Deuteronomy 22:5

“A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.”

I know I’ve said this in the past already, but I guess I’d like to clarify a little bit as I’ve put some more thought into it. As I went through school, I really wanted to make sure that my crossdressing wasn’t a result of anything else. I don’t think that crossdressing in and of itself is sinful or harmful, but I think that if it is rooted in something harmful, then it can become sinful. I wanted to be able to identify if there was a deeper illness instead of just trying to stop the symptoms. I knew that if my crossdressing was a result of a deeper issue, then my crossdressing would stop once that issue was resolved. For the majority of my life, I didn’t like the fact that I felt this inherent need to crossdress. So, I worked really hard to eliminate all of the possibilities that it could be and what I ended up with was that I enjoyed crossdressing as a hobby and as a way to express myself. Dressing up used to always feel like putting perfume on dead flowers. But now I am able to dress and find joy all by itself without the combo platter of anxiety, doubt, and fear.

But there is a single verse in the old testament that has been brought up to me several times. That is Deuteronomy 22:5. After reading a multitude of commentaries, I found two overarching themes. The first being that men must not wear the garments of a women so as not to show softness and/or other traits often associated with women and then vice versa for women. I won’t go into this very much since I sort of already addressed it, but I feel that God doesn’t assign certain emotional traits or ways of thinking to specific genders. Assigning traits and emotions is a human construct (refer back to the gender continuum idea). The second theme I noticed was that of contextual laws for the Jewish people. At the time there were many heathen religions that used crossdressing in sinful ways. Crossdressing was also a punishment in many cultures, so it was seen as detestable in Jewish custom. The Greek word used for clothing in this passage is also the same word used for tools. So, men must not bear the tools of a woman because men are not supposed to be focused on domestic tasks and women are not supposed to bear the tools of men so as to keep them focused on domestic tasks.

Here’s my humble opinion. This passage could very well be prescriptive, that God really does find crossdressing an abomination. But I think that there is way more evidence showing that this passage is descriptive of Jewish culture in relation to the cultures around them. Since the New Testament is about Jesus fulfilling the law, we find that Jesus welcomes every culture and every people into the kingdom of Heaven. Christians all over the world worship the same God while still maintaining their societal values and cultural beliefs (making sure that the core beliefs of the Christian faith are at their foundation), but I think that fashion and makeup would fall under the disputable matters category that Paul speaks of, along with eating pork and having tattoos. Within India, makeup is a sign of wealth and status. So, men as well as women are found wearing makeup throughout the country. In Japan, men displaying signs of effeminacy are praised for their ability to crossdress passably, both in the music industry and show business. Male fashion in Japan is also much more feminine when held to American standards. Paul says in Romans 14 to

“Accept each other without quarreling over disputable matters…let us stop passing judgment on one another… I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean…Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food (or crossdressing…sorry…I had to! Haha!)…whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.”

I’m not trying to use this passage as a means to do whatever I’d like. I want to still be actively pursuing what is pure and what is right, but God has given me peace about this passage in Deuteronomy and I am very thankful for that.