The Rev. Barbara Satin: A Pioneering Spirit in a Transgender UCC Minister and Her Ministry of Presence.

Amid stories in which young transgender children and their parents are being abused in Texas, and the harm-filled, hate-filled "Don't Say Gay" bill in Florida continues to progress towards becoming state law, there are some good stories that we need to hear and see from time to time.

Such is the case with the story of 87-year-old Rev. Barbara Satin, a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC) who hails from the Twin Cities, MN.

Jeffrey Masters of advocate.com (March 1, 2022), interviewed the incredible Barbara Satin, who has led an amazing life. 

Born in 1934 as David, Barbara lived her first 60 years of her life in the closet. She realized that something was going on when she was five or six-years-old. Now and then she would find something at Goodwill and stash it away, finding a place to put it on and feel "glamorous." Satin fell in love with a woman, and raised a family. Having retired from a business career at 54, David realized that there was another person inside of him, who was trying to figure how to come out. 

She finally made the decision to come out and live as Barbara Satin after one of her son's confronted her about a change in her behavior. "My second oldest son...called me and asked me if I would go to have a beer and a hamburger with him and just chat." It was during this "chat" that her son said, "Something's going on with you that we're really concerned about because you are so different. You are more harsh and critical, short-tempered,a nd that's just not you. What's going on?" Satin's response? "'Jamie, I'm going to tell you something I've never told anybody. I'm transgender.' And there wasn't even a pause and he put his hand on mine and said, 'Dad, we've been waiting for you to tell us.' They had figured it out."

It was in a therapy session that the "divine struggle" was revealed, which many of us who are LGBTQIA+ know quite well.  After being confronted by the therapist that she had been hiding for 60 years, the therapist said, "'You have lived you life as though you have been cursed by God. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe this is a blessing from God. And that maybeGod has blessed you with this gender identity?' I hadn't' ever thought anything positive about what I was doing and I realized that it hadn't been much fun living life as being cursed by God. I thought I would try and live it as a blessing from God. And basically, that's what I've done for he last almost 30 years.'"

Barbara, who was, as David, the Chairman of the Archbishops Council in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Archdiocese, left not only the Council but the Catholic Church, and began living a spiritual life on her own. She was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC), founded a UCC/LGBTQIA+ church in Minneapolis, Spirit of the Lake. Most recently, she was on the National LGBTQ Task Force as the Faith Work Director, as well as serving as an out trans member of the UCC's Executive Council. In 2016, President Obama appointed Satin to the Presidential Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and in 2021 she served as one of the prayer leaders as President Biden's inauguration breakfast. 

"It's part of my DNA," the 87-year-old says. "I work to try and make things better for people, including myself."

When she dies, she says that she is going to be cremated; "I'm going to have two funerals. David will have his funeral and probably the bells and whistles of the Catholic Church. And Barbara will have her memorial service, whatever that might be, within the UCC."

In the end, "Ive done some really wonderful things as David, things that I though could just disappear if people fond out who I was. I'm not concerned about that now, because I have shown as Barbara that I do the same things. It's part of my DNA, whether I'm Barbara or David, that I work to try and make things better for people, including myself. And I want to share that to whoever wants to come and, not mourn, come and rejoice with me.

Here's a link to the article: https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2022/2/28/trans-elder-barbara-satin-ministry-presence.

Amen.


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