“Beyond Binary: Embracing the Divine Diversity of Womanhood”

Q&A with Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Womanhood, Gender Diversity, and Why Compassion Must Lead the Way

FACT BOX: Womanhood by the Numbers (Annual Global Estimates)

• Girls born each year worldwide: ~64.4 million

• Born without ability to menstruate or carry a pregnancy (congenital): ~40,000–49,000

• Lose fertility later in life (per birth cohort): ~5.1–7.7 million

• Estimated transgender women worldwide: ~8–17 million

Q (Interviewer): Reverend Paula, people often say “Transgender women will never know what women go through.” How do you respond?

Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler: My first question back is: What about all the other women who are born with physical challenges that prevent them from menstruating or bearing children? Are they any less of a woman because of these conditions? No, they are not.

Every year:

• Müllerian agenesis (MRKH): ~12,900–14,300 births/year

• Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS): ~1,300–3,200 births/year

• Turner syndrome: ~25,800–32,200 births/year

That’s ~40,000–49,000 girls born each year worldwide who will never menstruate or carry a pregnancy.

And that’s just congenital cases. Millions more will lose fertility later in life due to illness, injury, surgery, or other causes—~5.1–7.7 million women from each year’s birth cohort.

Q: You’re saying that womanhood is much broader than people think.

Rev. Paula: Exactly. Womanhood has never been reducible to menstruation or reproduction. And yet, no one says these cisgender women are “not real women.” They are loved, respected, and recognized as women.

So why should it be different for transgender women, whose only difference is that they were not assigned female at birth?

Q: Let’s step back—how have societies historically understood gender and sexuality?

Rev. Paula: If you go back to ancient philosophy, indigenous wisdom, and early spiritual traditions, you find that the concept of multiple genders and diverse sexualities is not new at all.

SIDEBAR: Historical Gender Diversity

Ancient & Spiritual Recognition

• Ancient Greece: Plato explored the soul’s dual nature, masculine and feminine.

• Hinduism: Ardhanarishvara, the half-male, half-female deity, symbolizes divine gender unity.

• Indigenous North America: Two-Spirit people held respected ceremonial roles.

• Polynesia: Fa’afafine in Samoa recognized as a distinct gender.

• Mesopotamia: Priests of Inanna/Ishtar lived outside the male/female binary.

Rev. Paula (continued): In many ancient and tribal societies, gender-diverse individuals were integrated and often honored. It was only with the rise of rigid religious and colonial systems—especially post-medieval Europe—that gender variance became a target for suppression.

Q: So when did persecution become the norm?

Rev. Paula: Persecution wasn’t universal in earlier times—it varied by culture. But the systematic hostility we see today took root between the 19th and 20th centuries, when:

• Colonial laws criminalized cross-dressing and “unnatural acts.”

• Medicine began pathologizing transgender identity.

• Religious fundamentalism gained political influence.

What was once tolerated—or even revered—became something to eradicate.

TIMELINE: From Respect to Repression

Prehistory – 1500 CE: Gender diversity widely recognized in many cultures; spiritual and ceremonial roles common.

1500s – 1800s: European colonial expansion imposes binary gender norms globally; erasure of indigenous gender systems.

Late 1800s – Early 1900s: Medical and legal systems begin classifying gender variance as pathological; criminalization spreads.

Mid–Late 1900s:LGBTQ+ rights movements emerge; transgender visibility grows but backlash continues.

21st Century: Greater legal recognition in some nations; increased global backlash in others—particularly targeting transgender rights.

Q: How does this connect with Universal Rainbow Faith’s theology?

Rev. Paula: The Universal Rainbow Faith holds as sacred the right of each person to live in alignment with their gender identity. This includes the right to gender-affirming care, recognition of chosen names and pronouns, and the celebration of diverse gender expressions as holy acts of selfhood.

URF also teaches the Six Foundational Genders—recognizing that gender is a divine spectrum present since creation—and embraces the Shekinah doctrine from classical Judaism, affirming the sacred balance of masculine and feminine energies within every soul.

Q: How do you respond to those who say being transgender is a mental illness?

Rev. Paula: If someone insists that gender identity is a mental illness, then by the same logic, would you classify every woman unable to menstruate or conceive as mentally ill? Of course not.

We have proof positive of transgender existence—not a theory, not a distant possibility. Millions of transgender people live full, productive, beautiful lives.

Gender identity is not a choice. You cannot “convert” someone into something they are not. Asking a transgender woman to “become a man” would be as absurd as telling a cisgender woman born without a uterus to “become a man” instead.

Q: What about the moral and religious arguments against transgender people?

Rev. Paula: Biology, gender identity, and sexuality are not moral issues—they are human realities. Religious dogma has too often been used to justify exclusion, but faith should be a force for compassion, not condemnation.

The war on gender is not just about transgender rights—it’s about the right of every human being to live authentically. URF exists as a refuge and a voice in that storm.

Q: What’s your final message to the public?

Rev. Paula: The inner space where the divine feminine and masculine meet is present within every person. As a global society, it is arrogant to think we fully understand the human condition.

Transgender people are not science fiction. They have always existed. Our responsibility is to listen, to believe, and to protect them—not decades from now, but today.

CALL TO ACTION

To our readers: expand your understanding, open your heart, and stand with us in affirming that transgender women, transgender men, non-binary people, and all gender-diverse souls are exactly who they say they are. Their truth is sacred.

Learn more about the Core Beliefs of Universal Rainbow Faith and join our mission to protect sacred gender diversity worldwide.

Prayer for an Open Mind and Understanding

By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Dear God, Please bless and protect all women who are unable to bear children, all transgender women, and all transgender men. Affirm their existence, worth, and dignity. Help the war on gender, gender identity, sexuality, and transgender people come to a quiet and peaceful end. Bring forth understanding and compassion that moves beyond religious dogma and human prejudice. Let us recognize that biology, gender identity, and sexuality are not moral issues—they are universal human truths. Let this understanding grow now, not decades from now, and may it guide us into a future where every person is seen, valued, and loved for who they truly are. Amen.