This weeks guest blog is from Caleb! for those gathering for our conversation we will be at the Enigma Tap from 7:30pm
Before I start, please bear in mind that, as I said in a previous blog, I don’t speak out of particular experience here. I have learned from knowing people and some study. Also please note that there are several aspects of this overall topic that I haven’t even had a chance to mention and the blog is already too long.
When it comes to sex/gender, some people don’t fit into the normal boxes.
Here are some characteristics of sex/gender:
- Chromosomes. Most people have either XX (female) or XY (male). Some have X, XXY, XXX, XYY, XXYY, or something I don’t understand called 45,X/46,XY (let’s be honest, I don’t understand any of the others either).
- External genitals. Most people have a vagina and vulva (female) or a penis and scrotum (male). For some it’s not so simple: for example, the penis and the clitoris are two versions of the same organ. We categorise it as one or the other based on size, where the urethral opening is, and what the rest of the genitals look like. But sometimes it develops in such a way that it’s not easy to categorise it as one or the other.
- Internal genitals. Most people have ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes (female) or testicles (male). Some people have neither or both: e.g. testicles and a uterus.
- Reproductive/sexual capacity. Most people have the ability to menstruate, produce eggs and carry babies (female) or the ability to produce sperm (male). For some people it’s neither or a bit of each.
- Other development at puberty. Most people develop features like breasts (female) or features like a deeper voice (male). For some people it’s neither or a bit of each.
- Personal gender identity. Most people feel like they are a woman/girl or a man/boy. Some people feel like they’re neither, some combination, somewhere in between, something else, or just don’t really feel like any gender/sex.
- Brain patterns. Most people’s brains follow a general pattern of being more of a female brain or more of a male brain. (This doesn’t mean that you necessarily have stereotypical male or female personality traits, just that there are general patterns.) For some people it’s somewhere in between.
- Social gender identity. Most people are treated by those around them as either a woman/girl or a man/boy. This includes what pronouns people use about them, how people interact with them, what stereotypical expectations people have of them, how much power a sexist society gives them, etc. Some people are treated by those around them as something other than male or female.
Most people are either male in all these ways or female in all of these ways. But some people don’t clearly fit into either male or female on one or more of the categories. This includes some intersex people and non-binary people.
As well as this, some people fit into ‘male’ on some categories but ‘female’ on others. For example, some other types of intersex people are ‘male’ on one category (e.g. they have XY chromosomes) but ‘female’ on another (e.g. genitals). A transgender person might be ‘female’ on genitals, chromosomes etc, but ‘male’ on gender identity and brain patterns.
All of these examples of gender/sex diversity are very different from one another. And each situation is very rare. But I worship a God who is willing to leave the safe 99 to rescue the 1 who is in trouble (Luke 15:3-7). I think we need to care about people regardless of how rare their experiences are.
There have always been people with minority sex/gender experiences like these. Their experiences are real and scientifically provable, and they have existed in all times and places. They are not an invention of recent LGBT+ movements.
Cultures come up with different language and concepts to describe and understand people who don’t fit the standard boxes. Examples include: hermaphrodite, eunuch, two-spirit (some Native American nations), hijra (South Asia), kuchu (Uganda), takatāpui (Māori), faʻafafine (Sāmoa), molly or Uranian (England), androgynous, transvestite, etc.
Currently, some of the most common words that people with these experiences want us to use in referring to them are intersex, transgender, and non-binary.
Language changes with time. And sometimes people change the language they think is best to describe them (e.g. comedian Eddie Izzard used to identify as a transvestite man, but now identifies as a transgender woman). That’s OK. The person hasn’t changed. What may have changed is their understanding of themself, the language and concepts that society presented to them as possibilities, and/or the ways that they felt it was safe to express themselves.
I think we should respect the language, names, pronouns, and identity that people tell us best reflects who they are in their context. I think we should affirm and believe what they tell us about their reality as part of God’s diverse creation. I think we should include them, listen to them and learn from their experiences, and just treat them respectfully as human beings!
I definitely don’t think we should give in to our fear of difference, and believe or repeat harmful lies about transender or intersex people. There is a growing tide of transphobia especially in England, and it makes trans people unsafe. One of its main narratives (intentionally or unintentionally) portrays trans people as dangerous to cisgender* women. As the narrative goes, there is a real risk that people claiming to be trans women are actually making it up to try to sneak into spaces like women’s toilets to assault women, and the solution to this is to make sure women’s spaces are “single-sex” i.e. exclude trans women (but also presumably exclude trans men).
This narrative is misleading and damaging in a number of ways. To name some problems with this view: People don’t develop a whole (marginalised) identity over years just to attack women. All women, including trans women, are vulnerable to violence in patriarchal societies, and sadly this violence is mostly likely to happen in intimate relationships. The evidence tells us that trans people are very rarely violent, but sadly they’re very commonly victims of violence. In toilets, trans women are all-too-frequently attacked by cisgender women. If they are forced to use men’s toilets they are frequently attacked by cisgender men.
This narrative that trans people are dangerous is similar to other narratives that dehumanise and oppress other marginalised groups. For example, racism portrays black men as a threat to white women. (This was the pretext for a lot of lynchings in the USA and the justification for the KKK.) Women are indeed vulnerable to violence, but that doesn’t mean we should believe ideologies that use this fact about women’s vulnerability to spin a false, harmful narrative about another (overlapping) vulnerable group like black people or trans people.
But what is my Christian basis for inclusion? Well, I haven’t left myself much room to go into that. So I will simply remind you of the concept of a “trajectory” in Scripture that I talked about in my blog “A Question of Gender, part 2” two months ago. And I will briefly mention the following Biblical passages and ask you to try to discern a trajectory and a central message about God from these passages about people whose gender or sex don’t fit the standard boxes.
- Genesis 1:26-28: “Male and female he created them”—please note that this language doesn’t necessarily mean that there is nothing in between. Genesis 1 also talks about “the heavens (skies) and the earth,” land and sea, creatures of the land or seas or skies. But God also created all the in-betweens or hybrids like the atmosphere, beaches and estuaries, amphibians and seabirds.
- Leviticus 21:16-23: A law excluding “eunuchs” (described as people with “crushed testicles”) from God’s temple. Such people may identify as intersex or transgender today, depending on the cause. This part of the Bible has many laws of exclusion that we have to reckon with as Christians, for example some quite ugly words against people with bodily impairments in the same passage.
- Deuteronomy 22:5: A law against cross-dressing (people who may identify as trans today).
- Isaiah 56:3-8: A prophecy that God will bless and include foreigners and eunuchs, two groups who were previously excluded from God’s people, and accept them in God’s “house of prayer.”
- Matthew 19:12: Jesus refers to the different categories of “eunuchs” that were known to exist at the time. Nobody quite knows what he meant with the mysterious phrase about people becoming eunuchs for the kingdom of God (some people in the early church took it literally and castrated themselves; these days people often take it to mean “celibate,” though most eunuchs weren’t actually celibate). But it’s clear that Jesus acknowledges the reality that some people don’t fit into standard gender categories, either because of how they were born or because of their actions or actions of other people. And Jesus makes no judgement of any of them.
- Acts 8:26-40: God guides Philip to talk to a Ethiopian eunuch. Philip helps the eunuch understand a passage from Isaiah by connecting it to Jesus, and he baptises him. Like in Isaiah 56 but unlike in Leviticus 21, verse 36 says there is nothing to prevent him (a foreigner and a eunuch, not a circumcised Jew) from fellowship with God.
* The prefix “cis” is the opposite of the prefix “trans”. “Cisgender” or “cis” just means “not transgender”.
Questions for discussion
- What’s a situation where you’ve felt you didn’t fit in to the standard boxes?
- What media depictions of minority gender/sex experiences have you come across?
- If you are willing to share, what are some experiences with gender/sex diversity that have affected you? (either your own experience or those of people you know)
- Have you observed changing understandings and languages around gender/sex diversity over your life? What have you found helpful or challenging about this?
- What do you think is the ‘trajectory’ of the Bible on gender/sex diversity?
- Why do you think there is an increasingly prominent anti-trans movement in England especially?
- How do we make sure Beachcomber FX is a welcoming, safe, inclusive, and enjoyable community for transgender, intersex, and non-binary people?
Photo by Alexander Grey: https://www.pexels.com/photo/multicolored-paint-drippings-1212407/
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.