What is Gender?1: GENDER IS A COMPLEX THING. Essentially gender is our internal relationship to soci

What is Gender?1: GENDER IS A COMPLEX THING. Essentially gender is our internal relationship to societal concepts of masculinity and femininity.2. GENDER EXPRESSION is the behavior attributes and symbols that indicate and perform one’s gender(s).3. PART OF IT HAS TO DO WITH how you feel, part of it is how people see you, part of it has to do with expectations based on biological sex. Frankly, no definition of gender really gets all of what it is or isn’t. 4. MANY PEOPLE IDENTIFY WITHIN the binary of man or woman, many have a fluid experience within the spectrum, and still many identify outside the spectrum of these two options altogether.5. CISGENDER PEOPLE identify with the gender society prescribes them at birth based on external sex characteristics.TRANSGENDER PEOPLE internally align with gender(s) other than those assigned at birth.Even Biological Sex Is NOT A BinaryThe terms “MALE” AND “FEMALE” are used to categorize the anatomical differences in our bodies, but everything we attribute to biological sex— chromosomes, horomones, sex-linked genes, and genitalia— all exist on a complex spectrum. We are taught that XX chromosomes means female and XY chromosomes means male, but someone with XX chromosomes can be born with a penis and someone with XY chromosomes could be born with a vagina. Other chromosomal combinations exist (including X, XXY, XXX), and many people are born with varying degrees of both ovaries and testicles. This diversity has come to be generalized as “intersex” (neither male nor female). Tragically, doctors in many parts of the world perform irreversible surgeries to assign a binary sex to children whose bodies don’t match traditional understandings of male and female anatomy.//For a descriptive thread on why biological sex is not a binary, visit https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1207834357639139328.html Gender vs OrientationBEING TRANS IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BEING GAY.Who you are sexually or romantically attracted to is separate from your gender. Many people confuse the two.“When I first came out as a lesbian in college, my friends assumed I must feel like a man on the inside because they couldn’t imagine two women loving each other.”“Growing up, everyone assumed I was gay because of my personality and how I dressed, but that was because they didn’t have the language for gender diversity. To them, everything queer had to be gay.”Brief History of Gender DiversityWhile most of the western world is only just waking up to the diversity and complexity of gender, many cultures around the world and throughout time have recognized transgender and gender nonconforming people, often giving them spiritual reverence.Ancient Egyptians identified three genders, man, sekhet, and woman, as early as early as 2000 BCE. Other cultures acknowledge three, four, and even more genders.THE MODERN EMPHASIS ON GENDER as a rigid binary is primarily the consequence of European colonialism: a Christianity of patriarchy and cis-normativity allowed European colonists to call other cultures primitive and justify violence against them along with other forms of theft and control.The Importance of Pronouns and NamesThere’s so many options for pronouns: he, she, they, ze, or even just using a person’s name, and more. THE WORDS WE USE TO GENDER PEOPLE MATTER.Calling a transgender person by their birth name, or a previous name associated with an identity that is not authentic to them can be harmful. Often times trans people choose a name that aligns more with their identity. Their previous name is sometimes called their “dead name.” DON’T DEAD NAME PEOPLE.Using a person’s chosen name and proper pronouns can REDUCE THEIR RISK OF SUICIDE BY 30%.FUN FACT: the singular ‘they’ has been used as a gender neutral pronoun in English for many hundreds of years!God is Not a ManGod is infinitely more complex than can be contained within human vocabulary and thoughts (see Isaiah 55:8-9).THIS INCLUDES GENDER. God’s fullness includes woman, man, non-binary, and being outside of gender. The gender-diverse nature of God is reflected throughout scripture. In addition to masculine terms, God is repeatedly described as a nursing, protective, and comforting Mother who has born us from Her womb (Hosea 11:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:11-18; Isaiah 42:14, 49:15, 66:13; Psalm 131:2; Matthew 23:37; etc). Even Genesis 1:27 says all of humankind was made in God’s image (not just cisgender men).In the BeginningThe Bible says that in the beginning, God created day and night, land and sea, birds and fish. But have you ever seen a sunset, or a beach, or a penguin? Well, trans and non-binary people are kind of like that. A BEAUTIFUL ARRAY OF DIVERSITY.So, God created male and female, and we are no less beautiful, diverse, and wild than a sunset or a beach or a penguin. God created people with genders beyond male and female in the same way God created realities in between, outside of, and beyond these others. Trans and non-binary and agender and intersex: God created us.–Adapted from a message from trans pastor Asher O’CallaghanTo see the post in slide guide form, go here. -- source link

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