God is beyond gender binary, so why can't our faith be too?
I’m a Christian, training to be a minister, and LGBTQ affirming. I was affirming of gender non-conforming and transgender people before I supported people seeking same-sex relationships. This may seem like a bigger step than just acceptance of same-sex marriage, but this affirmation is backed up by medicine, scripture, and praxis that has only gotten stronger since I took this position a few years ago.
Medical Evidence
Gender non-conforming and transgender people people are often depicted as "going against their biology." They “feel” different in their gender, but they’re defying their biology. If you have an XX/XY pair and specific genitalia, then you are that sex.
However, this is not the case. Medical science has uncovered just how complex biological sexual development is, representing a spectrum instead of binary set of sexually dimorphic features. (Sexual dimorphism means features that are found in typically biological males and females)
For instance, transgender people have a density of the BSTc neural terminal which aligns with the gender they are transitioning to, not their birth gender. The BSTc neural terminal is partially responsible for neural sexual development and experience of gender. This observation has been repeated and variables accounted for in multiple studies. (1) (2)
There are multiple other mixed sexually dimorphic features, including genetics, hormones, neural development, and more which occur in transgender and otherwise nonconforming people. We’re entering an exciting phase of research on this topic where repeated studies are conform or dismiss previous research. So far, this research has affirmed what has been demonstrated before. You can find more research in the sources. (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
Unfortunately, gender nonconforming people who are not traditionally “transgender” are more difficult to categorize, and very little research has been done on non-conforming people who are not transgender. However, what is important is that transgender research shows us that biological sex is a spectrum. So, it seems that transgender and otherwise gender nonconforming people don't just "feel" like the opposite sex or both sexes or neither, their biology includes development of both sexes in fundamental ways. It's not "feelings." It's a medical fact that shows itself in their experiences and expressions.
Scriptural Evidence
The Bible never explicitly addresses transgender, nonbinary, or even intersex issues, and all supposed condemnations, such as against “soft men” in 1 Corinthians 6:9, are explicitly linked to binary concepts of gender that we don’t even hold today, such as women being “soft” because they were inherently undisciplined and hedonistic, whereas men were thought to inherently be the morally fit and disciplined sex. (9)
What we can look at, however, is the nature of God and how it is expressed in people made in God’s image. God is not a binary being. Throughout the scriptures and church tradition, all three persons of the Trinity are described using both male and female terminology for their inherent qualities. For instance, Yahweh or “the Father” in Proverbs 8:24 is described as giving birth to Wisdom using the Hebrew term חוּל, to writhe in childbirth. (10) Other passages like Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Psalm 131:2, Hosea 11:3-4, Isaiah 49:15, and Isaiah 66:13 explicitly describe Yahweh’s actions and attributes as ones which in that time would have been binarily female. So, the “Father’s” inherent traits include both “male and female” on our binary.
The “Son” or “Logos” also explicitly refers to Itself as Chokmah, known as Lady Wisdom, when incarnate as Jesus (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:35-37). Chokmah is a feminine figure in the rest of the Bible, depicted not as the Son but the Daughter of Yahweh (who births her like a Mother) in Proverbs 8:22-31. The Son is also the Daughter, and so another member of the Trinity inherently has traits which we would define in cultural binary as both “male” and “female.”
The Holy Spirit is the most feminine member of the Trinity. The Hebrew and Aramaic word for Spirit, רוּחַ, is a grammatically feminine word which uses female pronouns and verbs. When the entirety of the Old Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit, She is grammatically female. When Jesus would have spoken of the Holy Spirit in Aramaic, She would have been grammatically female.
Some Semitic speaking Christians, like Syriac and Arabic, continue to speak of the Holy Spirit as female today, especially when referring to ordained women. "But let the Deaconesses be honoured by you in the likeness of the Holy Spirit." (Didascalia Apostolorum, 9.48) The New Testament, however, also speaks of the Holy Spirit with neuter pronouns, and possibly also masculine. Again, the third member of the Holy Spirit is understood as both male and female.
God is beyond gender binary. If male and female both have the image of God in them, then God must have the fullness of male and female in Herself/Himself/Themself. And as such, there is no reason to think that a human being who is also beyond our gender binary is somehow offensive to God who also is. They too hold God’s image, perhaps expressing it even more fully than some of us who are cisgendered.
Evidence from Affirming Christian Praxis
When it comes to praxis, how Christians act, I lean on the scriptures' description that we judge trees by their good and bad fruit, and we can judge teachings and teachers based on their outcomes. (Matthew 7:17-18, Luke 6:43, Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 5:9, James 3:17)
So, if scriptures do not directly condemn being transgender or nonconforming, we have to look at the fruit. What fruit does affirmation create? What fruit does rejection create?
Gender nonconforming and transgender people's well-being is tied to how their family, peers, and society treats them. This is backed up by multiple studies. In several short term studies, close family support cuts suicide attempts for LGBTQ people as a whole by up to 50% (11) (12) (13) Repeated long-term studies also show that broader peer and societal acceptance after medical and/or social transition brings transgender mental illness and suicide rates down to *no difference* from the rest of the population. (14) (15)
Conclusion
If good trees produce good fruit, saved lives and closer families are certainly good fruit. And for such a medically clear issue with little if any scriptural support to the contrary and much in favor, we must choose the position that accepts good fruit. We must keep families together and people safe. This, of course, does not mean God only intended for us to do things that give people mentally and materially fulfilled lives, but it does mean that when we have a practice or doctrine that isn’t clear to us, we should lean on love, grace, and supporting our siblings, not our own opinions and prejudice.
Sources
1) A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality Jiang-Ning Zhou - Michel A.Hofman - Louis J. G.Gooren - Dick F.Swaab - Nature - 1995
2) Kruijver, Frank P. M., et al. “Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 85, no. 5, 2000, pp. 2034–2041., doi:10.1210/jcem.85.5.6564.
3) Rametti, Giuseppina, et al. “White Matter Microstructure in Female to Male Transsexuals before Cross-Sex Hormonal Treatment. A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.” Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 45, no. 2, 2011, pp. 199–204., doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.05.006.
4) Rametti, Giuseppina, et al. “The Microstructure of White Matter in Male to Female Transsexuals before Cross-Sex Hormonal Treatment. A DTI Study.” Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 45, no. 7, 2011, pp. 949–954., doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.11.007.
5) Burke, Sarah M., et al. “Hypothalamic Response to the Chemo-Signal Androstadienone in Gender Dysphoric Children and Adolescents.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 10 Apr. 2014, journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fendo.2014.00060/full.
6) Burke, Sarah M., et al. “Click-Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions in Children and Adolescents with Gender Identity Disorder.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 43, no. 8, 2014, pp. 1515–1523., doi:10.1007/s10508-014-0278-2.
7) Fernández, R, et al. “The (CA)n Polymorphism of ERβ Gene Is Associated with FtM Transsexualism.” The Journal of Sexual Medicine., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24274329.
8) Diamond, Milton. “Transsexuality Among Twins: Identity Concordance, Transition, Rearing, and Orientation.” International Journal of Transgenderism, vol. 14, no. 1, 2013, pp. 24–38., doi:10.1080/15532739.2013.750222.
9) https://biblehub.com/greek/3120.htm
10) https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2342.htm
11) https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf
12)https://familyproject.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/FAP_Family%20Acceptance_JCAPN.pdf
13) https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/lgbt.2015.0111
14) Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden Cecilia Dhejne-Paul Lichtenstein-Marcus Boman-Anna Johansson-Niklas Långström-Mikael Landén - PLoS ONE - 2011
15) https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/21447/