The Genesis of Gender Roles

once again I ask, ye old theological hipsters who like to discuss all things rad and postmodern. what about trans-specied people? just like the transgendered, what if someone feels that inside they are an aardvark? or a mule? or a dinosaur? no kidding, my uncle merv thinks he's napoleon bonaparte, even though we've stripped him down several times in from of the mirror in order to disprove his point. but hey, who can argue with feelings. i'm resolved to simply classifying uncle merv as 'transhistorical'.

so again, all the trans-specied people said 'hey oh, hey, oh' ...

Alex,

I'm glad to hear your perspective. My impression is that there's actually a much less sound theological argument against being trans than against being gay (or "engaging in homosexual conduct" to use the proper evangelical lingo). In terms of "proof texting," there seems to really be no verse on point.

I think evangelical opposition to trans people is basically a cultural prejudice, ungrounded in any particular theological objection, aside from trans folks seeming vaguely "gay" and "weird" (see Brian's comment above), and in mainstream Christianity today, nothing is more sinful than being weird...

As you mention, gay transmen are arguably "straight" if you're going off birth gender. But, as I review most of the comments on here, it's pretty clear that the evangelical audience is not very open to any degree of gender ambiguity. Indeed most evangelical churches segregate their social activities by gender (e.g., "men's ministries" and "women's ministries").

anon. no, i'm not. it's true that for transgendered people, as with uncle merv, that feelings rule the day. all i'm saying is that trans-specied people should be given the same benefit of the doubt. i honestly don't know why it would be absurd for a man or woman to feel that deep down they are animal and yet be presumably ok for man to think he was really a female. seriously, on a theological level, what accounts for this person being given the "wrong" mysical make-up? is it god's mistake? a cultural mistake? perhaps the dept of natural resources? capitalism? whole foods? as for trans-specied people, there is clearly only one entity at fault here. i think it goes without saying who that is.