Hi, I'm Sarah, and I haven't posted around here before, just lurked in the background reading everyone's discussions. I'm from Australia and Transgender Rights has just become a big thing over here because the government has introduced anti-bullying educational elements into the school system and anti-LGBT groups are up in arms about it, provoking lots of talk over here. Anyhow, I'm what you'd call a closet transgender - I haven't come out yet, and only doctors and therapists know about me, everyone else just thinks I'm a guy who doesn't cut his hair short enough and has a tendency for knitwear and necklaces, and agrees too much with the women when discussions or arguments take place, etc...
Anyway, I am a Christian, and I find encouragement in numerous places in the Bible. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had to write to a church where there were some disputes and problems going on. Could a Eunuch be a Christian? Could a slave be a Christian? Were men more important than women? And so on. Paul's response was:
"There are not Jews or Gentiles (people who are not Jews), not slaves nor free, nor are there male or female - you are all one together in Christ Jesus."
Basically, according to the Apostle, where you were born, whether you were a slave or a free person, or whether you were male or female, is not relevant at all as to whether someone is or is not a christian. So if it isn't relavant - if being male or female doesn't matter as to whether I am saved by God, then why should other Christians care so much about it? Anyway, verses like that help me to feel like gender is not a factor when it comes to faith.
The other thing I wanted to mention, is that Christians will often say that Eunuchs were just slaves who were castrated against their will, not men who had their genitals willingly removed. However, this is not what the bible or history books tell us. Jesus mentions three eunuchs in an example - people who were castrated against their will by others, people who for religious reasons castrated themselves, and people who were born like castrated people, and He said they were all acceptable to God.
And the first non-Jewish Christian conversion written about in the Bible was a Eunuch Official. In those days, various men (such as those with no interest in sex) could have themselves castrated by choice to take on positions of power. Willing Eunuchs were considered incorruptible because they could not be seduced and didn't care about sex with women.