Ben Shapiro Is Still Wrong About: Trans People

For the hearing impaired everything the man says is spelled on the screen. For the parts where Shapiro is talking you will need the CC turned on. There is some really useful information about gender and sex. Hugs
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Published by Scotties Playtime

I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com

15 thoughts on “Ben Shapiro Is Still Wrong About: Trans People”

    1. Hello Ali. The start of the article is great, but sadly the entire article is not available unless you subscribe. Would you like to summarize the article for us? But one thing we have to realize is that gender is like race, it is a social construct that humans in wrong ways in daily life. Other than to correct past mistakes and inequalities we don’t need gender or race. I hate when people use the phrase men’s clothing or women’s clothing. It is just clothing. Gender roles are a thing of the past religions use against people but have no place in our world today. I hate when I hear someone say ” … like a woman” or ” … like a man” I am frustrated. What does it mean, why is it a man thing or a woman thing? Hugs

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      1. I get your point, Scottie, but there is something to be said related to the identification of men’s and women’s clothing. If I do a search for something to wear for ME, I sure don’t want to wade through a bunch of clothing designed for men. Even if some of clothing is non-gender-specific, I still prefer to see things that will complement MY body, not “his.”

        And, quite frankly, simply because there ARE two physical/bodily genders, I’m not sure making everything “neutral” is a good thing.

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        1. Hello Nan. I am sure when you look for specific clothing you type in what you are looking for. I doubt you simply type in women’s clothing. You type in dress, skirt, maybe women’s shoes or pants, but most clothing could be done by item without an overload of responses. When I look for a shirt online I type in button up shirt, polo shirt, tee shirt for example.

          Here is the point I was trying to make, because gender is a social construct made up by people, it changes from area to area, country to country, even religious sect to a different religious sect. The Pope and cardinals wear dresses. Think of all the pictures of Afghanistan people we seen as the US was withdrawing. The traditional garb was either a flowing wraps / robes or Indian long bottom button top shirts with soft pants under it. In that area women’s clothing is a Burqa. I did a quick search and found this also https://thesaxon.org/countries-where-men-wear-dresses-and-skirts-photos/809/ so again what people wear is tradition or customs. I was surprised to learn that both boys and girls wore dresses until the boys were about 11 or 12 when they were graduated to short pants.

          According to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood’s website, young British boys were dressed in gowns just like their sisters for the first few years of their lives, after which they would be “breeched” and put into shorts; this concept dates back to the 16th century and carried through into the early 20th

          Boys were popped into dresses just like girls up until the late 18th century. … However, in the early 19th century boys were back to frocks again, this time as well as the long frocks of earlier years, they also wore shorter ones with matching bloomers.

          https://babyology.com.au/lifestyle/beauty-and-fashion/dont-freak-out-but-all-little-boys-used-to-wear-dresses-and-nobody-cared/

          Nan I disagree there are only physically two body genders. I think you meant physical body sexes but that is not true either. I just watched a video of an intersex man telling how he was born with both full sets of sex organs. He was both female and male. He was a malefe. It was interesting. He has quite an accent so I am not sure you will be able to understand it, but I see it has CC but I cannot say if it is any good. What’s It Like To Be Intersex? | Minutes With | UNILAD | @LADbible TV https://youtu.be/0C5hnlCM-j0 But if he had both then there is more than two, at least three sexes. And then if others are born with parts of each they are even more sexes. I guess you could say that there are two majority sexes, but as with the jail article I posted all of those men looked like males and even if we all go around nude it still wouldn’t tell us if someone was a binary male or female. Hugs

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          1. Your points are well made, Scottie. Especially when it comes to clothing in other countries and religions. I was primarily referring to what is familiar to me … American clothing.

            As far as gender and/or sexual identification, I feel the extent one must go to “prove” there is a “mixture” or “blend” of human sexes has been a bit of overkill. Maybe it’s because this “stuff” wasn’t part of the society that I grew up in. Yes, the individuals who make up these “mixtures” may have been around but it simply wasn’t “advertised.”

            I know you are an avid supporter of the LGBTQ2+ movement so I’m sure you disagree with much of what I’ve written. So let’s just agree that it simply has to do with the generation gap. 🙂

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              1. Good holy dogs and cats! See Nan this is a problem, some good caring people trying to do the right thing don’t know when enough is good enough. I agreed with LGBT, then they added some more categories and I said OK, LGBTQ+. That covers them all and people can remember it. If you have a dozen or two dozen letters no one knows what it means. Plus some people wanted to change them to GSM, but no one can remember what that stands for including me. This kind of overkill drives people away and gives people like Tildeb room to argue against the good ideas. Yes if a person needs that many breakdowns to ID themselves, they need counseling and therapy. Good catch Nan. What do you think, should I make a post of it and see what people say? Hugs

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                1. Well, personally, I would never have even looked at the page had it not been for your post/comments, so I’m not sure how many others would be interested.

                  (Obviously), this is definitely not my area of interest, but since you addressed it on your blog, I decided to comment.

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            2. Hello Nan. I agree with you that it was not much talked about 50 years ago. No one wanted to talk about regular sex / genitalia back then much less those not listed as normal. Remember how much hate the hippies got in the 1960’s free love movement? The funny thing is I can remember all the negative stuff said about trans people today, was said about gay men and lesbian women back then. And I agree it is generational, just as the word socialist hits differently depending on generation or age. Look how parents are so much better about accepting gay kids when they come out today. Today kids even in grade school don’t mind telling their parents they feel different than others, they are attracted to their own gender. Boy back even 20 years ago that was not the way it was. Also the amount that the subject is talked about hits differently depending on how old you are. I can remember older people saying they did not mind all the queer people but why did they have to be all in your face about it. Stay quiet, just live your life and don’t push that gay shit on others. You are also correct I do care about the LGBTQ+ people and I think as people get more use to the ideas, see it more places most of them will become accepting. It happened with the LGB part of the group. I am off to check out the link you sent. Warm Hugs

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      2. Maybe I can just paste into 2 comments squares, if you don’t mind. I didn’t realize there was a paywall, but I do subscribe. I’ll be happy to do it, and I’m allowed to as a subscriber, so no troubles from Sojo.

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  2. Scottie, I thought I replied to this in the little comments column on the right under the bell, but I probably neglected to send, or something. I can, but don’t have to depending on what you and others are comfortable with, post the entire thing here in a couple of comments boxes, I believe. I’m a subscriber, and they allow subscribers to do that. I’m sorry about the paywall; I wasn’t aware. I am comfortable with posting it here, if that helps anyone decide. We all know I’m inclusive and not hurtful. And I can snip something if I see it, before sending it. But I didn’t see anything exclusive, which was the surprise, to me; I thought they’d simply be really nice, but might still need time. Again, either way, for me.

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    1. Hello Ali. Thank you. I think a lot of us would love it if you posted the article here in anyway you are comfortable doing. As long as you don’t get in trouble or stress out by it I am fine with it. Please don’t worry about snipping anything out, just put at the start that it is from the article so that if the article says something unfriendly people will know it is not you personally saying it. You never need worry about saying what you think, it is normal people don’t always agree with each other. It is OK to disagree as longs as we don’t get disagreeable is the saying I believe. Thanks again. If you have a question about any part of it you can email me at scottiesplaytime@gmail.com . But I think it will be fine if you post the article. Thanks. Hugs

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  3. Here it is in full. The link is already here. I’m not proselytizing, and people are free to ignore, comment, etc.-I’m not worried. It seems shareable, and if there’s a thing, then I will learn from that.☮💖☮🖖

    TRANSGENDER PEOPLE HAVE become a flash point in America’s culture wars, particularly in communities and institutions based on religious traditions that see the gender binary—the idea that human beings are always, and only, male or female—as a fixed theological principle rather than a mutable feature of human culture. The statement that God created human beings “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) is often cited as the basis for this belief, interpreted as meaning that binary gender is a divinely determined aspect of humanity—and transgender and nonbinary people, therefore, are not.

    From this perspective, the gender binary is a cornerstone of the Divine-human relationship, a way in which God’s conception of humanity is reflected in our bodies, our intimate relationships, our families, customs, rituals, and communities. Transgender and nonbinary people—people like me who do not identify as the gender associated with the sex of our bodies—must either be deluded or heretical, misunderstanding who God means us to be, or consciously rejecting the Divine-human relationship and opposing the divine order of creation.

    Whatever our motivations, our claims that human beings can really “be” transgender or nonbinary, and that such identities should be acknowledged and respected, are seen as posing an existential threat to the religious traditions that safeguard the sacredness of family, community, and humanity.

    I understand this perspective. I teach at Yeshiva University, an institution devoted to Orthodox Judaism, a religious tradition in which the gender binary is central to theology, ritual, and every aspect of personal and communal life. The gender binary is literally built into our houses of worship, which are designed with separate spaces for men and women, and often relegate women to a second-story gallery far from the pulpit.

    I have never been Orthodox, but I have always been religious, by which I mean aware of and engaged with God’s presence. I have also always been what we now call transgender. Even though I was born, raised, and lived until my mid-40s as a male, from my earliest childhood, I felt that I was female.

    Contrary to culture war assumptions, I have never felt a conflict between being religious and being transgender. Without God’s presence and help, I wouldn’t have survived a childhood spent hiding who I was from a family and world I knew would reject me. God did not reject me. God had made me; God sustained me through years of suicidal depression. No matter how others see me, God is always there.

    People like me prove that identifying as transgender or nonbinary is not inherently secular or at odds with religious faith. Indeed, for me, as for many of us, the difficulty of being transgender in a binary gender world led me to cling more fiercely to God.

    Who are we in relationship to God?
    AS MANY COMMENTARIES note, the biblical assertion that God made human beings male and female does not mean God does not make people in other ways as well. Indeed, several early rabbis interpret Genesis 1:27 as meaning that the first human beings were androgynous, both male and female (see for example the Talmudic-era midrash Bereshit Rabbah, chapter 8), and the Talmud includes a discussion of how to adapt binary-based religious laws to accommodate people we would now call intersex, whose bodies cannot be categorized as either male or female. Here and elsewhere, rabbinic comments recognize that the divine order of creation is not threatened by ways of being human that do not fit binary gender categories, and that God’s conception of humanity is vaster and more varied than we can comprehend.

    The existence of transgender and nonbinary people does not defy God’s will; instead, we manifest God’s will because, as I knew from earliest childhood, it is human culture, not God, that sorts everyone according to binary gender, and it is God, not binary gender, who determines who we are.

    Because we are not mentioned in biblical texts, many who look to the Bible to understand what human beings are and should be often see transgender and nonbinary people as a threat to religious traditions and communities. Accepting that God not only makes human beings male and female but other ways as well does not require us to turn away from religious traditions and embrace secular ideas of gender. Indeed, the Bible itself prepares us to accept transgender and nonbinary people.

    For example, many traditionally religious people refuse to recognize transgender and nonbinary identities because they believe that the Bible teaches that maleness and femaleness are determined by, and inseparable from, physical sex. But whenever the Bible uses male pronouns or verb forms to refer to God, it teaches us the opposite.

    The Hebrew Bible does not refer to God as “he” in order for us to associate God as physically male. Indeed, the first of the Ten Commandments prohibits identifying God in terms of anything “in heaven above, or on the earth beneath” (Exodus 20:4). Instead, it is patriarchal traditions that interpret male pronouns in a way that associates God with human ideas of maleness and masculinity—that is, with maleness as gender, not physiology—and thus associate human maleness and masculinity with God. But even as these interpretations reflect and reinforce patriarchal ideas of gender (by identifying God, who has no body, as male), they also teach us to think of gender as independent of physical sex, as a way of understanding who rather than what God is. That is how transgender and nonbinary people think of gender: as a way of identifying who we are, not what kind of bodies we have.

    ‘Neither God nor I fit binary gender categories’
    OF COURSE, MANY religious people would argue that no matter what pronouns the Bible uses, God cannot be understood in terms of human gender. I completely agree. From the time I began reading the Bible as a child, I knew that God couldn’t be what human beings mean by male or female. That gave me a sense of kinship with God: Neither of us fit binary gender categories, and both of us were invisible and incomprehensible to those we loved.

    From the beginning of Genesis, when God creates the physical universe, the Bible makes it clear that God can’t be understood and shouldn’t be conceived of in terms of human categories such as gender.

    Moses hears God speaking through the bush that burns and is not consumed; the Israelites experience God’s presence in thunder and lightning at Mount Sinai; Elijah identifies God in the “still, small voice” outside his cave; God works miracles such as the plagues of Egypt and manna in the wilderness; Psalm 147 reminds us of God in mundane wonders such as rain and grass and snow. Over and over, the Bible teaches us that we don’t need God to fit binary gender categories to recognize God’s presence, to feel God’s love, or to put God at the center of our communities and our lives.

    Human beings are made in the image of this category-defying God.

    The Bible tells us three times that we are made in the category-defying image (once in Genesis 1:26 and twice in 1:27) before it mentions sexual dimorphism, physical maleness and femaleness (which, as the story of Noah’s ark reminds us, is common among humans and animals alike). To God, what makes us human is not that we are made male and female: It is that we are made in the image of our Creator who, unlike the deities featured in Iron Age creation myths, has neither body nor sex nor gender.

    Did Abram and Sarai shed their assigned gender roles?
    THE EXISTENCE OF transgender and nonbinary people does not contradict what the Bible teaches us about God’s conception of humanity. Our existence reinforces that teaching by demonstrating the difference between the gender categories human beings rely on to identify one another and the image of God by which God identifies us.

    It can be hard to make that distinction because, in both secular and religious communities, so many roles, relationships, rituals, customs, and institutions require us to identify and be identified in terms of binary gender that it is easy to think of maleness and femaleness not as categories we are assigned at birth but as unchangeable essences that define who and what we are—or, many religious people say, who and what God created us to be.

    But one of the Bible’s most famous stories makes it clear that God means us to be more than the gender roles we are born into, and that sometimes God calls us to leave those roles behind and live lives our families and communities do not understand.

    According to the Bible, the starting point for what would become Judaism is the moment when Abram—who, as Terah’s first-born son, is expected to care for his father all his life and assume his father’s position after his death—hears God say, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). If God had created human beings to be always and only the men or women we are born, raised, and expected to be, then Abram would have said no. And if Abram had believed that he was and could only be what his culture said a first-born male should be (with all the rights and responsibilities of inheritance in a primogeniture system), then the Bible as we know it would never have been written.

    “Real men don’t abandon their fathers,” Abram might have said to himself, “and real gods don’t tell people to violate ancient traditions and sacred family duties.” Or maybe Abram would have believed, as trans and nonbinary people are often told to believe, that the voice summoning him to live the life God created him to live was not the voice of truth but the voice of temptation, irresponsibility, selfishness, deviance, delusion, and sin.

    Abram didn’t let being a first-born son stop him from recognizing and answering God’s call. He left behind the gender role he was born into and the identity and responsibilities that went along with it and accepted a new identity, one defined not by his relationship to his family or his people but by his relationship with God.

    God also called Sarai, Abram’s wife, beyond assigned gender roles when God tells her she will bear a child in extreme old age. Sarai’s miraculous conception confounds traditional binary gender roles—without divine intervention, being both a new mother and an elderly woman is impossible—as well as the gender binary assumption that biology (in this case, Sarai’s age) determines who we are.

    Again and again, the Bible highlights people—Abram, Sarai, Moses, Deborah and other Hebrew prophets, and Jesus and the apostles—who answer God’s call to stop being the men and women their families and cultures expect them to be and let God, not gender, define them.

    That’s what I did when, after decades of pretending to be a man I knew I wasn’t, I realized that—even though it would cost me my family, friends, and job—I had to live as the person God created me to be.

    My life as an openly transgender person is not a rejection of God or the Bible: It is an expression of the truth God planted within me, my way of bearing witness to the incomprehensible image of God in which, the Bible teaches, each of us, trans or not, is made.

    [by]Joy Ladin
    Joy Ladin, author of The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, is a professor of English and holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College of Yeshiva University in New York.

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