The twenty-first century can probably be called the century when so much happened, we’re not even sure how to categorize it. Global economy is now a thing, private enterprises are everywhere, some kind of war happens every decade or so, global pandemics are no longer just a horror story, telework is now a norm, everyone has access to the internet, AI is entering homes, and DNA sequencing is available for the middle class. All of those would have been fairytales in the twentieth century, and yet, that’s probably not what’s going to be remembered in the future. You know what will be remembered? That the twenty-first century was the century of feelings. We all got so in touch with our feelings and emotions that they controlled us and changed the entire world. When the twenty-second century rolls around, this century will be known for all the big movements that shook the world, like the LGBTQIA+ movement. Speaking of which, what exactly is that about? Last time I wrote about it, I examined the first two letters (lesbian and gay, aka homosexuality) through both secular and Biblical perspectives. This time, I’m going to take a look at what it means to be transgender, and try to figure out what the world and the Bible has to say about it.
NOTE
Before I move on, I want to mention that the term “transgenderism” is seen as offensive to most of the LGBTQIA+ community because they don’t like the implication that their identity is just an ideology that they push on others.1 Therefore, I will try not to use it very often in this paper.
Gender Dysphoria, the Medical Diagnosis
NOTE
There are some arguments that gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder, is a negative term that seeks to diagnose trans-people with a mental illness, but generally speaking, the term is more acceptable than “transgenderism.”
Simply put, a person with gender dysphoria, or a transgender person, is someone who has a gender identity that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Confusing? Well, first, you have to understand that the words “gender” and “sex” are no longer interchangeable. Ask the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and they will tell you that gender identity is “one’s internal sense of being male, female, both or neither” while sex, or “sex assigned at birth,” is what your doctor decided when he looked at your sex chromosomes, genitalia, hormones, and all the other science stuff. The phrase “gender expression” is also used, and that is basically the outward expression of one’s gender identity, if they choose to publicly display it.2
Gender dysphoria is said to occur in all age groups, with the signs being slightly different. Either way, to be medically diagnosed with it, the patient has to exhibit these signs for at least six months. The signs are basically any kind of action that gives the impression that the subject wants to be a gender other than the one that identifies with their biological sex. This includes things like boys/girls preferring to wear feminine/masculine clothing, playing with toys often attributed to another gender, or hating their genitals. For children, 6+ different signs, as well as negatively impacted performance in major areas (school, home, relationships, etc.), need to be present before they can be diagnosed, and for adolescents and adults, there only has to be 2+ signs.3
Causes
There are no known scientific causes of gender dysphoria, but suspects include genes, hormones, and environmental factors. The first displays of gender dysphoria are commonly found in toddlers, and the vast majority of these displays are phases that pass before the toddlers grow up into adolescence. And for adults, the first displays are usually during early to mid-adulthood, and it’s either a continuation from their toddler years or just a later appearance of gender dysphoria.4
How Common Is It?
Surprisingly, with all the fuss about it, gender dysphoria is only found in less than 1% of the entire population. According to Psychology Today, only 0.005% to 0.014% of biological males, and 0.002% to 0.003% of biological females, are diagnosed with gender dysphoria.5
Does the Bible Have Anything To Say About It?
As with a few other things, the Bible doesn’t specifically mention gender dysphoria or transgender people; however, as with all things, there are some verses that show us the right modal for our lives and address similar ideas. As said “…there is no verse that says, ‘Thou shalt not transition from a man to a woman.’ But neither are there any verses that talk explicitly about gun violence, anorexia, waterboarding, fossil fuels, vaccines, GMOs, HMOs, or Pokemon Go. We should not expect the Bible to speak in 21st century terms to every 21st-century eventuality.”6
Genesis 1:27; 2:18-24
The first verse usually mentioned in the discussion of transgenders and the Bible is the creation account. As Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (BSB [emphasis added]). Notice that none of the 68 other terms for one’s gender identity7 are there in the text. Genesis 2:18-24 goes into it deeper by adding that this is the reason a man and a woman will leave their parents to be joined together as one flesh. Nowhere in those verses does it appear that there are more than two genders.
An interesting pro-LGBTQIA+ interpretation of this verse is one that I like to call the “spectrums of Creation.” For this argument, the HRC says out that part of God’s creation has spectrums (e.g. day and night has dawn and dusk), so humans must have them too. It would be wrong for us to claim that creatures like penguins and dolphins that were not mentioned in the Bible are abominations or the result of sin.8
Personally, this was the first and only place I have seen this argument, and it didn’t take long for me to dismiss the idea. My counter-argument is that penguins and dolphins are not spectrums in-between birds and fish. A spectrum is a range of how something can vary, and birds and fish are not in each other’s spectrums. The only way these two entirely different creatures could be transitioning to each other was if one evolved from the other, and that doesn’t comply with the Creation account. A spectrum of a creature would most likely include the different color patterns and slight variations that specific creature has. The spectrum of a human wouldn’t be between male and female, it would have to be more specific because males and females have too many differences.
Deuteronomy 22:5
This verse is a command given to the Israelites regarding clothing. It’s said that the Lord detests when women wear men’s clothing, and vice versa.
Pro-trans arguments would simply argue that this verse is talking about cross-dressing, not transitioning. They would also add that the Lord said that to keep the Israelites separate from the other religions of the area, reinforce that “mixing” things is bad (blending fabrics, variations of seeds, etc.), and/or to keep the society gender-segregated.9 Another popular belief is that wearing men’s clothes would expose a woman’s breasts, so God is telling His people to practice modesty.10 Either way, we don’t follow the laws of the Old Testament anyway, so this shouldn’t be part of an anti-LGBTQIA+ argument for Christians, right? Wrong, let me tell you why.
Every part of Scripture reveals a part of God, and He doesn’t change His opinions every few years like the rest of us. God has always been the same, and Jesus is His Son and shares the same opinions. The only reason that we don’t follow most of the Old Testament laws is that Jesus came and fulfilled the purpose those laws were designed to try and fix. What was the purpose of Deut. 22:5, and how did Jesus fulfill it?
The Old Testament and the New Testament have a few things in common, one of which being the separation of men and women in certain roles. From the home to the church, there were gender-specific rules that were laid out and became the norm. When Jesus came, He didn’t abolish all of those laws and let men and women mingle together however they wished, the early church is evidence of this, take a look at 1 Corinthians 11:2–16. In these verses, there are clear distinctions between what a man and a woman should do when they come to God in prayer. There was an obvious distinction between men and women, men had uncovered heads and women’s heads were covered, why? I don’t have an exact reference for this, but, if you look at the Jewish culture you will notice that Jewish men also have a lot of hair. Think about it, if both men and women had a lot of hair, would you be able to tell apart from first glance? I’m sure I would have to do a few double-takes. Perhaps, that’s the simple reason why laws like exist. God didn’t want there to be much of a chance that someone would mistake a woman for a man and vice versa, because He created them with that gender for a specific reason. Just a thought.
Deuteronomy 23:1; Isaiah 56:1-8; Matthew 19:12; Acts 8:26-40
Behold, the famous eunuch verses that some pro-trans supporters get so giddy over. After all, a man with “crushed or severed genitals” (Deut. 23:1) sounds a lot like a trans woman, right? And if the Lord really did change His mind in Isaiah 56, wouldn’t that mean that He is calling us to begin accepting trans-people? All they would have to do is do what pleases the Lord and follows His commands. Even Jesus seems to echo this when He says that some eunuchs live that way for “the sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:12). But is that really what these verses are saying? Again, God doesn’t change His mind, so why would He be disgusted by eunuchs in His temple and then be okay with it? I doubt it’s because He felt bad for all the Jewish men who were castrated during the Babylonian takeover.
Another argument for Matt. 19:12 is that when Jesus said “there are eunuchs who were born that way” He was referring to intersex or trans-people. A counter to this would be a simple question, why wouldn’t he be referring to people who can’t procreate? In my last paper, I went over how the Greek culture at that time was very into pederasty (older man having sexual relations with younger boys) and homosexual relationships because they saw men as superior to women. That’s where the phrase “women are for procreation and men are for fun” comes from. Arguably, ancient Greek’s version of homosexuality was normalized child abuse. Since it was such a popular thing at the time, why wouldn’t Jesus just mention it? It’s not like it was a taboo thing that no one knew about. When Jesus said “eunuch,” He probably meant “eunuch”
Conclusion
This paper is already spanning over two thousand words, so I will conclude it here in the hopes that I have shed some light into a very confusing and scary area of our lives today. I do briefly want to go over some articles I came across regarding how to address gender dysphoria among children and adults, including yourself. Focus on the Family has many resources that touch on the LGBTQIA+ movement, including how to handle transgender issues in the family,11 like answering specific questions children may ask,12 and how to have those age-appropriate sex education conversations.13
It can be very difficult when one we love decides to venture into the transgender realm and all its avenues that will suck you in and leave you lost and confused. If you’re in this situation, it’s important that you know you’re not alone. There are dozens of people who have loved ones, and even children, who are trapped in this LGBTQIA+ world. Bring it to God, and your church, in prayer. Don’t stop fervently praying for that lost person until they are snatched back from the thorns of transgenderism.
Footnotes
-
“Transgenderism: Definition, Meaning, and Origin in Anti-LGBTQ Hate,” GLAAD, November 2, 2023, https://glaad.org/transgenderism-definition-meaning-anti-lgbt-online-hate/. ↩
-
Austen Hartke and Myles Markham, “What Does the Bible Say about Transgender People?,” ed. Michael Vazquez, Human Rights Campaign, accessed August 16, 2024, https://www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-transgender-people. ↩
-
“Gender Dysphoria,” Psychology Today, October 25, 2021, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/gender-dysphoria. ↩
-
Psychology Today, “Gender Dysphoria.” ↩
-
Psychology Today, “Gender Dysphoria.” ↩
-
Kevin DeYoung, “What Does the Bible Say about Transgenderism?,” The Gospel Coalition, September 8, 2016, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/what-does-the-bible-say-about-transgenderism/. ↩
-
Mere Abrams, LCSW, and Sian Ferguson, “68 Terms That Describe Gender Identity and Expression,” ed. Tess Catlett, Healthline, January 26, 2024, https://www.healthline.com/health/different-genders. ↩
-
Austen Hartke and Myles Markham, “What Does the Bible Say about Transgender People?” ↩
-
Austen Hartke and Myles Markham, “What Does the Bible Say about Transgender People?” ↩
-
Eliel Cruz, “What the Bible Says (and Doesn’t Say) about Trans People,” Religion News Service, September 3, 2015, https://religionnews.com/2015/09/03/what-the-bible-says-and-doesnt-say-about-trans-people/. ↩
-
Rob Jackson, “Biblical View on Transgender Identity: A Primer for Parents and Strugglers,” Focus on the Family, December 10, 2020, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/a-biblical-perspective-on-transgender-identity-a-primer-for-parents-and-strugglers/. ↩
-
Jeff Johnston, “Talking to Your Children about Transgender Issues,” Focus on the Family, June 2, 2016, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/get-help/talking-to-your-children-about-transgender-issues/. ↩
-
Rob Jackson, “Sex Education for Kids Ages 9-12,” Focus on the Family, May 7, 2024, https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/sex-education-how-to-start-early/. ↩