Purim & Gender Expression in Jewish Thought

In Jewish law, cross dressing is usually not allowed. However, this prohibition is lifted on Purim, because the Rabbis said on Purim the cause for cross-dressing is "pure joy." Purim is also all about masks, about understanding how we are perceived and choosing what parts of our identities to show.

Right now in Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law Thursday afternoon that will restrict public drag show performances. This in and of itself is terrible, but even worse is that the definition of "drag" in the bill is so broad, that it could legally be applied to trans and other gender-nonconforming people living their everyday lives.

By Natasha Lennard

The Tennessee law will prohibit drag performances in public and in front of children, which could also criminalize trans people for simply being in public at all... The laws’ implications, that drag performances should be considered potential sites of obscenity and harm to children, perniciously reinforce now well-established lines of Republican anti-LGBTQ+ fearmongering. It is emblematic of the Republican gender obsession that politicians would push through an emptied-out law, as long as it’s legible to the public as a threat to trans existence.

The idea that drag and/or variance in gender expression is inherently harmful and unproven. However, it's important to note that it's also not new. Jewish prohibitions on cross-dressing are also based in the idea that it may be malicious.

Jewish law also recognizes that there are times when cross-dressing is not malicious.

Sermon by Rabbi David Teutsch, Ph.D.

The Talmud says that what is prohibited is falsifying identity for the purpose of spying on the other sex. The great medieval commentator Rashi says that the prohibition is limited to concealing identity for the purpose of adultery. The Shulhan Arukh notes that cross-dressing is permitted on Purim because its purpose is simha (celebration, joy) and that it is forbidden if it is for the purpose of fraud. In limiting the prohibition to situations of fraud and deception, the talmudic and medieval rabbis indicated that cross-dressing in a way that is true to the cross-dresser’s identity is permitted.

Pikuach Nefesh (פקוח נפש) is a Jewish value which states that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule of Judaism.

This is important to remember in light of the fact that transgender and nonbinary youth face elevated risk for depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempting suicide. A 2020 peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project’s researchers, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that transgender and nonbinary youth were 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender LGBQ peers (who are also at an increased risk compared with the CisHet population).