ABSTRACT
While some transgender people cross gender boundary by switching gender category, some go further to subvert what they perceive as essentialist and socially constructed gender categories, which religion plays a significant role in legitimating and perpetuating. This transgendering of gender is illustrated by King and Witten who report respondents identifying as sex change and transgender, rather than male/female. Similarly while discussing intersex gender identity, Looy and Bouma identify claim to third' gender and the inhabitation of a genderless state amongst transgendered individuals. Historical and anthropological studies have convincingly demonstrated that transgender people have a significant existence in human societies. Joan of Arc, for instance, is widely considered the patron saint of transgender Christians. There is no doubt that in a culture undergirded by monogenderism and monosexism transgender people encounter a huge amount of prejudice and discrimination. Hines rightly contends that lesbian and gay as well as feminist identity politics often concretise monogenderism.
