Transgender people and religion

[43] Pope Benedict XVI denounced gender studies, warning that it blurs the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

[54] The 2020 General Handbook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states that transgender persons and their families and friends "should be treated with sensitivity, kindness, compassion, and an abundance of Christlike love".

[68] In some regions of South Asia such as India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, the hijras are officially recognized as a third gender that is neither male nor female,[69] a concept that some have compared to mukhannathun.

[77] The concept is also briefly referenced in Shulhan Aruch and mystical texts such as Kabbalah, that at times, a female soul may reside in a male body, and vice-versa, although this is not formally identified as transgender in the modern sense.

[78] Orthodox Jewish religious authorities assert that gender is an innate and eternal category which is based on verses in the Book of Genesis about Adam and Eve and the creation of maleness and femaleness.

But the Jewish Theological Seminary, one of three Conservative movement schools, openly admits students of all sexual orientations and gender identities for rabbinical training and ordination.

Reform Judaism's Central Conference of American Rabbis first addressed the issue of transgender Jews in 1978, when they deemed it permissible for a person who has undergone sex reassignment surgery (SRS) to be married according to Jewish tradition.

[94] In 2002 at the Reform seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, Rabbi Margaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at any rabbinical school which addressed the psychological, legal, and religious issues affecting people who are transgender or intersex.

[96] In 2007, the Union for Reform Judaism issued a new edition of Kulanu, their resource manual for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion, which for the first time included a blessing sanctifying the sex-change process.

[105] In 2003 the Reform rabbi Margaret Wenig organized the first school-wide seminar at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College which addressed the psychological, legal and religious issues affecting people who are transgender or intersex.

One rabbinical authority concluded that Dana should be counted in a minyan as a man, but could not sing in front of the community since she was also a woman, according to the rabbi, and that would violate the Orthodox rule of kol isha.

[118] Stories about them show them to be completely uninterested in romance or sex with men, and any man forcing his attention upon them could die, due to the "evil magic in their vaginas".

[123] In addition, Norse gods were capable of changing gender at will, for example Loki, frequently disguised himself as a woman and gave birth to a foal while in the form of a white mare, after a sexual encounter with the stallion Svaðilfari.

Kathoey are generally seen as not likely to form lasting relationships with men, and the lay explanation of their karma is that they are working out debts from adulterous behavior in past lives.

[134] Due to their classification as third gender and being sexually neutral, Transgender people, especially the devotees of Lord Krishna, have been historically shown to bestow blessings.

In October 2013, "India's Supreme court stated that transgenders have remained untouchable in society with restricted access to education, health care and jobs.

Transgender people are unable to "exercise their democratic rights in marriage, adopting/raising children and utilizing financial support system such as free and subsidized health care, surgeries and medical treatments".

The Supreme Court of India has directed all Indian states to build separate restrooms for transgender people, and "to establish welfare agencies to enhance their health and medical needs.

[138] Also, some gender separatist groups exclude transgender people, often on the basis that non-transgender individuals share certain spiritual qualities derived from assigned sex.

A group of human bones wearing ornaments from 1600–1700 years ago (the late Yayoi period) have been excavated at the Hirota Site in Kagoshima Prefecture.

Therefore, deities possess male".In medieval Japan, there are records of strange incidents in which pots would suddenly emit huge noises (i.e. kamanari; Japanese: 釜鳴り).

Although their intersex physical characteristics are mocked cruelly and pathologized in the book, they were a miko who wandered about beating drums and playing flutes, with both female and male mannerisms and appearances.

In Go-Udain Takano Gokouki (後宇多院高野御幸記), it is recorded that women dressed as men and entered forbidden areas to view the entourage of the Cloistered Emperor Go-Uda.

Nao Deguchi, the originator of Oomoto-kyō, in their later years claimed that their soul is the same as that of Amaterasu's sister, and therefore that although their body is female (i.e. 変性男子; Henjōnansi [ja]), they are spiritually male.

[171] The shintai worshipped by the Jikōson's sect, which arose after the war and was banned by Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, is considered as an androgynous deity that was a fusion of Emperor Jimmu and Amaterasu.

According to a record in the Sankaiki [ja] by Nakayama Tadachika, when Taira no Kiyomori visited Itsukushima Shrine in 1179, women dressed as men performed the dengaku dance in Fukuhara on the way.

[168] このごろ都に流行る物、柳黛髪々似而非鬘しほゆき近江女女冠者、長刀持たぬ尼ぞ無き What is in fashion in Kyōto these days: willow-leaf-thin eyebrows (ryūtai), various hairstyles, wigs (ese-kazura), shioyuki (an unknown style), courtesans from Ōmi, young women dressed as men (onna-kanza).

A festival called Ofudamaki (お札撒き), in which men dressed as women scatter talismans, is held at a Yasaka Shrine in Totsuka Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

At a rite called Ikazuchi no Daihannya (雷の大般若) at Shinzōin Temple [ja] (in Edogawa Ward, Tōkyō), men dressed as women parade through the town carrying a chest containing the Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras.

At the Ōmiyuki Matsuri (大御幸祭) held at Sengen Shrine in Yamanashi Prefecture, men dressed as women carry a mikoshi and stomp on the embankment.