The president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader idea of gender. The order says a person is male or female and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. The framing is in line with many conservatives’ views but at odds with major medical and religious groups. The debate about whether there are only two genders centers on whether biological sex is binary or if there is a spectrum of genders.

Genesis 2:21-23 reads:

• 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
• 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
• 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Is Genesis 2:21-23 saying that God took a male rib and transgendered that male rib into a female, Human Being 2.0?

Or by reading Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.“, was the first human being, Adam, androgynous, embodying both male and female sex characteristics? If Adam was androgynous, what percentage was man and what percentage was woman, or is there a spectrum of genders that can come from an androgynous body? Rabbinical literature defines six different genders in addition to male and female. According to Jewish sages, man and woman did not exist until Adam was divided (Genesis 2:21-23). See above.

It’s one thing for trans people to know that liberals and progressives support them; it’s another to know that a millennia-old religion does as well.

Richard Keckler

North Ogden