760: #760 - Life as an Intersex Christian: Lianne Simon
Theology in the Raw
Theology in the Raw
4.5 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2019
⏱️ 82 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lianne was born with an intersex condition called Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis, where some of her cells have a Y chromosome while others do not. Lianne was originally reared as a male, but later had surgery to become male. (Or, did her surgery confirm her male status that was there all along? Or both? Or neither? It’s beautifully complex…) Most of all, Lianne is an incredibly intelligent and compassionate child of God who preaches and embodies the gospel. In this conversation, we talk about many things related to intersex, gender identity, Christianity, and how the “I” relates to the LGBTQIA conversation.
About Lianne's father was a dairy farmer and an engineer, her mother a nurse. She grew up in an environment filled with love and good books. A rare genetic condition gave her a pixie face and an intersex body. As a child, Lianne was so tiny and frail that her parents feared losing their half-girl son. After coming to faith in Christ, Lianne confronted her medical and gender issues. She and her husband live in the hills north of Nashville, Tennessee.
Lianne is co-founder of Intersex and Faith, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help communities of faith minister to those born with a body that isn’t entirely male or female. Intersex and Faith hopes to accomplish this via education, advocacy, and support. The documentary, Stories of Intersex and Faith, examines how some people reconcile their faith with having a body that’s not entirely male or female. Their small-group curriculum is in beta testing. And they connect the parents of intersex children with those of like faith. Lianne is also an #ownvoice author of novels with intersex main characters.
Connect with Lianne Simon
http://www.intersexandfaith.org
https://twitter.com/liannesimon
https://www.facebook.com/lianne.simon.1
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello friends welcome back to another episode of theology in the raw I have on the show today |
| 0:06.2 | My guest, Leanne Simon, Leon Simon is a |
| 0:11.3 | fantasy author an intelligent person, and an intersex Christian. |
| 0:18.0 | And she'll explain what she means by that term intersex on the show. |
| 0:22.3 | We'll talk a lot about intersex or otherwise |
| 0:25.1 | known as differences in sex development or disorders and sex development or |
| 0:31.4 | intersex or hermaphrodite. We'll talk about all those terms and phrases and which ones you should use, which ones you shouldn't use, how intersex conditions are related to the transgender conversation and many many other very |
| 0:45.7 | interesting and yet not very talked about topics related to intersex faith and |
| 0:52.0 | Christianity I'm so excited about this interview. I mean I'm recording this after I already talked to Leanne and Leanne is an awesome person. She's incredibly smart, provocative. |
| 1:04.2 | I love the fact that she challenges people on, |
| 1:07.7 | for lack of better terms, |
| 1:08.9 | people on both sides of the debate, |
| 1:11.9 | you know, whichever that means, both sides of the debate, you know, whichever that means, both sides of the debate. |
| 1:15.5 | She, anyway, I'm going to stop because she's awesome and you're going to enjoy this conversation, |
| 1:20.4 | I think. I absolutely love this conversation. |
| 1:23.0 | You can connect with Leanne Simon on Twitter, |
| 1:28.0 | and I've got some her Twitter account on the show notes. |
| 1:31.0 | That's where I first connected with Leanne. We |
| 1:33.1 | dialogueed a little bit on Twitter. I've been a big fan of hers from a |
| 1:35.8 | distance and I'm really excited to have her on the show. If you want to support |
| 1:39.1 | theology in the raw you can go to Patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw you can go to patreon.com forward slash theology in the raw that's |
| 1:45.0 | patreon dot com forward slash theology and raw if you have enjoyed the various |
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