TransvestiTes and Transsexuals

Transsexuals feel an incongruity between the body they were born with and their identification as a man or a woman. Many transsexuals alter their anatomical sex, through sex reassignment surgeries or hormones, to align with their psychological gender. Transvestites, or cross-dressers, adopt the clothing and mannerisms associated in their culture with the opposite sex but may not identify as the opposite sex or seek permanent transformations. Transgender is commonly used as an umbrella term for gender-variant experiences, including transsexualism and transvestism. Although these terms are associated with specific Western contexts, they are broadly applied here to discuss a range of culturespecific phenomena related to religious traditions.

Interactions between religion and transgenderism are shaped by multiple, intersecting influences. The ways in which transgender individuals experience religion can ...