麻豆社

Good morning!

This week a professor at the University of Sussex was told that she may need bodyguards, as anonymous protestors have called for her to be sacked, and violently threatened her online. They鈥檙e objecting to her opinion that being a 鈥榳oman鈥� or a 鈥榤an鈥� is just a biological fact rather than something influenced by society.

In my own home, a decade ago, our oldest child told us that they feel fundamentally different from the female gender assigned to them at birth. They explained patiently and gently the meaning of being gender non-binary - of neither feeling male nor female. Now they identify themselves as trans. When we make mistakes, calling them 鈥榟er鈥� or 鈥榮he鈥�, they respond with understanding, 鈥渢hat's how you鈥檝e seen me since I was born, so it's not surprising that you use the wrong pronoun鈥�.

There鈥檚 so much terminology involved in this debate. How is anybody meant to know what the term 鈥榗isgender鈥� means if nobody鈥檚 explained to them that this how you describe someone whose gender identity matches their biological sex? See - it鈥檚 complicated even to say or understand that sentence!
It's reasonable that many of us, wanting to protect others, or out of fear of being caught in the ricochets of this debate, might not ask questions, or might not test out our views by thinking aloud.

But silence, or a lack of knowledge, doesn鈥檛 necessarily indicate disapproval or hatred, but that you just don鈥檛 know yet, you just don鈥檛 understand yet and might not want to ask.

Judaism鈥檚 fabric is created by asking questions and enabling disagreement and mistakes. For instance, at Passover, we learn about four types of questions, through four archetypes of children. The wise, the wicked, the naive and the one who doesn鈥檛 even know how to start asking questions.
But in gender identity, no one鈥檚 the completely wise child. No one鈥檚 the completely wicked child 鈥� we鈥檙e more like the naive child, needing explanations, being able to make mistakes or like the child who doesn鈥檛 even know where to begin to ask.

And when there are too many people who don鈥檛 even know how to begin to ask, we won鈥檛 and the alienation and the vitriol and the dangers will just intensify.

We鈥檙e a society enriched by the creative combination of all types of people. Let鈥檚 ask each other questions, forgive each other鈥檚 mistakes, and know the difference between hatred, which must be challenged, and a lack of knowledge which deserves to be responded to with patience and kindness.

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