What Disability Theology Can Teach the Church About Transgender Identities

Catholics should not be strangers to the deep connection between body and soul, refusing a binary that suggests we are composed of two separated entities. As Catholics, embodiment is central to the human experience and to God’s participation in the world, so how we treat the bodies of ourselves and others matters deeply.

A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter explores this idea more fully by examining how the unspoken patriarchal standards of society create fears about both transgender and disabled bodies. The writer, Madison Chastain, also implores us to listen to what we could instead learn from these bodies, drawing from queer theory and disability studies in doing so.

Chastain outlines clearly the way that cisgender male bodies are the norm by which all bodies are judged. Female bodies shift chemically and physically each month, and even more so with pregnancy and childbirth, so they are outside the norm. Society at large, Chastain argues, is not set up to accommodate changing or non-normative bodies. For example, the U.S. largely lacks things like ample maternity leave for parents, and sufficient accommodations for disabled people. Disability, she argues, “puts on full display the uncontrollable changing of a body,” reminding those with normative physiques, that they too could be subject to such uncertainties. And these uncertainties are at the heart of anti-trans sentiments.  Chastain explains:

“. . . [M]asked by a sensationalized fear of a specific sexual agenda, the greater issue is an unwillingness to embrace the ever-changing nature of all bodies, which our trans siblings are impelled to address and integrate within themselves much more publicly than we who don’t identify as LGBTQ+.”

Listening to trans individuals, therefore, can model how to go along with our changing bodies in all their diversity, rather than fight and demand adherence to the cisgender male standard.

In a Catholic context, Chastain dismantles arguments which claim that one’s body at birth is God-ordained, including one’s assigned sex. But God does not will that those with bodies that do not feel like home should suffer, whatever the reason. She writes:

“For one thing, this argument is precarious for those who experience chronic illness and disability. If we say that God intends the body a person has — and that God intends that body to be unchanging — then we must concede that God, who we believe never wills suffering, nevertheless intends a person’s illness or disability. This does not accommodate those for whom disability and illness are nothing but suffering for the duration of their lives.

“The same argument says a person whose body experiences gender dysphoria is a part of the natural world permitted by God, if not intended. And this is still assuming the trans experience is a bad one.”

And in the same way that hearing aids, pacemakers, and other alterations can increase confidence and mobility for some, “couldn’t a trans person be discerning the will of God in their life by utilizing their spiritual resources to navigate a body that does not feel like their own, even when pursuing bodily modifications that allow them to be safer and more confident?”

Chastain also challenges the refusal of those with normative bodies and gender experiences to listen to transgender people’s  self-awareness. Often diocesan or school policies that restrict bathroom choice and pronoun changes suggest that youth cannot possibly know enough about themselves to insist on a trans identity. And yet, in the Catholic Church, we already show confidence in children’s ability to grasp understanding beyond their years with sacraments reflecting eternal mysteries conferred to elementary and middle schoolers in Communion and Confirmation. She writes:

“Catholics already expect a high level of maturity from minors, and entrust them with the most complex of mysteries–that of the Eucharist and the Trinity–far before children could possibly cognize them, because the church values participation in the true body of Christ over full understanding of its spiritual mysteries.”

How then are we valuing the full participation of trans individuals in the body of Christ? Are we refusing to recognize their own self-knowledge? The body of Christ in our churches, schools, communities, and beyond will only fully represent the diversity of humanity beyond patriarchal norms when we listen to everyone, fully body and soul. Chastain concludes:

“Encouraging trans self-determination — and supporting it with the trusting privacy and political protections all persons are due — requires a trust in the inner workings of the spirit in personal discernment about the body. This goes deeper than simply saying, ‘Who a person sleeps with or what they do with their body is none of my business.’

 “The more we embrace different bodies and bodies that change over time, the better we embrace the changes of our own.”

—Angela Howard McParland (she/her), New Ways Ministry, August 19, 2023