Ron is a Gay Christian Network member who believes gay Christians are called to celibacy. The following is a sidebar to his argument for celibacy.
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Reply to an Objection: Transsexuals and Intersexed Individuals
[continued from the main essay]
Some would object to the stress I have placed on male and female not on Scriptural grounds, but on scientific grounds. They would point out that both transsexuality and intersexuality complicate the neat picture I have been trying to paint, and argue that recent scientific discoveries in this area make the binary male/female model of gender I have been arguing untenable.
I agree that these are complex subjects, which raise complicated moral questions for Christians. And since I am far from being an expert on either intersexuality or transsexual issues, I will confine myself to a few tentative observations.
To deal with transsexuals first: sometimes, as a child grows up, they will discover a profound disconnect between their physical appearance and their psychic sense of self. They see themself as a boy trapped in a girl’s body, or a girl trapped in a boy’s body. Often, on the physical side, their bodies develop more or less normally, with primary and secondary sexual characteristics within usual norms for their physical gender. But in their mind, their identity is that of the opposite sex. Some people in this situation will seek gender reassignment surgery to bring their body into line with their psychic sense of self. Others will seek in various ways to bring their sense of self into line with their body. In either case, they seek to overcome the conflict between body and soul, and embrace a single, whole gender identity.
While both of these approaches can raise significant ethical issues (issues which Christians have only recently begun to explore), transsexuals generally do not want to “subvert the dominant paradigm” when it comes to gender. The very language transsexuals use to describe their plight—“a woman trapped in a man’s body”—“female to male”—assumes a binary model of gender identity: male and female, masculine and feminine. In the Biblical framework I have been outlining, gender is far more than just a body part—it involves body, soul, and spirit. The transsexual seeks counseling or gender reassignment surgery in order to achieve the unity of mind and body that God intended “from the beginning.”
Because I am not in any way an expert on transsexual issues, I am not even going to try to lay out an ethical framework for evaluating the options transsexuals face. It would be profoundly unfair to those struggling with these issues for me to offer opinions as uninformed as mine would be. But I think it is fair to say that while a few radical transsexuals may adopt the language of radical feminist or queer theorists and attempt to “deconstruct” the very concept of gender, the average transsexual assumes a binary model of gender, experiences a profound conflict between mind and body, and seeks to heal that conflict by embracing a unified gender identity.
There is need for significantly more theological reflection on transsexual issues than has been done so far, and I encourage any Christians with the interest or expertise to contribute in any way they can. However, I believe that the Biblical model of male and female is a very important theoretical principle which will aid, not hinder, such prayerful, compassionate reflection. Indeed, I believe that when we understand how important gender is to God’s creation, we actually will understand more fully the significance of the transsexual’s painful conflict.
If gender is not particularly important, then gender identity conflicts are not particularly important, either. But if gender is as important as I have argued, then the urgency that many transsexuals feel to resolve their conflicts is fully justified, because the conflict touches such an important part of their identity.
Transsexuals usually have more or less normal physiology, but a conflict between their sense of self and their physical gender. Intersexed individuals, on the other hand, have some physical gender ambiguity. Intersexuality is a global term describing a number of conditions. Some intersexed individuals have normal chromosomes (XX or XY), but have ambiguous genitalia. Others have unusual chromosome combinations (e.g. X, XXX, or XXY).
Again, I want to emphasize that intersexuality brings up a host of complicated issues, and I don’t want to offer overly simplistic soutions. Again, I encourage Christians to reflect more on these issues, trying to understand them within a compassionate, Biblical framework.
In some ways, I think intersexed individuals challenge the binary gender paradigm more than transsexuals do. But Genesis 1 describes God’s design; the fall brings with it all sorts of distortions, in spirit, soul, and body. The Bible is not unfamiliar with gender abnormalities. Christ’s phrase about those who were “born eunuchs” (Matthew 19:12) can only refer to those born with abnormal genitals.
The Prophet Isaiah offers these words of great hope from the mouth of God: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, I will give in My house and within my walls a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:4-5).
It is true, of course, that intersexed individuals are often unable to have children, and may be tempted to grow frustrated and say, “Here I am, a dry tree” (Isaiah 55:3). Against this, the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that God is more concerned with our heart, our desire to please Him and obey the precepts of His covenant than He is with the things that pass away as this world passes away.
But Christ’s teaching on eunuchs (Matthew 19:12) comes in the immediate context of reminding His audience that “He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’“ (Matthew 19:4-5). It therefore seems to me that while intersexed individuals deserve compassionate, thoughtful treatment from Christians, their experience cannot be seen as something unforseen in Scripture, something that somehow disproves Christ’s words on the meaning of male and female.
It also seems to me not very relevant to my experience as a same-sex attracted man. Like the overwhelming majority of homosexuals, I am a more or less biologically normal male. I am attracted to other men, because I am drawn to their masculinity.
While a few radical queer theorists will attempt to “deconstruct” gender entirely, the vast majority of homosexuals identify as gay or homosexual or same-sex attracted precisely because they accept the “traditional” view of binary genders, but discover that they are exclusively attracted to their own sex.
Most men or women with same-sex attractions will try quite hard at some point in their lives to develop heterosexual attractions, most without success. I think in some ways, this experience makes us more consciously aware of the significance of gender differences than others, because we have put a lot more effort into trying to be attracted to the gender that does not attract us.
I realize that this section is rather unsatisfactory, because it raises difficult questions which I lack the expertise to resolve. But I hope that is has helped to explain why, though I fully believe that transsexuals and intersexed individuals deserve more thoughtful guidance than they’re getting from the Church at this time, I don’t believe that their experience invalidates the Bible’s model of gender complementarity.