(RNS) — President Donald Trump, during his inaugural address last month, proclaimed unambiguously, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” In his first day in office, Trump followed his inaugural remarks with an executive order declaring the nation will recognize only two sexes – male and female — and defining sex as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as male or female.”
Conservative Christian groups welcomed the president’s executive action. Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, expressed gratitude and spoke of the move as recognizing “what we all know to be true about there only being two sexes.” Focus on the Family President Jim Daly praised Trump and justified his executive action with a biblical citation. “In the very first chapter of Genesis, we read that ‘God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’ Any revolution of common sense must include an acknowledgement of this fundamental truth.”
Various civil rights and LGBTQ+ groups have expressed opposition to the new administration policy and its implications for people whose gender identities do not conform to the traditional binaries. I am not aware of responses from other prominent religious traditions in the United States and especially from those originating in Asia.
It is very important that leaders and theologians of traditions other than Christianity express themselves on this important matter since we are witnessing the implementation of federal policies that reflect the beliefs of particular Christian denominations. These are not beliefs shared by all Christians nor by the practitioners of all religious traditions. Many speak of the United States as a Christian nation, but we are home to the world’s major religions in all their splendid theological diversity. This diversity is ignored when the teachings of one religion or the interpretations of one sacred text are regarded as authoritative and normative for all and implemented in policies that affect the lives of people of different religions and those who may be without religious commitments. It is unjust in a religiously diverse society when state policies enshrine in law one theological viewpoint and disregard all others. This is clearly the case in the declaration that there are only two sexes.
Speaking from my perspective as a Hindu theologian and practitioner, my tradition recognizes that human sexual orientation is diverse and not just heterosexual. Ancient texts enlarge our thinking about sexual identity with categories, like that of third-nature persons (tritiya prakriti), that go beyond the usual binaries and refute the idea that there are only two sexes. Sex diversity is regarded as a part of natural human diversity.
LBGTQ+ people have not been regarded or treated as deviant, immoral or as transgressors of divine law within Hindu traditions. They are not condemned, as in some religions and now in government policies, for their sexual identities. There is no evidence of efforts to change their orientation. They are accorded the same dignity and value as heterosexual persons since the ultimate source of human dignity is the equal presence of the divine in every human heart.
The statement that “there are only two genders, male and female,” and the claim that everyone knows this to be true are problematic for multiple reasons.
It will undoubtedly bolster homophobia, marginalization and violence against members of the LBGTQ+ community.
As a descriptive claim, it denies the existence of LBGTQ+ people and their right to be who they are. The words of an executive order do not make such persons nonexistent or render their identities as false. They have always been and are very much present in our communities. As an authoritative, normative statement, the claim is deeply flawed. It disingenuously and arrogantly attempts to make a universal claim (‘there are only two genders”) when the truth is that this is the dogma of a specific religious community and not one that is unanimously shared across religious traditions. This is a point I cannot emphasize enough.
Plural understandings of human sexual and gender identities that are overlooked or denied in religiously diverse nations illustrate a worrying problem especially for traditions other than Christianity. We are witnessing in the United States the strengthening of the Christian nationalist movement. A majority of Republicans, and white evangelicals, hold Christian nationalist sentiments, according to PRRI. Christian nationalists believe the United States was chosen by God to be a Christian nation. The laws of the country, therefore, must be in accord with biblical teachings. Christian nationalism champions an exclusive theology that understands the Christian tradition to be the only true religion.
This ideology has no room for religious diversity and no value for people of other faiths and their theologies. The executive order on gender is only the first of what I believe will be many more such proclamations aligning state policies with Christian belief. The consequence will be the sidelining of other traditions as the separation between state and religion grows narrower. The health of the United States as a religiously diverse nation is under threat.
(Anantanand Rambachan is professor emeritus of religion at St. Olaf College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of RNS.)