Wow,what beauties,right? Well, would you have guessed they were once men?
*Picture 1:Ochee; Picture 2:Dapo
Recently, the President of the United States of America,Barrack Obama made public his support for gay marriage. His public approval went viral and became international news. This act brought again to the frontburners the never-ending debate on what should be considered as the appropriate sexual identity and orientation of man. Was ‘man’ created as just male and female? Or do we have a specie of human race that is a mixture of both? How about our sexual orientation? Was man made for woman and vice versa alone?
In a bid to respond to these happenings, the world has gone back to religion – as always! We now have two schools of thoughts;one in support and the other,against. The interesting thing is both have used the Bible to support their views!
I won’t be writing about homosexuality (that’s a write up for another time). Instead, i will be looking at the other aspect of this debate: sexual identity. It is no longer news that some people who were born one sex have altered their hormonal and physical make-up for the other. We now have women who were once men and vice versa. I happen to recently come across a story of a woman who was once a man – Miss Sahhara (Pic 1 above). S(he) was known as Oche and used to live in Abuja before s(he) travelled out and had the transgender surgeries. S(he) is now a model and has competed in several beauty pageantries. This is not an altogether unfamiliar story as we must have come across happenings like this in the past. What provoked this write up was the divergent views I read from commentators on this development. While some couldn’t care less about what another does with his body, others strongly maintain that the scriptures is against this. Here are some views I got:
A reader on Linda Ikeji’s blog identified as ‘funmioyaide’ said “To each his own!Who are we to judge? He without sin,please cast the first stone!” The reader was obviously upset at the ‘negative’ comments from people against the transformation of “Oche”. Another reader who decided to rather remain anonymous said “Please you guys should stop being judgemental. She is beautiful. Actually, gorgeous is the word and it’s not her fault she was probably born an haemarphrodite.” The reader went further to being philosophical.
“Moreover, she has made the best use of what
she had . Now instead of judging her, think
about what you have been given and probably
try to make the best use of it just as she
has, let her inspire you.”
Lending support to this commentator, another reader who decided to remain anonymous wrote “We will never understand why people
change their sex just like how we would
never understand why people are
attracted to the same sex. I do not
judge them anymore because I think it
is so stupid to do so. Nobody should bring up the bible (and) say homosexuality is a sin because a lot of us are fornicating,taking people’s husbands, stealing, killing, and so on.
The bible lists all of these as sins in
God’ eyes so we cannot point our
fingers at people for sinning against
God when we are engaging in other
sinful acts.”
Another reader,who gave her name as
“Sasha Fierce!” wrote,”People should learn to mind their business.Well done Oche.You look
amazing and fabulous.While haters are
busy hating, you are busy breaking
barriers.Well done sweetheart.”
In the face of this overwhelming support for ‘transgendered’ people, oppositions have stood their ground on the Bible recommendation of what should be considered right.
A reader who identified himself as “devour” wrote “I guess that means God made a mistake
in creating him, abii ? Lets stop this
westernised views, biko umu nne m !” On a lighter note, he advised “And guys please make sure you see baby pictures and
birth certificate of your babe before you marry because the way am looking at this joker,there are
many of them out there.” Another reader wrote “God made him a
man. If He wanted him to be a woman He
would have made him as such. I just find
it disgusting that Western influences are
beginning to eat up the fabric of our
culture which forbids this act. I know
you (people) want us to be modern thinking but
he (Oche) can never be a woman. To be a woman
doesn’t mean to just look like one and paste
fake boobs on yourself. Not until they
can change their xy chromosomes to xx
i refuse to see them as women.”
This story (Oche’s transformation) was also posted on another website, Nigerian Eye and one commentator wrote “This is wonderful. What else are we talking about? One day we all shall wake up and be told to go to Spain to have a duplicate of our life. People (are) abusing and dictating to God what He should have done by making themselves this form. Is this not (a) sign of foolishness? Think well before you ask people to accept them. It’s
actually ridiculous and totally
unacceptable in our society. Nonsense!!!!!!”
Another who decided to remain anonymous also wrote, “A few years ago, homosexuality was an
abomination. Now it has become
acceptable. Soon it will become legal. I’m
running out of this country before it
becomes mandatory!”
One reader who gave her name as “Chichiluv” chose to rather reflect on the parents of a child with sexual identity disorder.
“I feel for his parents. (It must be) truly sad for them. May God help his/her parents get over this…”
Personally, I believe God created man and woman in His image. This is encapsulated in the book of Genesis. He wanted man to remain man and woman to remain woman that was why He had to create a woman out of man’s ribs. God also commissioned them to go into the world and multiply (procreate). He wanted a man and a woman to do this, and not a man and a man-turned-woman or vice versa. The Bible also tells us that God saw His creations AND THEY WERE GOOD!
Granted, the Bible did not make use of the word “transgender” in any part but there are numerous verses in the Scripture which forbids the act.
One of such is in Romans 1:26-27,where the Bible frowns at how man gave in to vile affections and turned into natural use that which is against nature.
In the light of the following, I ask a very serious question: What would you do if you discovered that your child is either gay/lesbian or wants to have a transgender surgery (when (s)he comes off age)? Stretching it further, as a reader noticed, what would you do if you discovered that your partner was actually of the opposite sex at birth?