Trans identities are not a religion
Being trans has always been a safe space for me, a place where being me has simply been, no stress, nothing to hide. Growing up a Christian, being suffused in that worldview did not contradict my identity, indeed for a long time my relationship with Jesus was the only thing that brough solace when the entire world felt like it rejected this core part of me. Then my faith evaporated and my greatest succour was no longer a thing. Thus, when gender critical voices decry trans identities as an ideology and religious dogma I have to bite down the retort that they do not know what they are talking about or how harmful their assertion is.
Religious faith is the most beautiful, haunting thing in the world, a drug so powerful that the slings and arrows in the world slide on by. To be one with Jesus, to know him and be known by him in a personal relationship, is a deeply freeing feeling. When I first came out at 17 I became detached from my old church, went to university at 18 where I had a four year rumspringer, then drifted back into a church based faith. All the while faith rooted my pain, rooted my identity in a fixed point that enabled me to walk through the world after my suicide attempt. My identity was neither dogma nor faith, my relationship with Jesus was.
Being trans is a metaphysical relationship with your self, it is an acknowledgement that your inner…
