The Vatican has issued a latest document rejecting the concept of adjusting one’s biological sex – a setback for transgender individuals who had hoped Pope Francis may be setting the stage for a more welcoming approach from the Catholic Church.
Around the world, major religions have diverse approaches to gender identity, and the inclusion or exclusion of transgender people. Some examples:
Christianity
The Catholic Church’s disapproving stance toward gender transition is shared by another denominations. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention – the biggest Protestant denomination within the United States – adopted a resolution in 2014 stating that “God’s design was the creation of two distinct and complementary sexes, female and male.” It asserts that gender identity “is set by biological sex, not by one’s self-perception”
However, quite a few mainline Protestant denominations welcome trans people as members and as clergy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America elected an openly transgender man as a bishop in 2021.
Islam
In Islam, there isn’t a single central religious authority and policies can vary in several regions.
Abbas Shouman, secretary-general of Al-Azhar’s Council of Senior Scholars in Cairo, said that “for us, … sex conversion is totally rejected.”
“It is God who has determined the … sex of the fetus and intervening to vary that could be a change of God’s creation, which is totally rejected,” Shouman added.
In Iran, the Shiite theocracy’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a spiritual decree, or fatwa, many years ago, opening the best way for official support for gender transition surgery.
Hinduism
In Hindu society in South Asia, while traditional roles were and are still prescribed for men and girls, people of non-binary gender expression have been recognized for millennia and played essential roles in holy texts. Third gender people have been revered throughout South Asian history with many rising to significant positions of power under Hindu and Muslim rulers. One survey in 2014 estimated that around 3 million third gender people live in India alone.
Sanskrit, the traditional language of Hindu scriptures, has the vocabulary to explain three genders – masculine, feminine and gender-neutral.
The commonest group of third gender people in India are often known as the “hijras.” While some decide to undergo gender reassignment surgery, others are born intersex. Most consider themselves neither male or female.
Some Hindus consider third gender people have special powers and the flexibility to bless or curse, which has led to stereotyping causing the community to be feared and marginalized. Many live in poverty without proper access to healthcare, housing and employment.
In 2014, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, which is a Muslim-majority country, officially recognized third gender people as residents deserving of equal rights. The Supreme Court of India stated that “it’s the fitting of each human being to decide on their gender,” and that recognition of the group “will not be a social or medical issue, but a human rights issue.”
Buddhism
Buddhism has traditionally adhered to binary gender roles, particularly in its monastic traditions where men and girls are segregated and assigned specific roles.
These beliefs remain strong within the Theravada tradition, as seen within the attempt of the Thai Sangha Council, the governing Buddhist body in Thailand, to ban ordinations of transgender people. More recently, the Theravada tradition has somewhat eased restrictions against gender nonconforming people by ordaining them of their sex recorded at birth.
However, the Mahayana, and Vajrayana schools of Buddhism have allowed more exceptions while the Jodo Shinshu sect has been much more inclusive in ordaining transgender monks each in Japan and North America. In Tibetan Buddhism, Tashi Choedup, an openly queer monk, was ordained after their teacher shunned asking about their gender identity as prescribed by Buddhist doctrine. Many Buddhist denominations, particularly within the West, are intentionally inclusive of transgender people of their sanghas or gatherings.
Judaism
Reform Judaism is accepting of transgender people and allows for the ordination of trans rabbis. According to David J. Meyer, who served for a few years as a rabbi in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Jewish traditional wisdom allowed possibilities of gender identity and expression that differed from those typically related to the sex assigned at birth.
“Our mystical texts, the Kabbalah, address the notion of transitioning from one gender to a different,” he wrote on a Reform-affiliated website.
It’s different, for essentially the most part, in Orthodox Judaism. “Most transgender people will find Orthodox communities extremely difficult to navigate,” says the Human Rights Campaign, a significant U.S. LGBTQ-rights advocacy group.
“Transgender persons are further constrained by Orthodox Judaism’s emphasis on binary gender and strict separation between men and girls,” the HRC says. “For example, a transgender one that has not medically transitioned poses a challenge for a rabbi who must determine whether that person will sit with men or women during worship.”
Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, wrote a blog post last yr after appearing on an Israeli television panel to debate transgender-related issues.
“There will be no denying that there are people who find themselves deeply conflicted about their gender identities. They need to be secure from harm and, facing challenges the remaining of us don’t, deserve empathy and compassion,” Shafran wrote. “But the Torah and its extension, halacha, or Jewish religious law, are unequivocal concerning the indisputable fact that being born in a male body requires living the lifetime of a person, and being born female entails living as a lady.”
“In Judaism, each gender has its particular life-role to play,” he added. “The bodies God gave us are indications of what we’re and what we are usually not, and of how He wants us to live our lives.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely chargeable for this content.
