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Why do the religious people have a hard time respecting trans women and men?

We have a new trans women co-worker at my work. All of them, including my bosses, don't respect her and keep calling her a he. My boss said, "His ID said _____, so he's a he. I don't care." She's a lesbian, yet is religious. I tried to educate them in the proper pronouns. Only I and 2 other gay men refer to her as a she. I would get upset if I were misgendered too. Some people...

Sarahroo29 8 Jan 11
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4

Religion doesn’t give people moral compass, it excuses them.

1

ignorance. They don't understand and probably do not want to understand

1

Because in doing so they are admitting (in their eyes) that God makes mistakes.

1

They are ignorant and scared of people that are not like them.

Sacha Level 7 Jan 11, 2018

Part of that is true, something I have notice the leaders will pick on someone that is different to use them as an example of what they believe is wrong.

1

Lots of them adhere so deeply to the facilities in the bible, that they believe that by shunning other people's choices that they will convince them to choose the path laid out in the bible.

My boss is a lesbian. Why can't she understand?

@Sarahroo29 Sometimes when people are disliked or they are segregated from being included the rebel and cause turmoil.

5

I suppose religious people have a hard time respecting transsexuals in part because trans people are an embarrassment for them, or at least for those whose beliefs follow fundamentalist tenets. Their model of the world is built on very distinct and clearly defined God-given roles for the sexes. Nature, however, is not so cut and dried as religious scriptures and their received doctrines would have us believe. Nature is full of ambiguity that is frequently expressed both psychologically as in the case of those people where a mismatch exists between their gender identity and their physical gender, and also physically as in the case of people who are born hermaphrodites. Trans people are fighting an uphill battle for acceptance, and I commend you, Sarahroo29, on your efforts to ensure this woman is accepted for who she is.

Thanks.

It was only relatively recently that I found out that there are not two sexes. In terms of chromosomes and otherwise there is a range.

Personally, I don't particularly identify with any gender although I am not attracted to men and I find women attractive. Well, OK, once there was this guy, skipper of a boat, but that was a temporary aberration.

7

Why? Christianity teaches that men and women are fundamentally different. Trans and intersex people expose that fallacy and are there fore a threat to their belief system. So in their discomfort(that I am sure generally goes unexamined by themselves) they attack what threatens their delusion.

This poses the question: why do so many non-religious people also have a hard time respecting trans women and men?

Good question. Perhaps because religion is not the only cultural force that teaches that the sexes are fundamentally different. Trans people are a tiny minority, and that invites the majority to tag them as abnormal, flukes of nature, a "mistake," rather than simply variations in a range. Even without religion, it is tempting for many to pick on anyone different to affirm their own sense of "normalcy."

But religion takes that inclination to a whole different, horrible level, by attempting to impose a stamp of divine authority on people's dislike and condemnation of "The other." If I consider myself a good and faithful follower of God, and you seem to live your life differently enough from me, religion could easily teach me that you must be against God and, therefore, worthy of condemnation. Then I can claim not only that I think you are weird but more dangerously that you are evil and deserve punishment or even to be destroyed.

1

because it messes with there brain. their hard drive crashes. ask them about the ark and hamophradite animals excuse my spelling

Hermaphrodites and the ark?

yes some animals like Komodo dragons can just give birth and stick insects

4

I don't think it has anything to do with religion. It's the societal stigma created which merged with religion. There is a society in Indonesia called bugis where they have five genders. They live harmoniously. Hinduism is a funny religion. There are places in India where they believe in a god who was born out of a god and a god who changed to a woman temporarily. In mahabharata, hindu poetry, a mythological story, there was a main character shikandi who was a transgender. In fact transgenders in some parts of India have their own god Eunuchs were the head of administration in China also.

0

I'm going to oversimplify and generalize as I was taught at the United Methodist Church. Men are genetically male and Females are genetically female. DNA has penises and vaginas. So one can only be one or the other. If you "choose " to be anything other than what "God made you" you are doing so only because you hate God and are going against nature.

They do not understand that DNA has no gender but only is a blueprint for lets say a hand and that it is not male or female. When the chromosomes join it is then that gender is determined yet we still do not actually have it yet. As we grow different amounts of male and female hormones are secreted thus determining how masculine or feminine we become according to our "gender". There are also times when they can be both. But this ain't in the book so it ain't so.

One can only have only boy DNA with penises and girl DNA that comes equipped with vaginas....no exceptions. We simply ignore science and those people that do not fit into these categories as if they did not exist. If they insist on being what they actually are we deny the facts and treat them like the evil horrible people they are. They hate God so the only way to show them our unconditional love is to be so hateful they will want to come to Jesus and be "normal".

I have been a little cheeky here but this is exactly how they think. I was raised that way here in Canon. Since you live 45 min. from here when you drive through town.....drive through town.

Are you a theist?

@Sarahroo29 I must have failed to communicate somehow. I am a "strong" atheist activist.

1

One could argue that gender is an abstract concept, and does not exist outside of the mind.
-Same with the voices in my head. Because they are not my voices and they occupy one body, each with their own gender...does that mean that I am all of the genders combined, or am I only the gender of the voice that is speaking?

If at the time my gender is female but peppered with male, and I'm wearing a dress despite having not shaven off my beard, should I be more offended for someone calling me she, or he?
They could refer to me as they, but They is plural. How do they know if I'm hearing more than one voice at the time? -We would find that particularly rude.

Also, since we all have specific names, should I be more offended if someone isn't calling me the right name when someone else is driving? If so, where is our justice?

It's annoying that the English language only has pronouns for the two sexes, and not the 63 genders. Then again, English has only been around for 1,400 years, and I'm certain that in that time gender pronouns were an issue every single year since its conception, but it's only now that Merriam Webster is doing anything about it.
Also, do they realize how extremely limiting having only 63 genders is? I demand we be allowed to have more.

63 genders! I'm lost and confused. You will have to enlighten me on that before I can respectfully and responsibly respond.

Ikr?

@ollieberry I'll say this much. I block transphobic bigots on sight.

1

I don't think religion has a lot to do with it. Many trans gendered are not even accepted by their close friends and family, parents, siblings. What extraordinary courage they have in the face of total rejection. my friend Prudence was murdered because she was trans. My friend Brandy is happily married to a wonderful man, John. They were together 33 years before they could legally marry. When I was 19 I met Christine Jorgenson. She spoke at my college. I work at a school with 7 trans students I respect them but do take this issue with them. I am a gay man. In my teens I thought I might be a women in a man's body because I was attracted to men That was because I knew I couldn't be gay because I wasn't a sissy. It took a few years to come to the realization there was nothing wrong with me. I wasn't a woman trapped in a man's body ( not that that is wrong), but just a man who likes other men. That is why I think high school is too young to be catering to transgendered kids. wait til they are 18 or 21 when their brains are more developed and they have had time to sort things out rather than act on impulse. I just don't think minors should be taking surgical or chemical therapies. Give their brains time to comprehend, cope, develop before making life changing decisions.

I knew a trans teenager. She's 17 now. She wants the surgery.

2

If she's new, the misgendering may improve over time. I have a trans friend, the first trans person I ever knowingly met, and when I first met her I kept calling her "he" - not deliberately (as far as I'm concerned, transwomen are women and transmen are men), but just because I'm so conditioned by society to call some people "he" and others "she" (I apologised to her for it). It took a little while to retrain my brain, but I haven't misgendered anyone since then. The fact that the two gay colleagues who may have met trans people through the LBGT scene might already have done that, whereas at least some of the other colleagues may do the same. Some others might not, of course, but you always get a few people who can't or won't accept people who are different to themselves.

Jnei Level 8 Jan 12, 2018
3

Hostile work environment. ...if anything else happens like demotion discharge failure to promote unsanitary working conditions GET A CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER. ..keep a diary time date names places of all wrongs done to her AND THOSE LIKE YOU SUPPORTING her

1

I must be very lucky. I am a trans woman (I don't like this term, I consider myself a woman) and I have not had any negativity from anyone including family, co-workers and religious and non-religious friends. Possibly I am just in a very accepting town or country.

From time to time somebody will tell me in a respectful way that they are getting used to the right pronouns to use. My response is along the lines of: I prefer to be called 'she' but I don't get upset over it - after all if that's my biggest problem with my lifestyle (and it is!) then I've not much to worry about.

I do realise that others do not have the easy run that I've been getting for years now and I wish you all well. If I ever work out why I'm lucky I will pass it on. My sincerest Best Wishes to you all!

Today every time I said she, my boss kept saying HE. Then he/she. I'm all correcting her. She, my boss was laughing. The co-worker said she doesn't get offended. Well, I was offended. It's called, respect.

We all are a person first, no matter the gender. If you tell me your name that is all that matters.. No one should determine what your life should have been or what it will be. Everyone who has something BROKEN in their life doesn't need to be told what they should be doing... This is what I believe to be true today...."THE CIRCLE OF TRADITON IS CONDITIONED".... we need to make this who we truly want to be. I broke that circle a long time ago and became the "Individual" I want to be..

1

Because in a 2 lane highway a third lane was painted?

1

Because believers ignore of deny anything that conflicts with their beliefs. God made two genders so there can't possibly be more. The earth was created in six days so evolution can't possibly be true. They don't feel as though they have to respect it. I've gotten misgendered myself many times, but it's a lot worse to hear " it " or " thing ".

Yes. The just use the person's name now. No he or she.

3

It comes from a ignorance of science, and a way to justify that ignorance and bigotry.

They believe gender constructs are biological, and they conflate sexual orientation with gender. And those within the Abrahamic religion hate the gays. Ironic this transphobic person is gay, themselves. What type of mental gymnastics must she go through to justify being a gay Christian, lol.

Idk. Lol

1

It is because "God couldn't have made a mistake to make her physically male in the first place. It is a sin to undo what God has done correctly."

Of course, they won't listen to the logic that "God is also responsible for what is in her mind." ...and then there's the whole Noah's Ark thing where God pretty much said "Oops, I screwed THAT up, let's wipe everything from the face of the earth and start over." Either God doesn't make mistakes or he only makes REALLY big ones, apparently.

Yep.

3

Sounds like corporate needs to have a word with your transmysoginist boss.

Yeah.

1

People do not understand what they don't know. And I know from being raised religious part of your anatomy is sexual. Sexual was always considered to be hush hush growing up. Then the world decided to allow somethings more open. Naked is sinful in the religious eyes. And to change your sex or to want to be of a different sex is no one elses business. You are a person first and I respect all people. It is up to you to decide what sex, race, or religion you want to be...CHANGE is inevitable.

Yep. I agree.

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