What follows is a portion of the preface for a collection of essays and musings that I prepared for publication several years before the publication of “Dear Mom and Dad.” Over the next few months I will be sharing many of those here on my blog.
Like every dual-gendered individual I have met, I struggled for years with this perceived flaw in my character. Even after I arrived at a certain level of self-acceptance there were many, many moments, days and weeks of re-examination and restructured ways of looking at my situation and myself. All of the different angles from which I have viewed my world and myself are reflected in the contributions I have made in The Tri-Ess national and local publications.
The hope I have in publishing this collection of thoughts, impressions and opinions is that others outside of the limited readership that has been exposed to what’s “On My Mind” may benefit from my viewpoints and observations. Experts from several related fields of psychology and sociology have made estimates of the number of men who engage in cross-dressing or exhibit some degree of dual-gendered behavior. Those estimates range from a low of two or three percent to as high as eight percent of the male population of the United States. From that I think it would be safe to assume that probably four to five percent of the male population is guilty. I hope that if you are one who is struggling for answers that what I have written will be of value to you in your effort to come to grips with your God-given-society-denied nature.
The heart of cross-dressing/dual-gendered condemnation is one short verse found in the Old Testament of the Bible. The nearly universal interpretation of Deuteronomy 22:5 reads:
“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. The Lord detests people who do this.”
The fact that the original Hebrew does not support this interpretation of the verse is totally ignored by virtually all conservative and many more progressive clergy and biblical scholars. In spite of the actual meaning of the original text this verse is used consistently to beat up on our community.
In my writing I refer repeatedly to my Christian commitment and faith. I hope that by making these referrals that anyone reading my thoughts who has been driven from their congregations, if not from their faith, because they have given expression to their God given second nature will take heart and re-commit themselves to that faith.
I have been blessed in the last few years to come to know Dr. Joseph A Pearson, PhD. Dr Pearson is among many things a devout Christian who has written a treatise on “Christianity and Homosexuality Reconciled”, an effort that he devoted fifteen yeas of his life to. As a member of the congregation, which he shepherded for ten years, I had ample opportunity to see first-hand the kind of productive Christian life that people of our community can live if we take the Bible in context and reach out to others. It is his contributions, efforts and commitment to helping the members of his community accept Christ first and themselves second that I have drawn inspiration and encouragement from. I hope that I may in some small way have a similar effect on the community of the dual-gendered cross-dressers of which I am a part.