TG LIFE Columnist Hope Alexander Compares Being Transgendered With Being Christian!!!
Why do I make the comparison between Christianity and Cross Dressers? Because both transgendered people and religious people believe very definitely in things which seem to defy reality. A Christian believes that a sky king father watches his every move, a transgendered person believes that he or she should actually have been born the opposite sex.
Both groups are often met with a skepticism, which borders on intolerance, and sometimes becomes outright rejection. Of course, Christianity has become largely accepted in Western society, whereas transgendered people still inhabit the fringes of society. In this regard at least, Christians have the advantage over transgendered people.
However, logically, empirically, on the basis of available evidence, we could say that both claims are wrong. How can a man actually be a woman inside, or vice versa? How can a Christian know that an invisible God exists?
The answer is always the same. Both groups just 'know' it in their hearts. It's a deep knowing which has affected them from early in their youth, and though they may struggle with the feelings that the knowledge provokes in them, the knowledge itself does not change over time.
This posts an interesting issue for both sides of this particular comparison and people everywhere. If we are to accept that God exists because many people 'feel' his existence, must we also accept that some people are transgendered because they claim to 'feel' that they are actually the opposite gender than their chromosomal one? And if we accept that some people really are transgendered, does this mean we also have to accept the subjective truth of religiosity?
Or does one claim have more weight than the other? If so, why? Both transgendered people and religious people pop up again and again throughout human history. Both religiosity and transgender feelings are clearly human traits, which will express themselves regardless of culture, time and place. Different cultures interpret these behaviors differently, but there are very few, if any world cultures in which transgender people and religious people do not spawn of their own accord.
Part of the reason that this comparison is such a mind bender is that people who identify as or with Christians may be less accepting of men who cross dress or live as women than your average bear. Yet the reasons that the men who cross dress do so are precisely the same in terms of empirical evidence and weight as those that Christians have for constructing grotesquely large buildings to the glory of the (some might say, imaginary) deity.
At the end of the day, we either accept “Because I feel it, because I know it, deep in my gut, deep in my soul', as a valid argument for people behaving in certain ways, or we don't.
If you're interested in further thoughts on the nature of belief and reality, I recently penned this article, Is Atheism Inevitable? Or is God real?
And please check out Hope's own Website right HERE!
Mail to a friendCOMMENTS
- On October 02 At 23:02 -Androgynus- said
The "...should actually have been born of the opposite sex" notion truely does throw me... Typical adult crossdressers (in my experience) seem mostly focussed on other emotional concerns... Like fear of discovery and the fetish pleasure of dress-up...or bedeviled by periods of emotional purgings...or plain 'ole confusion as to what the desire actually means to them...
The only ones that actually do feel "trapped in a man's body" are those individuals that will actually delve into pre-op or follow through into actual post-op living.
- On September 28 At 07:16 -Androgynus- said
Word edit: Meant to write "transgenderists" in my comment (not the error spell; "transgerists").
- On September 28 At 06:59 -Androgynus- said
Article Quote: "a transgendered person believes that he or she should actually have been born the opposite sex."
Well, to begin with, in this article...does "transgendered person" apply to transexuals exclusively??... Or, is there a broader classification?... Androgyne, intersexed, hermaphrodites, and transgerists are also "transgendered" persons... Personally, I would also include any M2F and F2M which would have relatively easy (or natural) abilities to present as the opposite sex.
For myself, I'll carry these gender-bending abilities to my grave--but I have no interest to be chemically/surgically transformed into a "woman".
If I could be re-borned, perhaps I'd choose to come back more hemaphrodite-looking... As long as It included a nice "hour-glass" figure, and the memory of my previous androgynous self.
As for things like childbirth, vagina, menses...NO THANKS!... I have NO problems seeing the difference between "femaleness" and "looking feminine"... And sorry, but no "trapped woman" notions for me either.
If I had come into this world looking very masculine--then I'd easily be just an admirer of transgendered males... With no desire whatsover to engage in crossdressing.
