Sewanee University Celebrates First Transgender Student and Postulant
By David Virtue, Virtueonline.
The University of Sewanee, the Episcopal Church’s only university, is celebrating Kelton Riley, T’23, the first transgender postulant from his diocese and the first transgender postulant undergoing formation for the priesthood at the School of Theology.
Riley, who goes by his last name, says that he has felt “celebrated” at Sewanee.
“I feel very well-loved here. As the first trans person, sometimes there is a burden of representation. Sometimes there are questions about terminology, pronouns. But I find that the curiosity is always respectful, and it’s always addressed at trying to love and know me better and love and know the LGBTQ+ community better.”
That statement, at the University of the South website is quite literally true: the recent graduate from Athens, Alabama, received two of the University’s most important prizes in his middler year–the Woods Leadership Award and the Freeman Award for Merit. But the celebration goes much further than any certificate for Riley,
A report said it did not take Riley much time to find his niche in the seminary, including what he describes as a “vibrant queer community and robust ally network.”
As a Southerner from a small town, Riley found a natural sense of home. He was pleasantly surprised, however, by the diversity of backgrounds and perspectives within the seminary. “There are people from all over: California, Bermuda, Malawi. There are different theological orientations, Anglo-Catholics and evangelicals, liberation theology. It’s interesting to see the mix, the dialogue. People feel free to be themselves. I like to think we bicker in love.”
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