A trans-affirming note for Easter
Since Easter Sunday and Trans Day of Visibility are both today!
CONTENT NOTE for heterodox religious views. Some of what I say here is controversial, but I warn you that if you start sniping at me or at one another because of it, I won’t tolerate that. In particular, comments I subjectively deem to be hateful will be reacted against very swiftly and without very much quarter. Please conduct yourselves responsibly.
In a pluralistic liberal democracy in which citizens live together peacefully despite disagreeing on important questions about the truth and meaning of things, there is no conflict at all between Easter Sunday and Transgender Day of Visibility. I applaud the American Democratic Party, the British Labour Party, and many other important political entities for recognizing that, and I’m ashamed of some of the conservative commentators I follow, such as Chris Rose, Megan Basham, Nile Gardiner, Mark Humphrys, and Rod Dreher, for not getting it.
I mean, by posting this image, not to blaspheme the name and image of Jesus the Christ of Nazareth (of Whom I am fully aware that, as a Bahá’í, I should not display images at all – I view my purposes in this instance as worthy of an exception, but I won’t be at all troubled if some of my fellow Bahá’ís differ in conscience with me on that), but to exalt and glorify the vision of Him in which I believe – a Prophet, and perhaps a Saviour, Who loves trans people, gay men and lesbians, nonbinary people, and others whose sexual practices, orientations, and gender identities are consent-based but otherwise non-normative or heterodox. He loves detransitioners, too, and they have every right to be who they’ve discovered they truly are, but I believe in their peaceful coexistence with happy trans people as well.
Shoutout to all my Christians, my trans people, and perhaps especially, my trans Christians right now. Love y’all! I know that there will be some Christians and other religionists who believe the disharmony between the sex you were assigned at birth and your true gender identity means that you are somehow disordered, but I encourage you to remember that this is false! God loves you, and you have every right to be who you truly are! Your trans identity is part of His holy design for you, and He does not need you to change or to mortify yourselves! Transgender people, equally as much as cisgender people, are made in the image and likeness of God!
#RhinoSalute to Ali A. Rizvi, a straight and cisgender atheist of Muslim background whom I have known to strive hard to be a stalwart ally to gay, trans, nonbinary, and “gender-fucked” people and from whom I got this image – peace to my trans Muslims as well! Those of you who know me well know that I frequently work with Muslims who want to promote humane interpretations of that religion, and I’m proud to know several dozen Muslims who understand that Prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasalaam would be affirming of trans and gay rights now, too, would that we could only talk to Him, word to the Ithna’Asheri Shí’ah Muslim trans heroine Maryam Khatoon Molkara.
An’ so would Lord Krishna, Guru Nanak, Gautama Buddha, Prophets Moses and Zarathustra, Miki Nakayama, Mahavira, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Melek Ta’ús, Confucius, Lao Tzu, the Báb, Rashad Khalifa, Jelaluddin Rúmí, Hazrat Inayat Khan, George Fox, Michael Servetus, Bawa Muhaiyyadeen, His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh (may my life be offered up as a sacrifice in His path), and almost every other important religious figure ever known to humanity! I really believe that!
Trans and gay people deserve the equality of rights and dignity about which most religionists claim to care but about which they mysteriously forget when it comes to y’all, and speaking as an ethnic Jew who has been practising the Bahá’í Faith for 21 years and has always stood up for gay and trans rights in a sometimes forbidding Faith, I’m happy and proud to stand with you!