Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature with Colby Gordon | Outward Podcast

The Transgender Renaissance

• 💡 Colby Gordon, author of "Glorious Bodies: Trans Theology and Renaissance Literature," discusses how early modern religious texts offered insights into gender transformation.
• 🧠 Gordon's academic journey was guided by dissociation, leading him to explore obscure historical texts and eventually his own transition.
• 🚀 Hired as the first openly trans scholar in early modern studies, Gordon was tasked with exploring the concept of a "trans Renaissance."

Religious Frameworks for Transition

• ✝️ Before modern medicine, religion and theology were primary means for understanding and navigating gender transition in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• 📖 Key Christian texts, including the creation narrative in Genesis and depictions of the crucifixion, contain surprisingly transgender interpretations.
• 🗣️ Theologians debated whether Adam's creation in God's image implied a pre-binary or androgynous state, and Jesus's suffering on the cross was sometimes interpreted as maternal, gestating the church.

Christianity, Race, and Transness

• 🌍 Christianity's historical expansion involved incorporating and sometimes racializing other belief systems.
• ✡️ Early modern Christianity viewed Jewish men as gender-variant due to their historical role and Muslim populations were also associated with gender variance.
• ⚠️ Transness was simultaneously internal to Christianity and its perceived limit, leading to efforts to purge it and project it onto racialized groups.

Historical Parallels to Modern Politics

• 📜 The Inquisition's focus on crypto-Jews and Muslims led to mandated genital examinations, mirroring contemporary legislative actions targeting trans individuals.
• 🏛️ The convergence of religious vocabulary and anti-trans politics echoes early modern anxieties about religious and racial purity.
• ⚖️ The state's use of discipline and violence against perceived gender deviants is a recurring theme from the Reformation to the present.

Reclaiming Religion for Trans Existence

• ✊ Trans people deserve access to all aspects of culture, including religion and historical traditions.
• 🚫 Relying solely on medical and psychological frameworks has proven insufficient for protecting trans individuals from state violence.
• ✨ Exploring religious discourse offers an alternative to understanding transness outside of medicalized categories, providing a richer conceptual vocabulary for trans experience.