Am I an abomination?

When I was in 8th grade, one of my teachers required daily Bible reading; he didn’t care which part we read, as long as we read a certain number of chapters per day—and wrote something about it.

I started at the beginning. Genealogies, detailed instructions for tabernacle construction, ceremonial laws: I slogged straight through it all.

Several weeks in, I ran across this gem:

5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

Oh no.

By the time that I read this, it had already been about a year since I had become aware that something was up with my gender identity. (although I was not equipped to articulate it like that) In that time, I had developed a particular coping mechanism. You guessed it: in private, I would sometimes wear gender-affirming clothing.

Back then, I had never heard the word “transgender”. I had no idea that medical therapies were available for people like me. As far as I knew, gender was encoded in the DNA, meaning that I was stuck as a boy. (although I often fantasized about the invention of a technology that would let me fix this)

So when I encountered this verse, I couldn’t help but read myself in it.

Abomination

Was that me?

This only served to confirm my worst fears about what might happen if I opened up to someone about my identity, so I retreated even further into secrecy.

For years.

Decades.

In my last post, I said that Genesis 1 was typically the first passage that non-affirming Christians cite when attempting to defend their views.

This is the second.

I mean, if cross-dressing is forbidden, then clearly we can’t accept trans folks, right?

At this point, I could point out that the original meaning of this verse is less clear than the translation might imply. I could discuss the unusual setting of this commandment, which gives clues that a straightforward reading may be inappropriate. I could appeal to the fact that there are many commandments in Deuteronomy—including some in this very chapter—that modern Christians disregard. What’s the logic behind singling this one out as special?

But all of that would only distract from a more fundamental issue when citing this verse in a discussion about trans people: it’s literally begging the question. (in the classical sense of the phrase, not the modern vernacular)

The core assertion underlying much of trans-affirming thinking is that the “best” way to define “man” and “woman” (as well as any alternatives that exist) is through an individual’s own, internal sense of their gender. (this sense is commonly called a person’s “gender identity”) Many people arrive at this conclusion after evaluating a number of alternative definitions and finding them to be problematic—although discussing specific problems is beyond the scope of this article.

Regardless of how you feel about that assertion, appealing to Deuteronomy 22:5 in a context in which the definition of “man” and “woman” has not been settled is clearly inappropriate.

The only way for this verse to have even the potential to say anything meaningful about trans folks is to first assume a particular definition for “man” and “woman”. (and if we use the definition that I supplied, then wearing guy clothes for so many years is what was problematic. Fancy that!)

Frustratingly, a precise definition for “man” and “woman” cannot be found anywhere in the Bible, nor are there any explicit criteria that might guide us to accept one alternative over another. Some of the alternatives that we might consider are: our best approximation of ancient beliefs about gender, chromosomes, genital configurations gender identity, trusting the judgment of midwives, or flipping a coin. Whatever definition we choose must be brought with us to the text.

While there are a few other passages that come up in defense of anti-trans positions, all of the arguments suffer from the same problem: they start by assuming the conclusion that they want to draw.

This leaves us in a rather surprising position: it turns out that the Bible doesn’t have anything to say directly about the validity of trans experiences, yet many Christians will fight tooth and nail to oppose our acceptance.

What’s really going on here?

I have some thoughts on this, but they’ll have to wait for a future post.