transgender religion

The religious right is wrong

By vanessa | Published June 29, 2008 | 1 Comment

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collectors. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Luke 18:9-14

The religious right is attacking the transgender community again. Naeldrega has some insightful commentary on the most recent attack on the anti-discrimination act. I particularly appreciated this comment:

*Employment anti-discrimination is not about making anyone “believe” anything– it is about protecting people from being fired (or not being hired) regardless of their abilities or qualifications, merely because they are transgender.  If such legislation is enacted, transphobes will retain their right to believe whatever they want, but they will not be allowed to use those beliefs to justify discrimination or workplace harassment. Anti-discrimination laws are not “thought crime” laws.

I’m constantly amazed at how fervently the religious right fights against laws that would protect the poor and downtrodden. They’re anti-gay, anti-trans and anti-immigrant. With such little faith in God they trade in moral leadership for a small measure of imagined security – and endorse torture. I wonder, would Jesus waterboard?

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By this, shall all men know that you are my disciples

By vanessa | Published March 20, 2008 | Leave a comment

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35

Just recently anti-LGBT activists in Montgomery County, MD filed a petition to overturn an anti-discrimination law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression. In particular it prohibits discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodation, cable television service and taxicab service on the basis of gender identity.

Equality Maryland is fighting against this hateful attempt by religious conservatives to deny people their basic human dignity, and they need your help. This group, called the ‘citizens for a responsible government’, comments on the anti-discrimination as follows on their website:

“Our opponents will claim that this is “just an anti-discrimination” bill which protects transgender people. Actually we have no problem with an anti-discrimination bill for transgenders. However, as our Montgomery County Bill 23-07 stands now, it discriminates against the 500,000 women and children in Montgomery County by asking them to sacrifice their privacy rights. Women and children should be able to expect that they ONLY people sharing their bathrooms and locker-rooms also share the same biological sex. Most of the other gender identity bills which have been passed across the US have recognized this issue and addressed it. Our county council did not.”

The fact is, that the issue of public bathrooms has already been resolved by a federal court:

The issue of access to public bathrooms has now been resolved by the federal courts. In the landmark case Cruzan v. Davis, a ruling was made in June 2002 by a federal appeals court in Minnesota that an employer is within its rights to instruct a transgendered employee to use the restroom matching their new presentation. The ruling states that if another employee complains, the company may offer the complaining employee an accommodation (such as the use of a different restroom for the complaining employee.)

To the concern that men would try and pass themselves off as transgendered to ‘hang out in woman’s bathrooms’, there is both very little evidence for this, or that incidents of harassment would increase.

“My answer is that, after a decade of work in this field, I have never heard of a situation where a person used a false claim of gender identity for that purpose. I have certainly heard of a few cases where a man dressed as a woman in order to commit a crime and escape detection (though of course, having heard of the cases, the attempts were obviously not successful). I have also heard about men committing crimes in women’s bathrooms. But these cases all involved an attempt to escape notice, not to call attention to false claims about gender identity. More significantly, those cases were not spurred by the passage of a gender identity non-discrimination law. Now what if, you think, what if some crafty male, spurred by this new law, were to come up with a lascivious plan to lurk in the women’s restroom and then, when confronted by the police about his harassing behavior, claim that he was entitled to commit harassment because of his gender identity? The answer is that harassing behavior is not permitted regardless of one’s gender. If I am standing in the women’s restroom and the woman next to me puts her hand on my thigh, that’s harassment, and it doesn’t matter if she claims gender identity issues or not.” – Jillian Weiss, Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy at Ramapo College of New Jersey

The issue is not about bathrooms – though this definitely makes for a good fear mongering headline. The issue is about the basic human rights that all people have to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The anti-discrimination bill gives the transgendered a better chance to live normal, productive lives. Yet there are some among us who are fearful of diversity and who are eager to impose their view of ‘how things should be’ on the whole country.

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The pitfalls of being a good Christian crossdresser

By vanessa | Published February 29, 2008 | 6 Comments

There are Christians who ostracize the transgendered for being different. They say crossdressing is a sin. By submitting themselves to the will of the church, and fervently seeking God, a few of us have found freedom. Yet for most of us, no matter how hard we pray, how much we definitely want to be cured, how guilty we feel – we wake up each morning as who we are. A transgendered person. Not free, but shackled by the guilt heaped upon us by ‘loving’ and ‘well meaning’ Christian brothers and sisters.

There are other Christians who believe differently. Who believe that God loves the transgendered, and that who we are is not in. Many of these Christians have previously had the weight of the church’s disfavored poured upon them.

I believe, humbly, that whichever group of Christians we choose to believe, that there are dangers that lurk for us. If we submit to the first group, and label our transgendered-ness as sin, we label ourselves as sin. We do not accept who we are.. Then rather than let our light shine, we hide it under a bowl, trying to constrain our spirit. We live only the half-live of those who are afraid to love to much, or sing too loudly.

If we throw our lot behind those who accept and love us, we may be fooled into believing that our purpose is to be transsexual or transgender. In doing this we create a god our of our difference, and spend our days worshipping the desire to fully become woman.

Again Allyson has provided some insight for us.

I believe our challenge is to fully embrace who we are, while at the same time living for God. The transition is not an end unto itself, but a means to more fully fulfill God’s purpose in our lives.

Hugs, Vanessa

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Christianity Today comes up short for the transgender community

By vanessa | Published February 12, 2008 | 8 Comments

Christianity Today attempts to address how Christian leadership should treat the transgendered, but fails both in their compassion for people who are transgendered, and their interpretation of God’s Word. They begin by describing the situation John Nemecek found himself in -  a former Baptist Pastor and long time dean at the Spring Arbor University had struggled for years with his gender identity. When he finally accepted his identity as a woman and found peace, he was fired from his job.

They demonstrate very clearly their lack of understanding by deriding what they term “liberal religious groups”, and say that “transgender impulses … don’t match up with the Christian sexual ethic.” I’ve been a Christian for most of my life and have no idea what the “Christian sexual ethic” is. Is it perhaps the ethic that rails against interracial marriage, or is the one that ensures woman are kept in their rightful place at home? It seems to me that the ‘Christian sexual ethic’ is conveniently defined to be whatever the conservative Christian community feels comfortable with this century.

Despite the paucity of their understanding of what God’s Word says about the transgendered, they do accurately recognize that a church community is likely to feel tension between welcoming us into their church, and keeping the peace with long standing church members. This is the unfortunate reality that we live in today.

I honestly think it is disgusting for conservative organizations to comment that we’re “wacky” and “radical”. I know very few transgendered folks who didn’t struggle for years to “be normal”.

“The transgender lobby is following the example of the homosexual lobby in that they are co-opting the language of the civil rights movement in order to push their own radical and wacky agenda,”

We are not a “violation of natural law” as some conservative Christian’s would have you believe. I do strongly believe that God can do anything, and should He choose to make us feel whole in the body we were born with, it is well within His power.

I am deeply angered by self righteous Christian who claim to know God’s word, yet they only choose to obey the commandments they conveniently self-selected.

Addendum:

After reading many of the comments on their website I’m heartened by the love, compassion and understanding so many of their readers have shown. I remain hopeful that if we would give it a chance, the love of Jesus Christ would shine through us all.

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God’s calling for the transgendered

By vanessa | Published February 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

I was reading Psalm 86 today, and was reminded again of the beauty and wonder of our God. I’ll quote a portion of it, and I encourage you to read along in your own Bible, or if you don’t have one, to request one from your local church (they will be happy to provide one for you!).

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

For the transgendered a Christian walk can sometimes be a struggle. It is easy for us to get lost in the struggle against an uncaring church, against our unsatisfied conscience, against the body God gave us. We would do well to heed the wisdom in David’s prayer, asking God with fervent prayer to teach us in His ways. When we focus our attention on pleasing God our strife fades away. When we allow ourselves to become enamored with God’s will He makes our purpose clear, and gives us strength to walk in it.

When I think about an undivided heart, I think about putting aside my quest for wholeness, and following God’s plan. You cannot worship yourself as a woman, and God at the same time. I know how hard this is. Who we are plays such a large part in shaping our life experience – it is hard to go a day without thinking about our unique character. We need to be careful that we do not put our obsession with self ahead of God.

Once we do that we are blessed to glorify God forever, and experience His great love towards us.

If you’re reading this and feeling lost, alone and unloved, I want you to know that Jesus Christ will never leave you. He loves you so much that He endured death on the cross to allow you to have a relationship with God. If you are hurting, leave a comment, reach out. I will say a prayer for you.

Love

Vanessa

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Crossdressing is a sin

By vanessa | Published February 9, 2008 | 11 Comments

It must be, it says it right there in Deuteronomy 22:5

A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.

That seems pretty clear to me. Not only is it a sin, but a detestable sin. At least that’s what my pastor was kind enough to remind me when I went to him for advice. He was quick to point out that while God welcomed all children to His flock – even the hurt and broken – He did not intend for them to stay that way. I asked him for resources and support to help me overcome this and he pointed me to Randall’s website.

Now as you know I’ve previously written about being a Christian crossdresser, and I firmly believe that God can do more than we could ever hope for or imagine – He even has the power to cure crossdressing (if you think about it for a second, this is probably quite easy compared with healing the sick and raising the dead).

But if crossdressing were such a detestable sin, surely the Bible would be overflowing with admonishments against crossdressing. At least a mention in the New Testament, or a reaffirmation by another prophet in the Old Testament. What we have though is Deuteronomy 22:5. Which happens to be only six verses away from Deuteronomy 22:11

Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together

And Deuteronomy 22:12

Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear

Now I’m sure that every good Bible believing Christian checks to ensure their clothes aren’t made from different materials, and is diligent about making tassels for their coats. Surely being just six verses away would make these commandments as important and worthy of fervor? Not so it seems. The inconvenient laws from the Old Testament ‘no longer apply to modern society’. It seems somewhat hypocritical to me that Christians would use this verse to damn the transgendered as sinners and heretics. Joanna does this line of reasoning full justice when she discusses Crossdressing and Christianity

Randall constructs a compelling argument that crossdressing is not Christian. It is worth reading, he begins:

While searching for an answer to the question of cross-dressing being a sin, I realized that I was looking for a black and white literal answer in the Word that was not there. My reasoning was that if the prohibition was not there, it was OK to cross-dress. Later, I realized that was the same attitude the Pharisees had in Jesus’ day – they would strain at observing all of the “must dos,” but they would create all kinds of ways to follow the law literally while breaking it in spirit. It occurred to me that on this issue, I had become a legalist! (more)

Clearly crossdressing is not a sin, any more than eating pork or wearing clothes made of different fabrics. Given this we should should not be willing to accept the condemnation of others, especially not Christians. As Paul says in Romans 2:1

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things.

And in rejecting the condemnation of others, we should realize that Jesus Christ does not condemn us.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – John 3:17-18

So we have accepted that crossdressing is not a sin, but what of the other lines of reasoning Randall puts forth? I’ll discuss those in more detail in a future post. In ending this post I want to again urge you.

Don’t let anyone else tell you that crossdressing is ‘right’ any more than you let anyone tell you that crossdressing is a sin. Your true purpose in life is known to God, and revealed to you through your relationship with Him. He may want to cure you, change your heart, or use you to bring comfort and blessing to others. Be open to His plan for your life.

Hugs and Blessings

Vanessa

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You are fearfully and wonderfully made, no matter what clothes you wear

By vanessa | Published February 3, 2008 | Leave a comment

Psalms 139:13-14 says, ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.’

The video below touched me, and reminded me again that God made us in all His love and power. As someone once put it, ‘God don’t make no junk.’

Never let anyone tell you that God doesn’t love you because of who you are. Jesus died for everyone, not just those who lived up to societies image of ‘normal’.

Never let yourself feel unloved. God knows your pain. He knows your struggle. When you’re saddened by who you are, His heart breaks. He made you with a purpose for this time in history.

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