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| image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com |
Religion tends to reemerge in the unlikeliest places. Today, at least in America, the newest and brashest religions hover—rather obsessively, in fact—around various permutations of personal “identity.” For many, whether they realize it or not, “identity” is the new God. Tim Keller, the well-known author and pastor of New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, puts it this way: “Our need for worth is so powerful that whatever we base our identity and value on we essentially ‘deify.’ We will look to it with all the passion and intensity of worship and devotion, even if we think of ourselves as highly irreligious.”
Over the past few months, with impressive swiftness, our nation’s growing identity-based religious fervor has risen in one particular form: ardent, impassioned, unquestioning transgender boosterism. In late May, Time magazine announced America’s “Transgender Tipping Point,” featuring formerly male television star Laverne Cox. Time’s article spurred a flurry of giddy media responses; meanwhile, at gay pride events across the nation, “newer, edgier, and angrier” TransPride rallies, as described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, often stole the show.
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