Gender Variance and the Abrahamic Faiths

Abstract

The Abrahamic faiths all share a conviction that human beings are works of God, and many traditionalists within these faiths would hold that seeking to alter the sexed body, as God has made it, is a problematic rejection of this divine gift. Indeed, trans-suspicious theological treatments of transgender often assume that gender variance is a problem for trans people, yet many trans people do not understand it in a way. In this chapter the author has sought to point to the diversity of responses to trans identity within these faiths, including some trans-affirming ones: a reminder that religious bodies as well as individual human bodies are various, and that their own limits are always in negotiation. Anyone interested in the interactions of gender and religion cannot afford to be ignorant of the diversities of identity and expression trans people hold.