The Bible Directly Supports Full Transgender Inclusion

It’s always interesting to me how much emphasis some people put on the stories in Genesis. Now please understand, there are great lessons there. I’m not minimizing Genesis in this post, I’m trying to elevate what I see is an arc in the Christian story. It’s an arc that in many places – especially when it comes to love, diversity, acceptance and justice – clearly bends toward more, not less. The Bible models this for us. Our ideas can change, but they should change in the direction of greater acceptance and love.

We seem to be trapped in a debate over marginalized people in the United States. This includes race relations, DEI, women’s rights, voting rights, employment rights, university funding and more. All worthy things to fight for and expand, not eliminate and minimize. But the most marginalized in these fights right now seem to be foreigners and gender-expansive individuals.

When it comes to transgender inclusion, many Christians seem stuck at Genesis. I won’t rehash my thoughts here, but if you’re interested I’ve written about this previously:

1. Genesis doesn’t preclude diversity, God seems to love diversity
2. Deuteronomy doesn’t dictate gender expressions in dress (and don’t read Deuteronomy looking for rules anyway)
3. God didn’t limit genders to only two, male and female
4. And I’ll throw this in for introductory relevance: It Started with the Resurrection, Not Genesis

Why There’s a Lot More to the Biblical Story Than Genesis

We shouldn’t stop any of our thinking at Genesis, because our story is much more complex than origin mythology. This is really clear when considering our inclusion of transgender people.

Here is a rough outline of why I think this is true and I’ll dive into a few in more detail below.

• According to Genesis, in the beginning, there was no gender. God made only Adam. Was Adam male? I don’t know. God ripped Adam’s side apart to create a female, so maybe Adam was intersex. If Adam was male, what does it even mean to be male if you’re the only human? Why couldn’t God see the need to create a female right away? It must be OK to add on to gender categories if God does it by the second chapter.
• God then formed a female from a male. Please allow your theological imagination to run wild here, the inclusivity of gender expansiveness should be clear to all readers right from the creation story.
• Unfortunately, humans prefer black and white contrasts to many color shades. The like ones and zeroes. It’s easy to think in categories of two. Why would an author writing centuries ago have any insight at all into gender beyond binary categories? I wouldn’t look for advice on vaccines, aeronautics or Arduino circuits inside of Genesis, either.
• As Israel faced threats from many other warring neighbors, it made sense to try to limit the rights of foreigners or anyone who seemed different. They specifically did not include the foreigner or eunuchs. (They also had a lot of rules on what to eat, wear, how to be the best slave owner possible and we rightly ignore all of that anyway).
• As they moved out of captivity, Isaiah called them to include foreigners and eunuchs. They didn’t do very well at this, but the inclusion of gender expansive people was demanded by God, at least according to Isaiah.
• Later Jesus would approach a discussion of gender-expansive people as a natural phenomenon, albeit it an idea that he seemed to keep to just himself and his disciples.
• Then in Acts we see a full inclusion of a gender-expansive person of a different race in the Christian church.

Do you see the arc? It bends toward inclusion. It’s Biblical. To get stuck at a single, narrow-minded interpretation of Genesis on the matter of transgender inclusion is not Biblical nor is it Christian.

Some Terminology

Before we dig into Isaiah 56 and Acts 8, I want to make a note of some terminology. The American Psychological Association[1] notes that the word, “transgender,” is a broad term that encompasses individuals whose gender identity or expression differs from the traditional expectations linked to the sex they were assigned at birth. Those who do not identify strictly as male or female may choose to identify as “gender nonbinary” or “genderqueer.” It’s important to note that sexual orientation and gender identity are separate elements of a person’s identity. Children typically begin to understand their gender around the ages of 3 to 5, while sexual orientation tends to develop as they grow older.

There are a lot of moving parts and a lot we still don’t understand, but transgender people are very real. They are not making something up just to be an edgy teen, win a trophy or get a peek at urinals. In fact, some recent scientific research has provided substantial evidence that the development of sex organs, gender identity, and sexual orientation occurs at different stages during prenatal development. While there is a significant likelihood that these aspects align, there are also numerous instances where they do not. Furthermore, there are well-documented exceptions to the typical XX or XY chromosomal patterns. It is possible for an individual to be genetically male or female, chromosomally male or female, hormonally male, female, or somewhere in between, and their bodies may respond to hormonal signals in unique ways. These variations highlight the diverse and intricate ways in which God creates humanity. If someone believes that taking steps to align one’s gender identity for the sake of mental health is unnecessary, they might also argue against the use of eyeglasses, mobility aids like wheelchairs, or even wearing a down coat, among other things.

Now, unsurprisingly, people living 2,000 to 2,500 years ago didn’t use the words like transgender, gender expansive, nonbinary or queer. They used the word “eunuch.” What did they mean by eunuch? Your guess is as good as mine. But we can turn to the words of Jesus for some help.

Matthew 19:12

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.

Indeed. Let anyone accept this who can.

And if you read the full chapter, Jesus laid these words down after discussing being made male and female. He certainly didn’t have to, but it was his way of saying that we shouldn’t get stuck on categories in Genesis. It’s his way of telling his disciples privately, “this whole gender and marriage thing, it’s way more than the pharisees are capable of understanding right now.”

Thankfully, we have developed more detailed ideas about gender-expansive people over the last two millennia. But to be born a eunuch at the very least shows that Jesus knew people could be born with varying types of genital development, chromosomal gender differences, hormonal differences, intersex or other categories right from birth. Some eunuchs were forced into castration or worse by others. Some eunuchs became eunuchs all on their own decision, for the kingdom of heaven no less. This is incredibly expansive and inclusive. In no way does Jesus bring this up to shun eunuchs. Instead, there is a matter of fact quality to his statements. I think it is fair to use Jesus’ words to draw the line from acceptance of these types of eunuchs to the many categories of gender expansive people we meet today. We now have a wider vocabulary as well as a wide body of research on the topic than Jesus had access to.

In short, where we have the word transgender as an umbrella term, they had the word eunuch.

Isaiah 56: Welcome the Foreigner and the Eunuch

After the Babylonian exile, Israel started to change their ideas about foreigners and eunuchs and this is reflected in Isaiah 56. While in Babylon, they undoubtedly bumped into many other cultures and beliefs than they had previously. They were forced into thinking in broader, more inclusive categories of community. Captivity was a long period of theological reflection on God’s justice and mercy.

Isaiah 56:1-8

Thus says the Lord:
    Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come
    and my deliverance be revealed.

Happy is the mortal who does this,
    the one who holds it fast,
who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it,
    and refrains from doing any evil.

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it
    and hold fast my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar,
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel:
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.

There is a lot to unpack in eight verses. I won’t be able to do much of that here. I want to instead call you to recognize the very clear language of inclusion for both foreign and transgendered people. A significant shift occurs here. Gender-expansive people are included into the community. It is explicit. They have a place, they are welcome to worship in the temple. This is an amazing and transformative moment – again, the arc of acceptance and inclusion – where God refuses to stick with the established cultural norms in favor of expanding community and belonging. You could stick with a narrow reading of Genesis. Or you can follow God through Isaiah and all the way to Christ and open your heart.

The Eunuch in Acts

Finally let’s move forward into Acts 8:26-40. We read of an Ethiopian eunuch visiting Jerusalem – a foreigner and a gender-expansive person. And he’s sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah of all things. In coming to Jerusalem to worship, he himself is a fulfillment of the above passage in Isaiah. Now he’s not reading the verse above, but he’s reading a verse that Christians in his time and ever onward would associate with Jesus. And I’d have to assume he’s gotten quite a bit of other social justice out of Isaiah as well as we all should.

The Holy Spirit tells Phillip to talk to the foreign gender expansive person sitting in the chariot. I think that’s important to note. The author of Acts wants to let us know it wasn’t just Philip’s idea. But more importantly, stop to think right now, where in your life has God placed a foreign or transgendered person in your path? Are you doing the right thing? Are you allowing yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit? Are you living your faith?

Luckily for all of us, Philip was listening for God’s voice. Philip tells the eunuch the story of Jesus. The eunuch responds by saying, “hey, we’ve got water right here, what’s stopping you from baptizing me right now?” We don’t get to hear Philip’s thoughts or words immediately afterward. I like to imagine those words might have been, “well, how about 2,500 years of fear, discrimination, prejudice, intolerance and bias?” But what we do know is that they stopped the chariot, got out and made this foreign gender-expansive person a Christian right then and there.

This is radical inclusion.

Full Transgender Inclusion is Also Fully Biblical

Jesus said, “Let anyone accept this who can,” but many, like the pharisees, cannot. I have some close friends who don’t understand that full inclusion is as Biblical as you can get and inclusion is fully Christian.

The Bible only has meaning where and how we are willing to put in the work. You can’t just read a single passage – neither Genesis nor Isaiah – and come up with the perfect Biblical answer for any questions. But we can follow the shapes in which these ideas develop over time – the arc of inclusion – and the Holy Sprit’s voice can help us realize that far from condemning transgender people, the Bible includes, supports and welcomes them into the church.

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[1] I think it is very important to note that both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association have released detailed positions supporting gender-affirming care and fighting against anti-transgender legislation. The science is clear. Transgender people are real and giving the care helps them fight off suicide and depression.