Otherwise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation

In this invigorating dive into scripture, writer and activist Paige (Christian Faith and Gender Identity) reads the Bible in provocative ways to affirm support for transgender experience. Paige’s transgender lens on the text brings to the foreground lesser-known biblical figures (Deborah) and topics (eunuchs, mentioned 50 times in the Bible). Jesus’s celibacy is fraught with meaning from a transgender perspective, Paige writes, and the argument that Joseph (he of the many-colored coat) was genderqueer is surprising yet plausible. Paige’s study of the many eunuchs that appear in biblical stories, which he argues should be translated as “intersex,” is especially strong and imaginative. The author also examines Jewish biblical exegesis for its insights into expansive readings of gender, and articulates a larger declamation against Western European colonialism as the source of oppressive gender binaries. This is a treasure chest of resources for those interested in ways transgender individuals can live faithful to God and to one’s self. (Self-published.)