Author: Graham Robson

A British Anglican LGBTQ+ group has argued the Bible affirms trans identity, asserting “not everyone in the Bible is cisgender.”

The new resource, part of the “Bible Affirms” series hosted by LGBTQ Faith UK, contends that the Bible includes “some clear queer characters” and offers as examples eunuchs and women engaging in traditionally masculine roles.

“Not everyone in the Bible is cisgender. Nor is everyone in the Bible biologically or anatomically male or female,” states the text, written by Ann Reddecliffe.

“In the Bible, the clearest example of this are eunuchs, who can be seen as the biblical ‘ancestors’ of trans people,” the text continues.

“Some people were born with poorly formed male genitals or missing male genitals,” it declares. “In contemporary terms, they would be intersex, but when the Bible was written, they would have been eunuchs.”

According to the resource, eunuchs were welcomed and could be full members of the early Christian church, “without having to be totally male or totally female.”

The text cites the story told in chapter 8 of the Acts of the Apostles in which the apostle Philip baptises an Ethiopian eunuch in charge of the treasury of the queen of the Ethiopians.

“We can put modern labels of intersex or queer or trans onto him, but a different label would be ‘child of God,’” the text states. “God sent an angel and an apostle to bring him into the church, not as a second-class worshipper, but as a full and equal member.”

Regarding “intersex” characters in the Bible, one of the “most likely” is the Samaritan woman that Jesus meets in the gospel of John, chapter 4, the resource affirms, without explaining how a woman who has had 5 husbands qualifies as “intersex.”

The important thing is, Jesus “knows her situation and he shows her respect,” the text maintains, and “He affirms her.”

Moving on to “Q,” the text states that understanding queer in terms of gender performance “shows some clear queer characters,” one of the most obvious of whom is Deborah, as recounted in the book of Judges.

Deborah “is the only recorded female leader of Israel” and when the Israelites were attacked by the Canaanites, “it was Deborah who led the army into battle,” the text contends.

“Going to war was a very male thing for a woman to do,” it adds.