‘God-given gender’

Instructions

i recently saw a popular christian blogger on instagram say: “gender is God given, never human determined. you weren’t meant to change who god made you to be.” so, let’s break this down! first of all, what is gender? well, it’s very different from s3-, which i think the writer of these quotes may have forgotten. the world health organization calls gender a ‘social construct’ and states that ‘gender varies from society to society and can change over time.’ the important thing to recognise here is that gender is a social construct, not a divine one. across the world and across time periods, different societies have recognised a variety of genders. jewish law is perhaps the one most relevant to christians, as Jesus was, of course, jewish, and would therefore also have likely been familiar with the not one, not two, but six genders referenced in the talmud. this goes to show the range of societal views of gender throughout time, and demonstrates that gender is not fixed or divine. it’s also important to note that nowhere in the bible are transgender people specifically condemned. the closest that people get to a biblical reference to support their arguments is genesis 1:27 - “so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him: male and female He created them.” the fact that people use this to back up their anti-trans arguments truly baffles me, because it ignores the very simple logic that if you wanted to create a species, it would be sensible to create a pair that had opposing s3-s (again, we’re not even speaking about genders here) and could procreate, ensuring the survival of the species. look at it this way: if i buy two colors of paint from the store, red and blue, that does not mean that no other colors exist in the entire universe. i see gender as just the same. the idea that God specifically made people to be one gender, closely linked to their s3- is harmful, because it does not recognise the broad range of gender identities, or the fact that some people may not even fit into the male/female s3- binary; they are called inters3-, and are often dismissed and find it difficult to access safe and effective healthcare because of damaging views that are also tied to oppressing people’s gender identities. transgender and inters3- people suffer enough at the hans of larger society. let’s stop hurting our siblings in christ and start standing by them, as we are called to do in isaiah 1:17 - “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.”