"You are trying to make people believe you're a woman. That's deceptive. That's wrong."

Well, socially speaking, when crossdressed, I am a woman. I am signalling people that they should treat me as a woman, and they do so. All is well.

"But you're not anatomically a woman. Your sex organs are male."

Ahem. My sex organs are the concern of precisely one person: my wife. Nobody else has the slightest business knowing about them.

Not convinced? I often think best by analogies; may I?

1. The toupee analogy

I know a pastor, a man with wonderful words of God, who wears a toupee, hiding his God-given bald head. Is it wrong? No, I think his head is his own business. Now surely, if his head is his own business, my sexual organs are mine; they are by nature at least as private.

Similar analogies could be made with everything from hair dying to wearing vertical stripes to create an illusion of thinness. All these may perhaps be tied to vanity, but that's another question. Do they amount to "bearing false witness against our neighbors"? I don't think so.

2. The foreign visit analogy

If you are making a long visit to a foreign country, and you want to get a real feel for what the country is like, you not only learn the language, but you do your best to eliminate your foreign accent. You try to learn to speak just as the natives do. You dress like the natives do. You try to eliminate all signals that you are a foreigner.

Why? If you don't, everyone you come into contact with will immediately perceive you as a foreigner and will act toward you as a foreigner. They may not treat you badly, but you will get the experience of a visiting foreigner. You will never actually find out what life is like for a native. It is just impossible to truly experience the place while advertising your foreign identity.

Now, is this bad? Is this deceptive? I don't think so. Why not? The people you see don't need to know where you're from. You are, in essence, asking them to treat you as a native, and that's what they do. No wrong is done. The only way it would become bad would be if they had a legitemate reason to know that you weren't a native. For instance, if you took part in political activity, trying to affect the government of that country, people would have a right to know that you weren't actually a resident, since that has to do with your right to exert political influence there. You see?

---A biblical note---

Finally, note that the Bible's references to sinful lying are all about "slandering", "bearing false witness", or generic "lying". Nowhere does it suggest that it is wrong to simply not advertise everything about one's self. Jesus often appeared to people without their recognizing them; for instance, on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32), He spent the entire day with two of His followers, only revealing Himself to them in the evening. We believe that Jesus was without sin, so this can hardly be sinful.



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