In this episode, we have a conversation with our friend Ellie Dote, a transgender Christian woman, public speaker, and business owner! She shares about her winding faith background from Catholicism to Calvary Chapel evangelicalism and working in church ministry, and the various experiences that brought her life to a turning point, including getting diagnosed as HIV positive. She talks about her coming out journey and how often, churches were fine with her presence at women’s events until she told them she was trans (and April wonders, what are all these LGBTQphobic churches going to do with more and more trans people living into their truth?), and she talks about her brave ministry of reaching out to evangelical pastors to share her story. She also discusses why she wrote her book, Walking Towards Cordelia; she wants people to know the story of a trans person so that they can no longer say they’re ignorant, they have to be accountable–kind of like how evangelicals talk about the Gospel: now that you’ve heard this, what will you do with the information? How will you respond? We know we’ll respond by advocating for the rights of our trans beloveds everywhere.
You can find Ellie on Instagram @Ellieanne1977 and her business @elliegirlcreations. You can find her on Twitter @EllieGirl77. Here is the link to purchase her book: https://elliedote.com/walking-towards-cordelia/ and her business website: https://elliegirlcreations.com/
For a full breakdown of context re: why we don't support God is Grey/Brenda Marie Davies anymore, see this excellent blog post that lays out everything that happened and why her actions were harmful: https://sheseeksnonfiction.blog/2022/03/27/why-i-can-no-longer-support-brenda-marie-davies/
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Our social media: @reclaimingthegarden on Insta, @RtGardenPodcast on Twitter, and Reclaiming the Garden on Facebook. Our personal accounts: @thatpunchabletheaternerd, @April_TheWriter (April is on Twitter and Insta). Also, our podcast account follows a bunch of awesome folks + podcasts in the exvangelical/deconstruction world and progressive Christian world, so if you’re looking for more resources, that’s a great place to start!
