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Trans Issues Are Pagan Issues Because Trans People Are Pagan
A couple of weeks ago, the leader of the Temple of Sekhmet in Nevada announced that its policy of women-only leadership excludes trans women. While trans women can still join the Temple, as can men, they’re not allowed to take on leadership roles.
Paganism has been fighting about trans inclusion for decades. This isn’t because it’s a uniquely transphobic religion. Rather, LGBT people in general, including trans women, are vastly overrepresented within Paganism as compared to the population at large. Anti-trans Pagans tend to be more blunt about it than their mainstream-religion counterparts not because their beliefs are more extreme, but because trans people are already common in Pagan circles. If a Pagan group doesn’t make trans exclusion explicit, trans women will actually show up.
Trans inclusion is a live issue for Pagan groups in a way that it simply isn’t for, say, Eastern Orthodox churches or Salafi mosques, even though they’re every bit as likely to disapprove of trans people as your average Dianic coven. Ethics aside, trans issues are Pagan issues purely by dint of demographics. When a Pagan group takes an anti-trans position, it isn’t abstract culture-war symbolism like it might be for a Southern Baptist church. It’s a proactive decision to shut out a significant segment of the religion.