Intersexuality - Dealing with Intersexuality

Socio-cultural Attitudes - Religious Traditions

Varying Degrees of Tolerance

In the traditional monotheistic view of nature, intersexuality, feminism, homosexuality and bisexuality are irregularities and deviations from God’s intended order. After all, the intersexes deviate from the “natural” physical sex, feminists challenge the “natural” gender roles, and homosexuals violate the “natural” norm of sexual orientation.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam: Little or no tolerance for sexual variations Intersexuality, feminist demands, and homosexual behavior violate God-given norms.

It was not before some religious leaders began to accept at least some findings of the modern natural sciences, that they became more tolerant. Today, there are some “liberal” Jewish congregations and Christian churches that support the former “deviates” and grant them full membership with equal rights. (Islam had been rather tolerant during its “Golden Age” from ca. 800 to 1300 A.D., but became more restrictive, when it ended.) On the whole, the monotheistic religions still resist attempts to reinterpret their traditional sexual dogmas in the light of science. To the extent therefore, that these dogmas influence the general socio-cultural climate, intersexual persons and the other “norm violators” are still fighting an uphill battle. On the other hand, some Asian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto etc., never had such dogmas and thus find it much easier to accept a wider spectrum of sexual variations.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto: No dogmas about sexual variations Intersexuality, feminist demands, and homosexual behavior as such are not issues relevant to the faith. If at all, they must be judged in context.