Dying Beyond the Binary: Sacred Matters for LGBTQ+ Lives
This panel discussion will explore how LGBTQ+ spiritual/faith leaders today understand what it means to center queer identities in spiritual practice, how they meet uniquely queer experiences and challenges around death and dying, and how spiritual communities are transforming to ensure death ritual and grief practices go beyond binaries of gender and sexuality.
This event will center queer and trans perspectives, and will welcome everyone who is interested in learning from insights and experiences around spiritual care beyond gender and sexual binaries.
Zoom link provided with RSVP
Co-hosted by Plaza Jewish Community Chapel, MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care, and Reimagine.
About the panelists:
Rabbi Becky Silverstein (he/him) believes in the power of community, Torah, and silliness in transforming the world. He strives to build a Jewish community and world that encourages and allows everyone to express their full selves. Becky is one of the founders of the Trans Halakha Project, housed at SVARA: A traditionally radical yeshiva, where he is also a Fellow and Chair of the Board of Directors.
Quanita "Q" Hailey (she/her) is an alum of Mount Holyoke college and Union Theological Seminary where she received her Master of Divinity with a focus in Womanist Queer Ethics. Q currently serves as a Staff Chaplain at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist hospital. She is the creator of the Women of Color Trailblazers Leadership Conference at Mount Holyoke College. Q is a lover of her family and a peer advocate, and can be found dreaming up convening ideas for FreeXone 4 Us, a free QTPOC communal space that seeks to evoke the sacred and promote healing in NYC.
Rev. Louis Mitchell (he/him) is a pioneering "intentional man". Known around the country and abroad as an elder, advocate, trainer, teacher, student, minister, parent and friend. He is currently serving as the Bridge Pastor of Alki United Church of Christ in West Seattle. He is a co-founder, former Executive Director and current Board member of Transfaith and the Operations Director of the Ingersoll Gender Center in Seattle, Washington.
Syd Yang (they/them) is a mixed race/Taiwanese American queer trans/non-binary healer, intuitive counselor and writer who weaves together magic, possibility and intention as an energy healer through their practice, Blue Jaguar Healing Arts. Syd is also the Senior Advisor for Healing Justice and Wellness at Movement Voter Project. Syd works primarily with queer and trans BIPOC individuals as well as regularly leads workshops, community healing circles and has been a group facilitator for over two decades, with a specific focus on grief, healing ancestral trauma, sexuality + spirituality, body liberation and eating disorder recovery. Their recent memoir, Release: A Bulimia Story, re-imagines what recovery for marginalized bodies could look like without shame.
Rev. Lindsey Biggs (she/they) has worked for LGBTQ+ education and inclusion in academia, churches, and hospitals. She is currently serving as Board Certified Spiritual Care Counselor for the VNSNY Brooklyn South Hospice Team. Lindsey has a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and is an ordained Episcopal priest. She trained to be a chaplain at NYP Allen Hospital, NYP Columbia & CHONY, Mount Sinai Beth Isreal, and The Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery. She has taught LGBTQ+ patient care workshops at NYP, Mount Sinai, and the Association of Professional Chaplains Annual Conference. In the Spring 2022 she will be teaching LGBTQ+ Spiritual Care at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
About the organizer:
Ari Simon (they/them) (moderator) is a facilitator, personal coach, community engagement practitioner, and artist. Ari developed and leads Queering Death, a community learning series exploring intersections of death, dying, and grief with queer identity and queer theory. With a background in public policy and management, Ari runs Inner & Outer Engagement, a practice offering workshops, planning processes, coaching, and more to explore topics such as environmental policy, organizational change, personal geographies, queerness, and death.
