Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge will make history on Sunday, June 22, as the first openly transgender priest to preach at the historic Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., in honor of Pride Month. The Rt. Rev Gene Robinson, known as the first openly gay priest to be elected a bishop, will preside at the service. Partridge is the Episcopal chaplain of Boston University.
Partridge was in the process of being ordained as a priest when he told his bishop, The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, that he was transitioning from female to male in 2001. Shaw supported his decision and has gone on to become a dedicated advocate for trans issues within the diocese of Massachusetts. Boston's Cathedral Church of St. Paul now hosts a memorial on the annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance, to mourn those who have died because they were trans. Shaw told Religion and Politics, "I stand up in front of them each year and say that the conception of God that judges you is not the conception of God in this diocese."