’s true. It’s deepened some re not wearing mixed-fiber clothing and kosher
eating. As a Christian, I focus on the Gospels
lationships and others have withered away.
[the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark,
JO : How has it been for your family?
Luke and John]. That’s what Christianity is
T il put it this w ay—John
Wesley, the founder o f the
M ethodists, said the mission of
the ch u rch is ‘to do the g o o d
you con. for os long os you
con. for os m any os you can.
-REV. DAVID WEEKLEY
about. It’s a new covenant. It’s impossible to
fulfill all the laws of the Old Testament. By the
time Christ came around there were laws about
how you should wash your hands. We’re trying
to live that basic Gospel message of caring for
one another, recognizing God’s love for us and
doing good.
JO : Is that the message you are trying to
bring to your new congregations?
Weekley: I’ll put it this way—John Wesley,
the founder of the Methodists, said the mission
of the church is “to do the good you can, for as
long as you can, for as many as you can.” I t ]
R ev . D avid
W eekley ’ s autobiography , In
from the Wilderness, by W ipf & Stock publish
in g o f Eugene, Ore., is due out in Ja n u ary 2011.
He can be reached at shermantoday@ comcast.net.
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