In the end, though, I found friends in the queer community who supported me as I physically transitioned, and information from a more reasonable Jewish point of view made me realize that I did not have to compromise any of my identities - lesbian, FTM and Jewish. Riley is also embarking on another change. He will be starting law school shortly. Currently, Riley is a consultant doing education, research and advocacy for transgender concerns within business, university and medical settings. Riley hopes to take his sociology research skills and partner them with skills he will soon acquire in his legal studies to make social change happen.
Jewish law has as many interpretations as there are scholars.
Riley forwarded an email of excerpts from his assembled research, with a variety of interpretations of this passage, which cited Deut. Many of the so-called admonishments of transsexuality in the Torah take root in the rules regarding the impact of intersex conditions on inheritance rights. Jewish law was intended to include, not exclude, hermaphrodites and androgynous individuals. I see the same inherent dynamic with homosexuality and transgenderism. Everyone is capable of knowing whether they are inherently queer or straight.