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| Breakaway class being taught by R' Shmuel Eliyahu (Arutz Sheva) |
I have nothing but sympathy for people that believe they were born the wrong sex. I say that without quite understanding the phenomenon itself. I just don’t get - for example - why a person born male doesn’t see themselves that way. What is it about his ‘maleness’ that upsets them? Can male genitalia really be so offputting to them? Is that even the issue? I’m not sure. But for me what I was born is what I am. It never crossed my mind to think of myself in any other way.
My thinking is as follows. You are what you are. If for example you are born white, you are white. If you are born black, you are black. If you are born Asian, you are Asian. Can a black, white or Asian individual say they believe they were born the wrong race? What is it about one’s gender that makes it different?
Can’t answer the question.
Until relatively recent times this condition was considered so rare that it was hardly ever discussed. I wonder how many people back in the 60s ever even knew this condition existed – let alone know anyone that had it! I sure didn’t.
Times have changed. Today, it seems to be relatively common. And it is not limited to secular people. Even devout Jews have expressed gender dysphoria and have suffered tremendous mental pain and anguish over their condition – knowing the forbidden nature of changing one’s sex. Whether through sex reassignment surgery or simply cross dressing.
The question arises, how do devout Jews treat transgender people? How far do we go to accommodate their needs?
Halacha expressly forbids surgically changing one’s sex. As it does cross dressing. However, does the stress they are under rise to the level of Pikuach Nefseh - a life threatening situation that allows us to violate Halacha? If the answer to that question is no, then we are under a Halachic obligation to reject their request to change their sex or cross dress. If on the other hand the answer is yes, then do we have a Halachic obligation to allow the surgery?
And what if they have the surgery against Halacha. How do we treat them after the fact?
There are all kinds of other Halachic questions that arise. How far do we go with that? Is changing clothes from one sex to the other OK if that satisfies their transgender needs? What about hormone treatment? What if the only way a transgender individual can live is with sex reassignment surgery?
In cases where there is only cross dressing, should a transgender woman who still has male genitalia be allowed to use a woman’s bathroom? What about a transgender woman participating in female sporting events? (A question just as valid for those that have had the surgery)? Or a transgender woman who only cross dresses changing into a uniform in a women’s locker room?
Does age matter? What about a girl who believes she is a boy and dresses like one? Should she be allowed to attend an all boys Yeshiva dressed as a boy?
On the one hand gender dysphoria is a serious condition that can cause depression and suicide. They must be treated with sensitivity and compassion. On the other hand what about the religious sensitivities of those who are asked to accept them as the gender they choose to be rather than the one they were born with?
One might want to err on the side of compassion for transgender people since they are the ones who are at greater risk for depression and suicide. The rest of us need to accept them no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. But what if it a transgender child that is in a classroom that causes psychological damage to the other students? For me the answer is not so simple. That is exactly the situation that arose in Israel about an 8 year old girl dressed as a boy. From Arutz Sheva:
Last week, when students returned to school following the Hanukkah break, parents of the other children in the class opened a breakaway classroom outside the school grounds…
The girl in question has apparently been learning in the school dressed as a boy for over three years, with the Education Ministry and senior officials within the state-religious system aware of the deception but parents and even teachers kept in the dark until Besheva's expose four months ago.
Senior rabbis within the Religious-Zionist movement are encouraging the parents in their decision to open an alternative class in order to protect their children, who, parents say, have suffered psychological harm from the situation.
Did they do the right thing? I don’t know the answer to that either.