Beyond a Binary God: A Theology for Trans* Allies

by Tara K. Soughers

In a world and a culture fixated upon identifying people first and foremost by gender, how do you cope when your child does not easily fit society’s understandings of what it means to be male or female?

According to the Williams Institute, 40 percent of homeless youth are LGBT.13

Of those surveyed, about 40 percent of trans* people have attempted suicide in their lifetimes

All theologians write from their own perspective, even if they attempt objectivity.

When we can get to that point, we realize that trans* people do not represent disruptions of our community life, but are, instead, gifts from our gracious God that open us to new understandings— not only about human nature, but also about the nature of God, in whose image we are all made.

Men who stay at home taking care of children are seen as not quite manly.

Men are expected to be sports fanatics.

As Christians, we do a great disservice to the trans* community if we make light of their passion for living into their God-given identities.

In 1988, implying that Paul might be homosexual, even if a celibate homosexual, was explosive.

Queer studies focused more upon sex and sexuality. While gender and biological sex are related but possible to distinguish, it

In modern Western society, biblical passages have been read with this cultural understanding of two genders, ordained by God, each with a set of unchanging gender characteristics.

Paul is passive and receptive.”25 In relation to Christ, he becomes a boy or an unman. Not only would this have been shocking to the Jewish readers of his time, it would also have been shocking to his Gentile readers.

As an ally, and not a member of the trans* community, I am working on this theology secondhand.

In 2005, ABC News reported on the trend of giving plastic surgery as a graduation gift (in this case high school graduation), particularly to girls.

I will argue that the passages that have been used to reinforce binary thinking often have more to do with cultural ideals than with theology and faith, and that there are other ways of understanding these scriptural

I cannot write a true trans* theology. I have not encountered the world through the experience of living as a trans* person.

An important point of any theology of liberation is that theology cannot be completely generalized, but must be understood through the concrete experiences of communities.

I believe that trans* people, like all people, are part of God’s creation, which means, for me, a theology for trans* allies is a theology that takes seriously the fact that trans* people are part of God’s creation, sharing in the goodness that all creation shares. While trans* people may sin and not live up to God’s calling for them—as do all people—being trans* or transitioning is not a sinful act, but one that is done to claim their God-given identity.11

There is great variety and complexity throughout God’s creation, not only with human beings but with the animal population as well, indicating, just perhaps, that God does not always think the same way that we do about gender. In fact, perhaps the whole idea of binaries—either/or categories—is not something God created, but something human beings created to make the world a more comprehensible place. The trouble with making things more comprehensible, however, is that in doing so, we often ignore people or things that do not fit into our preconceived ideas.

“We find— both in scripture and in our tradition—naturalistic, impersonal images balancing the relational, personal ones: God as rock, fortress, running stream, power, sun, thunder, First Cause, and so on.”

However, if we are free to understand parts of the story figuratively—to say, for example, that there is not a layer of water above the sky from which rain originates—why should we insist that other parts must be understood literally?

By giving the Spirit equal voice with the Father and Son, it disrupts that binary, reminding us that the heart of God is one and three, but never two, and therefore challenges all binaries.

Tonstad critiques Coakley’s work for the way that her arguments still assume a patriarchal and heterosexual world as the norm.

Instead, Tonstad offers the image of sex as touch without penetration as one way not only to avoid the hierarchical gender relations that bedevil Trinitarian theology, but also to lead to a strong basis for the Trinity as a communion into which we are invited.12

We cannot rely upon individuals to come to a correct understanding of gender and gender roles through high-level contemplation. We must confront the inequities and injustices perpetrated by Christian theology, whether we believe they are due to a misrepresentation of that theology or to its natural outgrowth.

The early Trinitarian theologians acknowledged the fact that the true nature of God was always more than we can express in language, and at some point, language had to give way to the silence appropriate to mystery.

The treatment of LGBTQIA+ people, particularly trans* people, has been fueled by a theology that seems to sanction hatred and violence against

We need a theology that can help us to love more fully, as Christ loves us.

I advocate for a return to using a multitude of images of God.

Although some people find that imaging God as Father can help them heal from a painful parental relationship, many others are reluctant after their experiences to trust another “Father.”