A profile I wrote for my Magazine Writing class:

Pastor Marsh Drege believes God led him from his native North Dakota to where he is now. “We have two different ways of delineating time in the Church,” he said. “One is chronos, which is chronological, the other timing is kairos. It’s a Greek word that means God’s timing.”

Pastor Marsh radiates positive energy. Wearing a grey fleece sweater over a white collared shirt and black pants, he looks both warm and professional and exudes natural confidence. His brown eyes are shielded behind thick-framed tortoiseshell glasses. He has a grey, well-groomed beard as if to compensate for the lack of hair elsewhere. As a Lutheran Pastor, the 55-year-old is unafraid to speak of God’s plan, or refer to the Holy Spirit in conversation. It doesn’t come across as naïve. Rather, it’s clear that his beliefs give him a comfort and purpose that many people spend their lives searching for.

Drege is the CEO of Seafarers International, a mission of the Lutheran Church. Seafarers was set up almost 150 years ago to support to seamen coming to New York from the predominantly Lutheran countries of Scandinavia. Located near Union Square, Seafarers is now a guesthouse. It also provides temporary accommodation to asylum seekers, victims of domestic violence, and other vulnerable people in need of shelter. “It is in the DNA of the Church to work with people on the move,” he said.

Stepping into his office one sees a wall lined with shelves filled of books, folders and memorabilia. A Stephen Sondheim songbook shares space with a wooden cross and a plate painted with the word “Shalom.” All Lutheran Pastors must learn Greek and Hebrew as part of their training.

Drege’s work at Seafarers is all consuming. His work life and his home life blend together. He lives in the building, so it’s hard for him to take a day off. But he enjoys the unexpected dramas that can interrupt his days, and sometimes his nights. He spoke fondly of an elderly Chinese couple who were sent to Seafarers after they were found wandering the streets. They had booked a one-way ticket to New York because they believed their daughter in Shanghai was poisoning them. Seafarers was possibly the only place in the city that would have taken them in. Pastor Marsh worked to ensure the couple got the medical care they needed, and he even contacted their family in Shanghai to try and get the couple home.

The concept of kairos has shaped the way Drege views his life. Everything happens for a reason, and if it part of God’s plan, then it will work out. After he moved from North Dakota to Washington, D.C, as a young man, his belief directed him back after he was offered the position of camp director at a North Dakota bible camp.

“I really didn’t wanna move back to North Dakota,” he said. “But I prayed about it, and you know, as Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer, thy will be done, and not ours. I don’t think God ever wants us to do something totally against our will, or totally against what we think is right. I tell ya, I tried so hard not to go back to North Dakota. I wanted to stay in D.C so badly. I loved it, but I just felt compelled to go back.”

Despite being a non-sports playing liberal in one the country’s most conservative states, he stayed in North Dakota for 14 years. Pastor Marsh is passionate about music, and in his work as a camp director, he lead young people in song while playing the keyboard and guitar. “I played every key on the keyboard,” he said. “I mean not just physically, but metaphorically too. I used every possible gift that I could discern in this ministry and I loved it.”

He could have stayed on for another 14 years, but his hearing was deteriorating. He found it hard to communicate to large groups, and he realized that a change was needed. In the end, it would be his wife’s work that took him back to the East Coast, though he might say it was kairos.

He has been at Seafarers for seven years now, and the change from North Dakota was dramatic. He no longer leads young people in song, and his guitar and keyboard are stored away. He does try and make time to sing in a church choir, but the lack of music in his day-to-day life can be a challenge,. “Every once in a while, I think, “wow, how did this happen?,” he said. But he believes that he is where he needs to be.

“I think I have deep gifts for this place, and this place has deep needs,” he said. “I’m using a lot of my gifts. They just don’t happen to be musical.”

A story I wrote for my Human Rights Journalism class:

Christina Ann Marie DiEdoard is a successful criminal defense attorney. She has represented countless clients, and argued cases before the Nevada Supreme Court. The 45-year-old is passionate about ensuring her clients get access to a fair hearing, no matter what crime they are charged with.

Living in San Francisco means that she doesn’t get to travel back to her native New York very often. She jokes that she lived there when the city was still dangerous. One thing that ties her to New York City is her birth certificate. It is a reminder of where she came from in more ways than one. This is because DiEdoard was born a man, and the gender marker on her birth certificate reflects this.

DiEdoard transitioned in 2005, in her last semester of law school. Not having a birth certificate that reflects her gender proved not to be a barrier for DiEdoard. She was able to obtain a drivers license and a passport, and become an attorney, but she knows that many transgender people are not so fortunate.

“I would like all my documents to be congruent,” she said. Describing the fear that comes from not having documents that reflect your gender, she said, “I think it’s true of most trans people. It always feels like I’m one twitch away from someone saying ‘no!’”

Legislation introduced to the New York City Council by Council Member Corey Johnson seeks to take away some of this fear, by allowing transgender people born in New York City to more easily change the gender on their birth certificates.

Currently, people born in New York City can only change the gender on their birth certificates if they can show that they have had gender reassignment surgery. The new legislation will take away surgery as a requirement for changing of gender, meaning that any trans individual can amend their birth certificate to reflect the gender that they identify with.

A transgender person will be able to change the gender on their birth certificate if they can provide an affidavit from a doctor, social worker, nurse, counsellor or other trained medical professional, that states that the transgender person’s gender is not reflected by their birth certificate.

“Having such a critical document that correctly reflects your gender identity is a basic human right that too many transgender people have been denied for far too long,” said Johnson, in a hearing on the legislation, which is currently before the Committee on Health.

Allison Steinberg, director of communications at Empire State Pride Agenda, an organization that has actively campaigned for the legislation, said that it was particularly meaningful to young people, who may need their birth certificate when signing up for university, or applying for a drivers licence or passport.

“It is a human rights issue,” she said, citing the case of a trans woman who has been unable to get a passport due the difference in the gender on her birth certificate and the gender that she identifies as. She also noted a case in Long Island, where a trans person was refused entry to a bar because their ID did not reflect their gender.

Describing the current requirement for transgender people to prove that they have had surgery as a “privacy violation“, she welcomed the change. “Now trans people can choose what to reveal about themselves and what to keep private,” she said.

Gender reassignment surgery is extremely costly and often not covered by health insurance. This means that many transgender people chosen not to have surgery. DiEdoardo is one of them. Speaking about the current New York City legislation, she said, “This particular law was introduced in the 60s, when they thought that surgery was easy and the only thing you needed to be transgender,” she said. “If you have this legislation in place, you’re essentially outing trans people every day.”

Being “outed” is something that DiEdoardo has experienced. She recounted her recent experience in applying for a Canadian passport, which she was eligible for as her mother is from there. As part of the application process, she was asked to present her birth certificate, in effect outing herself as a trans woman. “You could see they were going over it with a fine tooth comb,” she said.

“It can be really shocking, or even dangerous to be outed as trans,” said Greta Gustava Martela, a trans advocate. “I don’t think trans people should have to hide, but we need to be able to choose when to reveal our identity. The right to self identify is a human right.”

Statistics from the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey show the extent of the dangers that Gustava Martela spoke of. According to the survey, “Forty percent of respondents who presented gender incongruent identification reported harassment and three percent reported being assaulted or attacked. Fifteen percent reported that they were asked to leave an establishment.”

These statistics ring true for trans activist Brooke Cerda. She argues that education is key to reducing violence and discrimination. “Teaching kids about the existence of transgender women is important,” she said. She described the proposed legislation as a “great thing”, but stressed that there is more to be done for the trans community. “We don’t have our own community center,” she said. “Until we get our own space cis people will make our decisions.”

DiEdoardo knows that changing the gender on her birth certificate will not impact her life dramatically. She describes herself as a “functioning citizen,” whose trans status does not define or restrict her.

But she said that if the legislation is passed by the City Council, she will change the gender on her birth certificate for “emotional and also for self-preservation reasons.” She said she wants to live without the fear of someone saying her documents are fraudulent.

“If the legislation goes through, it will allow trans people to live their lives unmolested,” she said.