Peysakh VII and Gender Recognition Certificates / פּסח ז און מין דערקענונג צערטיפֿיקאַטן

This is a weekly series of parsha dvarim written by a frum, atheist, transsexual anarchist. It's crucial in these times that we resist the narrative that Zionism owns Judaism. Our texts are rich—sometimes opaque, but absolutely teeming with wisdom and fierce debate. It's the work of each generation to extricate meaning from our cultural and religious inheritance. I aim to offer comment which is true to the source material (i.e. doesn't invert or invent meaning to make us more comfortable) and uses Torah like a light to reflect on our modern times. The full dvar is paywalled for four weeks to help me sustain my work as a writer; if you can't afford to subscribe, email me and I'll send you the link for free.

An appeal: My friend Madleen needs help to support her children in Gaza. This fundraiser is run by a friend of a comrade, and I talk to Madleen regularly. Any amount helps, no matter how small.

Content note: Transphobia, fascism, recent UK court ruling on biological sex

Time isn't linear.

This week, we go back and re-read most of parsha Beshalakh for Peysakh:

Hashem hardens Paroy's heart so that he refuses to let the Israelites go, prolonging their oppression and justifying the 10 horrible plagues. Then Hashem hardens the hearts of the people of Mitsrayim so the army will pursue the Israelites through the desert and into the parted sea. Then, Hashem prevents the army from fleeing, and instead kills them when they try. It's a lot of interference from Hashem for the sake of further violence. The Israelites sing a song of praise to Hashem after they cross and see the dead Mitsrayim on the shores.

Why is Hashem interfering with our hearts? For a tradition that places great emphasis on co-creation and free will, this has never sat right with me.

The simple explanation is fate: it was always going to go this way, and there is no other way in which the Israelites can leave Mitsrayim behind. We can't understand the ways of Hashem but we know that Hashem is good—it was good that Paroy oppressed us, and maybe the oppression we're currently facing is good too.

I feel this rationale lacks imagination and justifies cruelty. Is this supposed to give us comfort, or just make us complacent? I am not interested in (or even able to briefly entertain the idea of) "it will be what it will be". Rather, it will be what we will make it.

"The unanimous decision of this court is that the terms 'woman' and 'sex'… refer to a biological woman and biological sex," Judge Patrick Hodge told the court Wednesday, summarizing the ruling.

The sea on my mind isn't the Sea of Reeds but the seas and oceans surrounding Great Britain. During moed, the UK Supreme Court ruled that "sex" is an immutable, binary state determined at birth. This overturned a previous ruling by Scottish courts that trans women were protected from discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act under the category of "sex" (i.e. gender) as well as "gender reassignment" (i.e. trans status). Now, trans women are not protected as women (nor trans men as men) which means they no longer have access to single-sex spaces like healthcare settings, sports, shelters, prisons, or bathrooms.

In the UK, it's not possible to change the gender marker on your birth certificate; but, you can get a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which is an additional document to amend your birth certificate, mirroring the type of document an adopted child would get to reflect a new name and new parents. The GRC has little practical use compared to changing your name and gender marker on other IDs—and the process for obtaining a GRC is so arduous and expensive that not a single trans person I know has one—but it was a way to prove that you're a good trans citizen, obtaining the proper paperwork through the proper legal channels. The UK's LGBTQ+ institutions have made GRCs their main trans issue for the last decade.

The new ruling reveals the delusional, magical thinking that a GRC would ever protect us. Our documents can be stolen or rendered invalid with the slightest shift in the political climate. For years, trans people in the UK have been advocating for our more material concerns like healthcare, housing, poverty, immigration and prison, but our institutions have been myopically focused on GRCs. It's an echo of the efforts for gay marriage and gay military service. A GRC has always felt about as protective against transphobia as waving a piece of paper in the face of a gun.

In the UK, transphobia (and the decline into fascism more generally) is an issue that Labour and the Conservatives agree on. The Labour Government's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Chair, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, welcomed the "clarity" of the judgement: "This judgment resolves the difficulties we highlighted in our submission to the court and in our advice to the former Minister for Women and Equalities more than two years ago. These include the challenges faced by those seeking to maintain single-sex spaces, and the rights of same-sex attracted persons to form associations."

Refuting the claims of the court and those who support the ruling feels almost pointless. Of course the safety of cis women is not at risk from an imaginary epidemic of trans-on-cis violence. Of course sex isn't binary, and of course it is a social construct much the same as (and directly related to) gender. Of course the rights of homosexuals are not in jeopardy from trans-inclusive language or policies—and as a gay transsexual man who does very well in the bathhouses, let me assure you that many "same-sex attracted persons" want to "form associations" with the trans people in their "single-sex spaces".

Tempting as it is, we shouldn't waste our time crafting arguments to debate with fascists. The right is logically inconsistent on purpose and they do not care if their hypocrisies are exposed. There is no "gotcha!" that will make them reconsider because they are motivated not by reason but fear and control. Transness is a threat to their individual sense of a "stable" gender, and to the collective conservative values of a nuclear family which labors to produce capital and good, docile (white) babies.

While governmental institutions say they don't know what the practical implications of the ruling are, we do: the climate will become even more hostile, preventing trans people from accessing services and even public space, and the mental health of trans people will suffer. Our oppression escalates, another marginalized group sacrificed on the pyre of a manufactured culture war that we might be distracted from the rising cost of living.

How else can we understand frothing bigotry other than divine intervention to remove empathy? Social analyses are difficult, so we reach for stories of divine intervention. But I am not comforted by a divine explanation for bigotry. It is certainly not enough for us to pray for Hashem to soften the hearts of those in power, or that our oppressors be thrown into the sea.

GRCs and similar paperwork will not protect us. What will? Solidarity. Working to improve the material—physical—conditions of our safety by sticking together and bashing back. We can enjoy the revenge fantasies in Torah while taking real action now to strengthen our community ties. May the rest of the yontif bring us together for eating, singing, and trust-building. May we hurl our oppressors into the sea ourselves.