T H E
B I B L E
a n d t h e
T R A N S G E N D E R
E X P E R I E N C E
to Gabrielle
without whose sharing and support
this book would not have come to be
and to you
if your head needs a reason to believe
what your heart already knows
The Pilgrim Press, 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
2016 by Linda Ann Herzer
ISBN: 978-0-8298204-4-7
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I n 2012 my lifes journey brought mea straight, nontransgender, middle-aged, middle-class minister onto the staff of what was then a predominantly LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex) congregation. It turns out I was an answer to the pastors prayer that straight folks would start coming to the church so they could be more inclusive which they now are!
It also turned out that this church was very inclusive of the transgender community. On any given Sunday, approximately 10 percent of our worshiping congregation fell somewhere under the transgender umbrella. We had trans men and trans women, cross-dressers, and those who identified as two-spirit and genderqueer. I quickly realized I needed to augment the seminary education I had received back in the 1980s to effectively minister to all my new congregants!
Consequently, I began listening to the stories of my transgender parishioners and attending conferences and support groups for gender variant individuals, that is, for those persons for whom the traditional categories male and female did not adequately define who they knew themselves to be. (I will define all these terms in chapters 1 and 2.) I read and studied and basically availed myself of any and every possible resource that would help me learn more about those who identified as gender variant. However, when I looked for books on what the Bible has to say about the transgender experience, I found very few. Consequently, I decided to write this book, based on what I have learned during these past four years.
I am deeply indebted to all the congregants and staff of that church, City of Light Atlanta, for welcoming me and freely sharing their journeys. I am especially grateful to the Rev. Dr. Paul Graetz for praying me into his congregation, nurturing my gifts, and opening many doors for me during the three years I was there.
I would also like to express deep appreciation to Rhonda Lee and all the members and significant others of Sigma Epsilon for their warm welcome and support.
My sincerest appreciation for the publishing staff at The Pilgrim PressTina, Julie, and Aimeand to my wonderful copy editor, Kris. It has been a pleasure working with each of you!
Special thanks to those who have helped me with various aspects of creating this book: Gabrielle, Byron, Joanie, Darlene, Michael, Peterson, John, Larry, Dona, Bob, Sue, Cliff, Rhonda, Megan, Phoebe, Stephanie, and my daughter, Katie.
Many thanks to all my friends and family for their support and encouragement these past four years and especially to Michael, Gary, Gabrielle, Joanie, Dona, Andrea, Leslie, Sue, Cheryl, and my daughter, brother, and parents.
In the same way that it takes a community to raise a child, it has been the influence of the friends in many faith communities that has helped me grow into the person I am today. Deep gratitude to the members of the United Methodist churches in which I grew up, my Tufts Christian Fellowship friends, Asbury Theological Seminary classmates and professors, members of my first parish in upstate New York, the Atlanta breathwork community, my friends at Central Congregational UCC and Kirkwood UCC, and the women of the Harnessing Your Divine Feminine community. Blessings to all of you!
Blessings to you also, my reader, whether you are an old friend or one I have yet to meet. May God use this book to help you find the wisdom you seekpersonally, professionally, and/or as a citizen of communities where transgender issues are being debated and legislated with growing frequency.
part one
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
WHAT WE ARE AND ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT
LGB and TQI
I am a minister who identifies as straight and nontransgender. Four years ago I joined the staff of a church where most of our congregants identified as gay, lesbian, or transgender. As a result, I began encountering the acronym LGBTQI with some frequency. I learned that LGBTQI is an abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, and intersex. I also learned that lumping all these letters together sometimes leads to the misunderstanding that being L, G, or B is the same as being T, Q, or I. However, this is not the case. There are some very important distinctions between these terms. (If these terms are new to you, as some of them were to me, know that I will explain them in greater detail in the next chapter.)
The words gay, lesbian, and bisexual refer to ones sexual orientation . Sexual orientation, generally speaking, has to do with whom one is attracted to romantically. The word transgender, broadly speaking, refers to ones gender identity and/or ones gender expression . Gender identity has to do with a persons internal sense of themselves, whether they know themselves to be a woman, a man, or possibly both or neither. Gender expression has to do with how people outwardly express their gender through dress, mannerisms, hairstyles, vocal inflections, and so on.
My transgender congregants helped me understand that being transgender has nothing to do with ones sexual orientation, that gender identity and sexual orientation are two totally different things. They explained it this way: Being gay is about who you go to bed with ; being transgender is about who you go to bed as . Consequently, transgender individuals can be gay or straight or bisexual or any of the various sexual orientations that human beings experience.
Regarding the Q and the I in LGBTQI, persons identifying as queer or questioning could be referring to their sexual orientation, their gender identity, their gender expression, and/or all three. The word intersex refers to ones biology . People who are intersex are born with genitals, internal reproductive organs, or chromosome patterns that do not fit typical definitions of male or female.
Many helpful books have been written about what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, that is, about the LGB, so that is not what we will look at here. In this book, we will consider what scripture has to say about the TQIabout gender and biological variance. So lets begin!
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Now and Then
W hen I was earning my Master of Divinity degree at Asbury Theological Seminary, our professors taught us that, when it comes to understanding the Bible, context is everything! This meant that we were never to try to understand scripture by simply looking at an isolated verse.
