Do Transgender People Have Demons?

The Bible labels cross-dressing as an abomination, so the devil and his demons definitely inspire it.

Deuteronomy 22:5:
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

This includes men who continue to identify as men but present themselves as "drag queens."  Not all people who wear the other gender's clothing are transgender, but transgender people wear gender-inappropriate clothing.

So the easy answer would be “Yes, all transgender people have demons,” but that position is actually not provable from Scripture.

First, there is no Scripture stating that a “drag queen” or a transgender person was brought to Jesus and when a demon came out, he went home and put on male clothing.  We have no New Testament reference with an explicit combination of transgenderism and a demon.  We do not know for sure that any with “unclean spirits” were transgender people.

Second, the sin of cross-dressing did not have quite the same status under the Law as homosexuality.  Under the Law, which is not in effect today (nor would I advocate its punishments), the death penalty was ordered for homosexuals (Leviticus 20:13) as well as those involved in other serious sexual sins.  There was no requirement to execute cross-dressers.  As unnatural as cross-dressing is, it does not in and of itself involve sexual sin, even if some cross-dressers also engage in explicitly sinful practices.

There is evidence in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 that the “effeminate” (literally “soft” in the Greek) cannot be true Christians, but that does not prove that all such people have demons that need to be cast out.  This term more strictly referred to those who willingly submitted to homosexuals as opposed to merely being cross-dressers.

The Law could give credence to the argument that homosexuals have unclean spirits.  Back then, there was no hope of getting demonized people delivered, so the only way to stop them from spreading their sin in Israel was to kill them.  In the New Testament, Jesus can set homosexuals free, as evidenced by Paul’s statement, “Such were some of you” in the passage above.  There was no similar command to kill cross-dressers, so that would be an argument – admittedly a light one – that any kind of cross-dresser (including a transgender one) could simply stop practicing his sin because he isn’t stuck with a demon.

Third, many transgender people, especially younger ones, have “outgrown” their “gender dysphoria” without anyone having to cast a demon out of them.  If demons were always responsible, it would be much rarer for people to escape the clutches of transgenderism.

You can have a mental illness just as you can have a bodily illness without a demon being specifically involved.  Some people involved in unnatural lifestyles were hurt when they were young and are acting out a reaction to it, though their reactions is still sinful and inexcusable.  For example, someone who was beaten regularly as a child is probably more likely to become a school shooter, but that does not excuse school shootings – the shooter is still morally accountable.

Fourth, our current society – may it change! – fosters transgenderism by making transgender people out to be heroes of individuality.  A young man desperate for attention knows that he will be celebrated and have attention lavished on him if he claims to be female.  While Satan and his demons surely inspire this (it would never be the Lord doing so), this does not mean that every biological boy in a dress is that way because he needs deliverance.  Some may just be playing the culture for attention or trying to get back at their parents.  It is sad that we celebrate sin in modern culture and even give it special “days” and “months” while there is no Straight Pride Month (with Straight Pride parades) or a Gender-Correct Clothing Awareness Day.  Corrupting the minds of our children in schools has surely been a strong factor in promoting this kind of sin.  Many early elementary school students are now exposed to the Gender Unicorn – an animal that does not exist that teaches concepts that do not exist in the Bible.

Fifth, there is no Bible evidence that the number of demons on the earth has increased while the human population has increased.  If transgenderism is strictly the work of demons, it should have the same number of incidents in any era, but instead, transgenderism has “taken off” as more of society accepts it and wants to silence anyone who believes the Bible fact that God created us male and female (Genesis 1:27).  So I think it’s clear that society plays a role, though it is Satan and his followers who want to force everyone to accept their last-days “doctrines of demons.”  Demons are certainly involved in spreading doctrines of demons!  That is not the same as saying that every transgender person needs deliverance, though some of them have allowed this stronghold in their lives so long that they may well need it.  I’m just saying that we can’t be dogmatic about something without explicit Bible support.

Sixth, there are actually people who could end up as “transgender” without sin let alone a demon.  These people are in the “I” category of whatever alphabet soup is being used these days (the list keeps growing) – where “I” stands for Intersex.  This differs from all the other categories, which describe different antibiblical lifestyle choices.  An Intersex person is one who was born with a birth defect and has certain body parts and even chromosomes belonging to both genders.  That situation certainly cannot be ascribed to any sin in that person’s life and such a person should not be stigmatized or shunned.  It is possible that the doctor and family made a wrong determination at birth about which gender the baby was and now the grown person wants to live as the gender he or she feels is more natural.

Such people need our compassion.  By the way, the term hermaphrodite has been used to describe such a person, but the term is now considered offensive and we don’t need to stir up ill will using it, especially given that this condition is not related to a deliberate lifestyle choice.

However, the number of people who are simply sinning transgender people outnumber those who have “intersex” birth defects by a factor of dozens at this writing.

I do not doubt that many transgender people have allowed demons to attach themselves to them.  Their practice (with the exception above) is at least demon-inspired.  However, in direct answer to the question of whether transgender people “have” demons, my final answer is, “I believe so in many but not all cases, and that is my opinion, not an ironclad Bible fact.”