The Soul of the Stranger

Joy Ladin’s book The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective starts with a refreshing dismissal of the still common assumption that there is some dissonance that must be reconciled for anyone who is both religious and transgender. Instead, Ladin proclaims, “For as long as I can remember, I felt that I was female, and for as long as I can remember, I have sensed God’s presence” (1). Ladin’s comfort and closeness in her relationship with God as a young person was rooted mainly in two things: first, that God never mistook her for the body that others saw, and, second, that she, like God, really had no body and no face. For these reasons, Ladin felt a kinship with God that she felt with no one else as a child living in a body that did not match her gender identity. Ladin’s relationships with those around her were more complex; she felt alienated by the ways they misrecognized her and simultaneously afraid that they would reject her if they found out the truth about her gender identity. Faith was grounding for Ladin, and throughout the book her faith and gender identity are presented as central realities of her life. For trans people of faith, Ladin explains, “They, like other religious people, [have] turned to God for the understanding they couldn’t find among human beings” (3).

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