Tom Adams
See our Resource Pages for additional information on each topic.
I’m over 70 now—a woman for more than 30 years, a Catholic for over 20, and married to a Catholic woman for nearly 50. I’ve had time to reflect, to pray, and I’ve been given more gifts of faith than I ever expected. I came to religion with no childhood training at all. As a queer Catholic, that absence was a quiet blessing.
I have had limited interaction with transgender people. I became more aware when personal pronouns became more present in communications. Over the past couple of years, I have come to know people who have changed their gender. I have heard maternity ward nurses say they could tell at birth that a baby’s given gender and intended gender were not aligned. Friends who are parents have shared of having their teen transform grief and self-destructive behavior into joy and relief when their gender affirmation was complete.
I was not born a Catholic. I was raised with no religious tradition and I didn’t get baptized into the Catholic faith until I was 48. I was born with a female gender identity but because I was identified male at birth. I didn’t come to live as a woman until I was 40. So resurrection, transfiguration and epiphany (the revealing of that which has always been true) were part of my lived experience before I began to understand those words in a faith tradition experience.
Tom Adams writes and speaks on topics vital to the intersection of our personal lives with our community and global lives. He has for decades been engaged in and written about nonprofit leadership and transitions, spirituality and spiritual growth, how we each contribute to a more just and equitable world and recovery from addictions and the Twelve Step recovery movement.