Transgender Rights Are Giving Air To An Old Argument: Separation Of Church Vs State

Gender has been a part of everyone's lives as a self-identity but what most people did not know was how broad the concept of Gender was. There is not just " boy" or " girl"  but transsexual also. And as a member of being a human beings, we all need to become aware of the other genders that are part of our human race with understanding and respect. We all are not as we appear to be.

Separation of church and state was phased by Thomas Jefferson which was originated by John Locke who was among one of the Enlightenment philosophers. It describes a mental and philosophical idea that the church and the state are two separate communities where there are rules regarding certain issues at certain places at certain times. 

Before the rise of Christianity, people had worshipped the Gods according to their state's requirements. The Christian concept of the separation of church and the state is founded on the words of Jesus Christ. "Render to Caesar, the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" { Mark 12:17}. Two distinct, but not altogether separate, areas of human life and activity had to be distinguished, hence a theory of two powers came to form the basis of Christian thought and teaching from the earliest times.  

At the times of the Apostles, respect and obedience were taught to the powers of government as long as they did not cross the laws of faith. But the churchmen who were governing at the time has felt that the existence of the church and their laws were to pass judgment of the leader only.

Finally when the Roman Empire fell the concept of Church and state kept falling into the hands of the church as Law but also as a religious leader. It seems that everyone had struggled with the ideas of what the church can decide is moral and what is justified.

Only Until the 17th Century, were there an acceptance of religious ideas known by a very few people who fled from being arrested in England to America to explore a stricter religious life. It was reflected in the First Amendment that the French Enlightenment on colonial through to persevered their entirely different coexisting rules on law and religious beliefs.

It seems that the division of Church vs. State was already apparent and approved long before the 20th century had arrived and it is quite surprising that it was indeed a Christian based value that there is and should be a division of laws that assure humanity of its moral code and understand the ordained rules of the human soul called faith.

Let's take a look...

The first time that the word "transexual" was used in 1923 by a German physician in an article titled The Intersex Constitution" The term is acceptable in the medical setting and is seen as a sense of personal identity yet there are ways to use certain names towards certain transgender men and women.

The term transgender is a part of the world even though there are those who are offended by it even if there is political protection already provided by the 14th Amendment, there are times the Supreme Court fails to uphold it. While the hormone theory is for the use of trans patients is encouraged for sexual identity, there were other parts of their lives that were not accepted like having a marriage and having a career.

It has so far been argued that Cisgender, that is non –trans, forms, and concepts of the human body have been epistemological foundations for how we perceive “normal.”

But in adopting this term in order to critique our knowledge we do run the risk of materializing the differences we hope to overcome again. I would like to say on a very personal note a deeply humble apology to my own complete lack of understanding and even my sense of compassion as I have read the following two readings, Anne Fausto- Sterling’s “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough” and Anne Finn Enke’s “The Education of Little Cis” was introduced a Transgender world I did not know existed besides my understanding of a homosexual one.

It has become apparent Biologically that there is more to being a "boy" and  "girl" gender.

The first time I have heard of a Transgender person was on Oprah Winfrey’s show where a boy believes he is really a girl in a boy’s body that was in Annie Fausto- Sterling’s article was described as Transsexual that I understood was a mental disorder.

I had instant compassion and sympathy because the confusion must be deteriorating. Then a couple of years later attending a Children and Literature class where I had read a book called George about a boy who also believed he is a girl and his journey towards accepting his girlhood was achieved in a rather playful way.

I felt humiliated because even though I understood George’s struggle understanding his connection with his growing penis – I thought he would grow into it. When I realized that I was happy with his female transformation in switching his part in a play called Charlotte’s Web – the spider – I realized he is a she. In my comparison, I felt again completely then.  Was he cured? Will he grow up with his penis later?

I believe it is this confusion that makes me question, why Women and Gender Studies would be in the same field of study that I do believe, is a completely different world and therefore deserves a different disciple of study. But I do believe that I have been lied to as a female human being because I did not know there were Transgender people in our world before. So I am sorry that I don’t know.

While it is true in a standard world we live in, we understand gender as female and male, and our world is committed to making our world culturally, socially, and intellectually our beings according to our biological bodies in a very unnaturally way.

Growing up, I have come to believe that the social concept of feminism was supposed to help women, in particular, go against a world that was not only taking advantage of the misunderstanding of the female body’s biology compared to men but to the world itself. But it now has come to my attention the concept of feminism is indeed the very universal and diverse idea that can help Transgender people too.

Now as I understand it a Cisgender does a Transgender language that describes a female or male person that has a mental and physical connection with each other make up a term. I find two problems with that; a Transgender world is still confusing because their labels are not completely solid because the Transgender is not stable.

Don’t be mad at me if you are already upset. Try to understand my confusion first! Also, a Cisgender as I understand it in a standard world is a normal human child who would have not the difficulties of an intersexual child who may have both a penis and vagina. So what I am saying again is reconstructing a complete language of a standard world is not fair.
                                     

There needs to be a new one.
         

It has been said in the article, “ The Education of the Little Cisgender” For some people, surgeries are one deeply important aspect of gender self-identification but it is not a surgical status that defines people as transsexuals.”

Maybe a man does not want a vagina but wears women’s clothing and a woman does not want to destroy her vagina to attach a penis instead, so how are the rest of the world is supposed to understand and recognized who they are if surgeries are not an option.

A woman who is not Transsexual could get a new hairstyle or enhance her breast size and a man could get a haircut at a barbershop. I would not call it gender identification- but it is interesting to see that is what a Transgender person would say when they denied themselves that service.

But as I continue to read the article, I understand now surgeries do not solve Intersex biology. So again, I am wrong and beg for your forgiveness. 

I had met a transgender as a student attending Brooklyn College

As, I met a young transgender woman who opened up her world to my class, I begin to understand how different she just felt being in a world that was not acceptable to her but still she was warm, sweet, vibrant and she felt very much like a boy and a girl to me all at once and it was beautiful.

She was not a tomboy or a girl who wanted to dress like a boy or a girl who just happens to like another girl. It was just her and our meeting, however indirect, it was was very informative to me that I gave her a thank you card at the end of the semester for showing me how unapologetic she was about who she is. 
   

Finally, there came a policy for transgender situations to be able to address as their chosen identity and to be allowed the use of the bathroom of their comfort level. It was also advised that in Loudoun School that their syllabuses allowed classes to expose students to topics of Race and Racism which should support a new kind of diverse community of students learning together quite harmoniously.

Ironically due to a Christian P. E professor who would not embrace this new concept of acceptance had spoken out against it was punished but then forgiven. He is back in the Loudoun school participating in a new policy 8040 supporting an opened minded school administration for its student body. Now that the world is openly accepting a diverse community of not only cultures, ethnicities but biologies of new people, let's talk about critical race theory? 

I was raised to believe there were two types of genders, girl, and boy until I had met a transgender who has taught me about her world as it is just as nice as the boy and girl world I live in. No one has the innate right to openly disregard a person because it is different.