For as long as he could remember, he knew himself to be a boy. Sam grew up being told they were a boy but they never knew themselves to be a boy. They came out as non-binary to reflect their authentic experience with their gender identity. When we use gender expression , we are talking about the way that a person may outwardly reflect their internal sense of gender through presentation, such as through clothing, hair, voice and body language.
In our examples above, Josh could be a transgender man who is gay, bisexual or straight. Sam could be a non-binary person who expresses their gender consistently in a more traditionally masculine or feminine way, or neither or both at the same time.
When we use non-affirming , we are referring to the theological view that transgender and other expressions of gender variance are either a sinful within themselves or b that they are morally neutral but nevertheless a kind of disorder, mental illness or other brokenness. It provides insight for anyone seeking to use appropriate language, understand common shortcomings, and discover steps they can take to address trans communities more respectfully.
When Christians think about gender, they tend to go back to the beginning. However, when we look just a little closer at each of these passages we find a much more complex and beautiful world. Humans, then, are also created in an opposite pair--male and female.
In between day and night we have dawn and dusk; between land and sea we have coral reefs and estuaries and beaches; between flying birds and swimming fish we have penguins and high jumping dolphins, not to mention that uncategorizable favorite the platypus! In the same way, God gives every human a self that is unique and may not always fit neatly into a box or binary. There is, too, a diversity among transgender and non-binary people when it comes to bodies, personalities, beliefs and experiences.
Not every microbe and constellation must be named in this chapter in order to have a purpose and a blessing. Genesis 2 gives us a different perspective on the creation story, and here a non-gendered human is created first and then later a piece of the first person, Adam, is made into the second person, Eve. Based on the order of creation in this story, some theologians argue that this passage upholds a structure called gender complementarity.
Gender complementarity asserts that God created two fundamentally different genders which have strict corresponding societal roles; in short, men were created to lead and women were created to follow.
Alternatively, moving away from gender complementarity frees Christians up to explore other biblical alternatives for identity, community and relationship--alternatives based on the example Jesus set and called for in his teachings, rather than on gender difference. One of the ways that Christians have historically understood the existence of suffering in the world is to attribute it to the idea that things are not now as they were originally created before the sin of Adam and Eve later in Genesis.
We also know that when it comes to the suffering that transgender and non-binary people experience, most is linked to the stress and oppression caused by other people. Studies show that when transgender people are affirmed and loved, their well-being also benefits..
Brownson Eerdmans, Rood, Sari L. Russell, Amanda M. Bauer, Ayden I. Doctors already factor in the importance of tweaking the standard female dosages for pregnant women, who have a higher body weight and are simmering in a cocktail of hormones that change certain aspects of their biology.
However, no such considerations are routinely made for transgender people, who, as a result of surgery or hormonal therapies, are known not to respond to certain drugs in the same way.
This is all layered on top of some alarming statistics about transgender health. The group has higher rates of heart disease , certain cancers , mental health problems , suicide , smoking , and substance abuse than the general population — as well as an HIV prevalence which is up to 42 times the national average.
Transgender people are not only more likely to get sick, but less likely to seek treatment when they do. Transgender medicine arguably began with the Roman emperor Elagabalus, who reigned from to AD and is considered by some to be the first person to seek sex reassignment surgery.
He reportedly asked his doctors to construct a vagina inside his body. The institute was later burned down by the Nazis. From the s, hormone therapy became more accessible. Today, transgender men often take testosterone, which can help them to develop larger muscles, beards and body hair, as well as deep voices — and even sometimes male-pattern baldness — while transgender women often take oestrogen and a drug that blocks the action of their natural testosterone, if they are still producing it.
There has been little research into how transgender people's bodies process drugs and anaesthetics Credit: Getty Images. For years, it was illegal for doctors to refuse care following protections introduced by the Obama administration. But US President Donald Trump recently reversed them , leading to growing concern about how this might affect transgender people. Many also find it difficult to get health insurance. Another big challenge is the widespread lack of knowledge about transgender anatomy, along with ususual levels of curiosity about it.
Whitley has first-hand experience of just how common this is. The first incident occurred when Whitley went for an ultrasound scan to investigate his kidney failure, and the technicians who were assessing him abruptly walked out. Later, he listened in amazement as a doctor gravely informed him that he had a uterus — a fact that Whitley was, naturally, already aware of.
Due to the way cancer screening is offered, transgender men will often miss out on vital tests that can detect the signs of breast cancer Credit: Press Association.
Even when doctors are well-informed, it can still be difficult for transgender people to access certain potentially life-saving interventions because of the systems that are in place.
The former is often appropriate, because if they are taking female hormones they will be at a slightly higher risk of breast cancer — but of course this group do not have cervixes, and they could be missing out on important pre-emptive treatments if their AAAs go unnoticed. But in developed adults, estrogen and progesterone levels are on average similar between males and nonpregnant females.
And while testosterone exhibits the largest difference between adult males and females, heritability studies have found that genetics X vs. The binary sex model not only insufficiently predicts the presence of hormones but is useless in describing factors that influence them. Environmental, social and behavioral factors also influence hormones in both males and females, complicating the idea that hormones determine sex. Progesterone changes in response to typically male-coded social situations that involve dominance and competition.
Though testosterone levels are different between males and females on average, many external factors can change these levels, such as whether or not a person is raising a child. Differing testosterone levels in both men and women can predict certain parenting behaviors. Even the content of a sexual fantasy can change testosterone levels. The fact is, behavior and environment—like cultural gender norms and expectations—influence sex-related hormones, and the biology of the body and brain itself.
While this is a small overview, the science is clear and conclusive: sex is not binary, transgender people are real. It is time that we acknowledge this. The trans experience provides essential insights into the science of sex and scientifically demonstrates that uncommon and atypical phenomena are vital for a successful living system. Even the scientific endeavor itself is quantifiably better when it is more inclusive and diverse.
So, no matter what a pundit, politician or internet troll may say, trans people are an indispensable part of our living reality. Transgender humans represent the complexity and diversity that are fundamental features of life, evolution and nature itself.
That is a fact. It originally referred to participants as transgender. In all this, we are to understand that Rowling is not transphobic, but scared. The Gender Recognition Act was — at the time — progressive, but since then, many countries including Ireland , Argentina and parts of the United States have surpassed it. To get a Gender Recognition Certificate in the U. The majority of trans people in the U. Trans people can access those spaces—with certain exclusions—under the Equality Act If the government were to bar trans people from those spaces, they would be rolling back rights we already possess.
I mostly suspect transphobes just think trans people are weird and funny-looking, but they choose to couch their bigotry in a fear of the unknown.
Living in a patriarchy is fundamentally scary for all women.
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