Spirituality and crossdressing

It's not a black and white for me. Essentially, I don't mix the two. But when I go to religious services, I'm always underdressed in panties, and sometimes in pantyhose or tights. In bad weather I may wear women's boots, and other times my shoes are women's androgynous flats.

When having services over zoom, I'm often wearing a skirt below camera. Sometimes I have my forms in too, hiding them either by camera angle or with the prayer book in front of me.

During the COVID lockdown, they had 3 options for holiday services. One was live outside in a tent, one was inside with sparse seating and masks, and one was live streaming the services. I was still concerned about going in person, so chose to do the (one-way) live stream. I was dressed en femme for that.

Last year at Keystone, the gala conflicted with the Jewish holiday of Purim. I chose to attend services that night. On Purim, we tend to dress in costume, and I went to services dressed up as Velma from Scooby Doo. I had checked beforehand about attending en femme, and it turns out the office manager was trans, and said they'd have no problem with me attending. This was the first time I attended a service in person en femme.

So while I tend to keep things separate, I also blur the lines a bit.

It was slightly above the knee. I also wore it for Halloween, and I have a couple of public photos of the outfit.

I believe in one less god than Christians, so no conflict at all.

I am a spiritual person who has a Higher Power to guide me. My crossdressing and sexuality are accepted by my Higher Power as they are part of what makes me who I am. In my vision of my Higher Power she is one of us. What matters is what is within me, my soul. It is not mine to judge but to accept others for who they are and to understand that they have a Higher Power of their own to help guide them on their journey thru life. Just as we seek acceptance for being who we are so should we accept others for who they are. There is no right or wrong in what we believe as it is an individual thing. I believe that the ills of the world  exist because we, as a people, can't accept others being different from us. If that weren't true then we would be able to dress any way we want without fear of ridicule. Maybe that is a bit simplistic, if we are lucky those feelings will change to more acceptance of our differences. After all it is our differences that make us who we are.

XOXO
Suzanne

I am a born and raised Catholic, my beliefs are solid as can be. I don’t worry myself with opinions of others on what I should or shouldn’t be doing.
God knew who I was long before I did.

When I’m out, I go to Mass dressed and recieve Communion no different than I would in male mode. 

When I started this thread, I had no idea that it might go against community standards. But in retrospect and with some thought, I should have known. Like the old adage says "Never discuss religion or politics. I am glad that those who have responded so far have kept it polite and civil. My major reason for posting was that I myself sometimes struggle with integrating my beliefs with my dressing and just wanted to hear from others on this subject---

It has also been educational too, I had to get my head around the link from Purim to Velma of Scoobie Doo.

Masquerading ties into the theme of hidden identity which runs through the Purim story...most apt Alsion!

My thoughts:

1. I'm very religious. While I personally don't feel like there's anything wrong with crossdressing, I know most people in my religion would disagree, so that creates a bit of conflict. My worry is not about whether or not it's right or wrong, as much as what my responsibilities are regarding how my actions affect others. Paul in the New Testament talks about this in several places; explaining that while a thing itself may not be wrong as far as God is concerned, we have a responsibility to think about how our actions might affect another person who may be in a different place spiritually, or have a different level of understanding. So, while I personally think cross dressing is fine, others in my Church who disagree might be affected if they saw me dressed up. On the other hand, maybe they just need to mind their own business, but still, this is the real sticking point for me when it comes to religion and cross dressing.

2. I am Christian, the old testament does have one scripture that seems to forbid cross dressing, but the old testament also says you can't eat bacon, so . . . without a big long theological discussion, I find the argument that the Bible says cross dressing is bad, a bit problematic. There is actually an article on this website you can dig up from the archives that talks about this particular verse with some interesting details and background info that changes the way you might think about it.

3. While I feel like cross dressing is fine, when it comes to any kind of knowledge or point of view, I try to always keep open the possibility that my understanding may be incorrect or incomplete. So, while I feel like cross dressing is fine, I could be wrong.

4. I know the website says religious discussions are out of bounds, but I think in a thread like this where someone starts with the clear, open, and honest intent to discuss religion, such a discussion should be allowed. I understand how discussing religion might be a problem if someone, for example starts a thread about one thing, and another person tries to bring religion into it. With a discussion like this, everyone knows right up front what the intent is, so if they don't want to discuss religion, they can just ignore it. That's different than trying to talk about shoes (for example) and someone trying to start proselytizing in their responses. I think we could make a similar exception regarding politics. As long as the discussion is clearly labeled, then people can avoid topics that might cause controversy if they want.

5. Everyone in this thread has shown great respect and civility for each others' beliefs, and that's what I have come to expect from this community. Those of us who have deep commitments to our beliefs, want to give space and show respect for others with different views. Because I want my beliefs respected, I want to be respectful of others. Because I feel secure in my beliefs, I am not threatened by other belief systems. I enjoy learning about what others believe, and learning from them.

I was born and raised Catholic as well. With that said, I believe that the tenets of Catholicism I was exposed to growing up were incompatible with how I viewed my participation in crossdressing, and that ended up having a big impact on how I looked at spirituality and religion in the early part of my life . On the one hand, I had feelings of exhilaration and joy when I first started to crossdress, but I also felt much internal conflict because of the sexual morality taught by the church.

So, because of the duality of my feelings and the strife it caused me, I decided  to keep the spiritual separate from my crossdressing and I did that for quite a long while.

However, in time and with some tough life experience, I came to understand there is a huge difference between religion and spirituality. I do not need religion to talk to God. 

It wasn't until I became much older(and perhaps wiser, however, the jury is still out on that one) that I came to realize that crossdressing was an integral part of who I am, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, and I eventually integrated those aspects, especially the spiritual, into my life. We should not only strive to accept the differences of others, we should also strive to accept the differences within ourselves, and those endeavors are a spiritual attribute of the divine that we should all attempt to embrace.     

So for me, at this point, I have a peaceful balance between the two and I am grateful to God for that.

I really enjoyed reading the responses on this thread, thank you to all!!

XO,

Jennifer