The Leper as Transcestor

This contribution grounds transgender practices of ancestor (transcestor) veneration in the chaos of the Israelite community’s rejection of their own relatives in Numbers (B^emidbar). Those with skin conditions known as tsara’at were expelled alongside others whose bodies bore the signs of recent sexual and reproductive functions, which begs the question of how transgender people can religiously respond to their ostracization from faith communities that simultaneously target birthing and promiscuous individuals. The deleterious community health effects of religious rejection and abuse on trans individuals mirror the health impact of untreated leprosy, as does the crisis of houselessness in leprous and transgender populations. By placing the geographic, social, and spiritual position of the leper in conversation with the large-scale exit of transgender people from mainstream American religious life, Hall brings new meaning to Sylvia Rivera’s phrase “Queens in Exile.”