shabbat shalom <3 im doing heavy research and hopefully soon, a paper on jewish cultural gender and sex. im a trans guy on testosterone, so i feel that i fit with ay’lonit and the label resonates with me as a queer jew. but i am interested in gathering the perspectives of as many intersex jews as possible, and i see some admins on this account have made posts about it before. what do you think of pre-transition trans jews using labels like saris and ay’lonit? does halacha impact how you make your conclusion? do you think these terms were initially coined to only describe the experiences of intersex jews, or were they also made to describe trans people before the concept of transness as we know it existed?
Sorry this is late! Mod Chiam here, an intersex Jew!
Well Ay'lonit was usually used to refer to menopausal women and still is according to my Hasid friends. And the halacha very clearly states that it's sex based and not gender based, so for me, as an intersex Jew, that is very important to me, and I worry abt just saying that it's gender erases that. I believe those who have started transitioning via HRT or surgery can ID as that, or intersex folks, but I think that it doesn't make sense for those who haven't to say that is them. But I don't want that to come off as truscum-y, since I myself am nonbinary and have been a target of Kalvin Garbage and hate truscum.
Since ay'lonit and saris encompass perisex people- menopausal women, eunuchs, etc.- it's not soley for intersex people, but androgynos and tumtum were meant just for intersex people. In fact, because of this, one of the only halachic rulings on intersex people (other than who we can marry, when we pray, etc) is "don't do surgery on your intersex kids, there is precedent for this" which is part of why it is SO important to intersex people in a way I don't think perisex people can relate to- we have so few protections in the secular world that even just that religious ruling is like. SO important. That isn't to say I don't think perisex people can't relate to those words, just that in that way. I don't think you can understand that part. Those rulings and the use of the sexes also isn't super common- I'd say it's gaining traction now, but many of the rules were kind of In Theory as opposed to practice.
Trans mascs on T would more closely be andogynos because ay'lonit is/was mostly culturally used for menopausal women until more recently when trans men started using the term, and trans women on hrt would be saris- fun fact, an intersex friend of mine got to decide whether they would be raised as a saris or a cis man in their community as a kid! They chose cis man so they could be a rabbi- and I do mean choose, that is the language they use and I don't want to change their language. But since trans men have been changing it and using it I'm not going to Stop Them, y'know?
I still believe tumtum is an intersex specific idenity, because it is sex which is hidden/under a membrane, but ay'lonit, andogynos, and saris can be used by perisex ppl imo. I just think that we should follow the meanings of those words because I think saying it's just gender ends up actually equating sex and gender and becomes kind of gender essentialist in a way?
Sorry for the long answer, I wish you luck and would love to read ur research when it is done! Feel free to submit it or @ us so we can read it!
Also this is only My Opinion so no one take it as the end all be all pls!
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