In the News

The Trump administration’s attacks on LGBTQIA+ people–and particularly transgender and gender-fluid people–are not new news. It was January 20 of this year (2025) when the administration issued the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” order. But even though the order was issued several months ago, it continues to have dire effects–both directly and by empowering states to create ever harsher laws against transgender people. Today I read a helpful report about research on detransitioning which brought this topic back to the forefront for me.

First, I feel compelled to point out the fact that this order on “defending women” and “restoring truth” comes from someone convicted of sexual assault against women and who has a very long record of telling blatant lies. O.K. On to the Bible . . . 

In the Word

This is going to be a two-part look at the Bible, because I want to address the two creation stories separately. While both stories (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-24) generally get smushed together by those who insist on gender binaries and heterosexual marriage, these two accounts of creation actually come from different communities at different times and present different views of God’s relationship to creation and our relationship to each other.

So, in the Genesis 1 story (most likely developed later than the story in Genesis 2), we see a methodical God creating various aspects of creation on different days. At the culmination of creation, on the sixth day, God creates “living creatures of every kind” and finally God creates humankind: “male and female.” (Gen. 1: 24-27) 

This, of course, is where people like to argue that there are only two genders–because Genesis 1 says that God created male and female. Here’s the thing, though–Genesis does not provide a comprehensive list of the entirety of creation. The rhetorical pattern established in the text is that the writer names specific examples to point to the great variety of creation. 

On the first day, God creates “Day” and “Night.” Where is the presidential decree that Dawn and Dusk do not exist? On the second day, God creates the sky. What about outlawing skyscrapers, or certainly airplanes and spaceships–which blatantly blur the spheres of earth and sky? Does the existence of beaches and wetlands go against God’s natural design of separating dry land and water on day three? 

Of course it is ridiculous to argue that only things explicitly named in Genesis 1 are part of God’s creation. Nobody argues for limits to God’s creation in Genesis 1:1-25. I’ve never heard anyone argue that cows are the only animal that exists because they are the only one explicitly named here. Why then, when we get to verses 26-27, do people all of a sudden argue that God’s great creative energy is limited to making only two genders of human? To read Genesis 1 as establishing only two genders is not in line with the rhetoric or the theology of the creation story as a whole. It is not a faithful reading.