Theravada and Transgender
Transgender means a person is born or assigned a certain sex and, growing up, they identify as another gender. Using current technology, it is possible to apply hormonal therapy if the person has not gone through puberty yet, however, it would be very hard to reverse and has a lot of consequences should the person regret it later. In Theravada, the sex switching is spontaneous and can be switched back without seemingly much complications.
I am using Theravada because I would be using some source which would not qualify as Early Buddhism. There is a notion of sex switching in the Vinaya and one of the commentarial stories.
In Vinaya, pārājika 1 we find: https://suttacentral.net/pli-tv-bu-vb-pj1/en/brahmali?lang=en&layout=plain&reference=none¬es=asterisk&highlight=false&script=latin
At one time female characteristics appeared on a monk. They told the Buddha.
“Monks, I allow that discipleship, that ordination, those years as a monk, to be transferred to the nuns. The monks’ offenses that are in common with the nuns are to be cleared with the nuns. For the monks’ offenses that >are not in common with the nuns, there’s no offense.”
At one time male characteristics appeared on a nun. They told the Buddha.
“Monks, I allow that discipleship, that ordination, those years as a nun, to be transferred to the monks. The nuns’ offenses that are in common with the monks are to be cleared with the monks. For the nuns’ offenses that >are not in common with the monks, there’s no offense.”
The Pāli for female characteristics is “itthiliṅgaṁitthiliṅgaṁ”, which we can find in Digital Pāli Dictionary to be:
itthiliṅga 1. nt. female sexual organ; feminine sexual characteristics
itthiliṅga 2. nt. (gram) feminine; feminine gender
And similarly for the male characteristics, purisaliṅgaṁ
purisaliṅga 1. nt. male sexual organ; masculine sexual characteristics
purisaliṅga 2. nt. (gram) masculine; masculine gender
Some may use the second definition to argue for that the scenario above seems to imply that a man who became a monk, later on identified internally as a female and is then allowed to transfer to become a nun. However, I think the more straightforward reading would be for the physical sexual organ to appear, as this story from Dhammapada verse 43 illustrates. https://ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Dhamma-Verses-Comm/03-09.htm
At that moment Elder Mahā Kaccāyana, intending to enter the city of Soreyya for alms, was putting on his upper robe outside of the city gate. When the rich man’s son Soreyya saw the golden-hued body of the elder, he >thought to himself: “Oh, that this elder might become my wife! Else may the hue of my wife’s body become like the hue of his body!”
The instant this thought passed through his mind Soreyya was transformed from a man into a woman. He descended from the carriage in embarrassment and took to flight.
I take a look at the Pāli sentence on the transformation scene. https://www.digitalpalireader.online/_dprhtml/index.html?loc=k.1.0.0.3.8.x.a&analysis=asa~njaananto
tassa cintitamatteyeva purisaliṅgaṃ antaradhāyi, itthiliṅgaṃ pāturahosi.
Here’s my translation: For him, just (at that) mere thought, the male characteristics disappeared, the female characteristic appeared.
That this point, it seems like one could still conflate the sexual attraction to gender and to sex, all three which are distictly different in current understanding of queer studies.
Sex refers to the physical characteristics; gender refers to the internal identification due to culture, expectation, upbringing, from past lives etc; and sexual attraction means which gender/sex one is attracted to, the label which can depend on one’s own sex and gender identification as well. A person born with XY chromosomes, have the male organ, is assigned male at birth, internally thinks of himself as male, and is attracted to females would be a straight cisgendered (identity matches the sex assigned at birth) man. With some variation, if he is attracted to males, he is deemed as a gay cisgender man. The terminologies get complicated fast due to the various possible combinations of these 3 variables, not to mention that even sex can have more than the usual binary division.
So back to the analysis where one might think that due to sexual attraction to Elder Mahā Kaccāyana, Soreyya had changed his sexual attraction or realized that he was bisexual (attracted to both male and female gender), thus also would internally identify as female instead of the external female organs appeared on his body.
However, continuing on the story, he got pregnant, thus indicating that the female organs also appeared.
So the son of the rich man of Soreyya, transformed into a woman, was married to the son of the rich man of Takkasilā, and as a result of their living together, she conceived a child in her womb. When ten lunar months had elapsed, she gave birth to a son. When the latter was old enough to walk, she gave birth to a second son. Thus Soreyyā, who was the father of two sons born in the city of Soreyya, became the mother of two more sons born in the city of Takkasilā, making four sons in all.
Then there’s also the transformation back into man:
Said the rich man’s son: “Venerable Sir, this woman used to be my dearest friend. One day he looked upon you and thought this and that and was immediately transformed from a man into a woman. Pardon her, venerable Sir.” Said the elder: “Very well, rise. I pardon you.”
As soon as the elder uttered the words “I pardon you,” Soreyya was transformed back from a woman into a man.
Interestingly, there’s a very open attitude from his husband.
As soon as she was transformed again into a man, the son of the rich man of Takkasilā said to him: “Good friend, since you are the mother of these two boys and I am their father, they are truly the sons of us both. Therefore we may continue to live here. Be not unhappy.”
Soreyya later on became a monk, and became an arahant.
There’s a bunch of rich analysis and comments here to discuss.
Firstly, for the issue of Bhikkhuni ordination, a Bhikkhu who spontaneously becomes a woman would be legally recognized as a Bhikkhuni even by the most Vinaya strict, conservative group of monks. Provided that there’s no additional law of the country or inherent superiority due to conceit in gender. The Dhammapada story tells us exactly how to do it, but I am not certain if anyone would be willing to try and test it out. Take note that Mahā Kaccāyana was an arahant, so any impure thoughts about any monks is not enough. Also, given that the thought is associated with lust, a root which produces unwholesome kamma, it is also bad advice to ask people to purposely commit bad kamma to attempt to revive the Bhikkhuni order to the satisfaction of the most conservative Vinaya monks, especially impure thoughts towards arahants is quite serious bad kamma. Note that the unwholesomeness comes from the lust. This is not meant to imply that gay thoughts are more unwholesome, but somewhere else in the commentaries would imply this. One has to have a group of at least a few Bhikkhus (5 or more) willing to do it, then it is possible to restart the Bhikkhuni ordination due to having enough legal Bhikkhunis.
Secondly, for the issue of alignment of sex and gender, it seems that in ancient India, there was no issue to identify the gender internally due to what exists on the body externally. Or maybe it’s just Soreyya was cool with it. Internally, gender is a construct which is part of self-identification, eventually, one should abandon all notion of self-identification. Even in the Brahma realm, they had transcended gender identification. However, having said this, it’s not ideal to expect that just because a thing can be done, everyone should do it or can do it. Indeed, gender is one of the things which is very deeply rooted in the mind and not easily changed, especially if one is exposed to views that one is born identifying with a certain gender and it cannot change. Thus, while it is possible to change gender identity, it’s not always compassionate to ask people to do so. The “is” doesn’t inform the “ought”. What ought to be done is always compassion, which can mean different things from case to case. Some people are just too bound up with gender identification.
This brings us to the third issue of past lives as an explanation of why LGBTQ+ exists. One could very well have been reborn as a male for many lifetimes, and this life happened to get into a female body; thus, the internal identification as a male is still very strong, and this explains the sex/gender mismatch found in transgender people. In most Jataka stories, people do have quite stable identification for male and female gender, it’s not often to see gender switching from life to life. Sexual attraction, too, can be explained by this. Maybe the same person who was reborn as female in this life had no trouble identifying as female, but the sexual attraction to females is unchanged from past lives due to strong habits. Thus, the origin of lesbian cisgender woman. And so on for the various combinations of the variables. However, I can see that this narative might not sit well with some of the queer activists as it assumes the norm of straight cisgender as the natural state of existence. Well, given unlimited past lives, I don’t see why not certain periods of the past, all sorts of gender mix up can happen, and after sometime, there’s settling into the straigh cisgender model as norm, then back to queer as norm. One shouldn’t be attached to the norm as well.
In the story, we also see a passage which would infuriate feminists:
For there are no men who have not, at some time or other, been women; and no women who have not, at some time or other, been men. For example, men who have transgressed with the wives of other men are after death tormented in Niraya Hell for hundreds of thousands of years, and upon resuming human estate are reborn as women during a hundred successive states of existence.
For even the Elder Ānanda, who fulfilled the perfections for 100,000 aeons of time and was a Noble Disciple, reborn as a blacksmith in a certain state of existence, as he passed from one state of existence to another in the round of existences, transgressed with the wife of another man. As a result he suffered torment in Niraya Hell, and thereafter, because the fruit of his wicked deed was not yet exhausted, he was obliged to spend fourteen existences as the wife of another man, and seven existences in addition, before the effect of his wicked deed was completely exhausted.
On the other hand women, by bestowing alms and performing other works of merit, by putting away desire to continue in existence longer as women, by forming the resolution: “May this work of merit of ours avail to procure for us rebirth as men,” obtain rebirth as men after death. Likewise, wives who conduct themselves properly towards their husbands obtain rebirth as men. But this rich man’s son, having unwisely set his thought on the elder, was in that very existence transformed into a woman.
As long as we don’t use such passages to put down a certain gender over another, I don’t think we should take too much issue with it. The reminder that we had been woman and men before should be a good point to focus on for it helps to develop compassion for the queer folks who happens to be in those phases in this life. Given infinite past lives, it would be surpising if we were not queer in some way in some past lives. One thing also to note is that the lesson of avoiding evil deeds such as adultery and doing good are to be taken to heart. As for the results, it could be seen that for those who aspire to become Buddhas, and given that only males can become Buddha, this indicates a method to become male so that in those lives one could aspire to become a Buddha and get the predictions and so on. However, notice the aspiration, too, after making merits. Anyone who aspires instead to become a woman can also become a woman due to the power of good deeds. For those who aspire to become at least a stream winner in this life, there’s no such issue about gender thing across lifetimes. And indeed, having understood the Buddha’s teachings, seeing how rare it is to get a human rebirth, one shouldn’t waste one’s time and opportunity now to practice to end this whole cycle of rebirth, each for oneself.