In our current political climate, it can feel like a world of dwindling possibilities for gender diverse folk. And, with bans on military service and the elimination of DEI programs, there is some truth to that.
But to counter that narrative, it is important to emphasize that genderqueer people are capable of anything.
In the book of Genesis, we hear the story of a person named Jacob.
Jacob is the second born twin child of Isaac and Rebekah.
Jacob’s brother is the archetypal man: hairy, a hunter, and masculine.
Jacob is described as smooth skinned. Instead of hunting or going to war, he hangs out in feminine spaces of tents and kitchens. While his brother his out killing animals, Jacob is in the kitchen cooking stew.
Jacob dresses in drag to steal his brother’s birthright and then wrestles with a man throughout the night and is wounded, in some translations in his inner thigh, until receiving a new name, Israel.
Israel, the effeminate person who probably dreamed of being a kept woman, and who would later buy his effeminate son Joseph a princess dress, becomes the patriarch of the 12 tribes of Israel.
A few months ago, after worship, a trans woman said to me, “I didn’t realize a transgender person could be a pastor, I didn’t realize a transgender person could be in any position of leadership.
You can be anything. You can be you. You can do anything.
