A Transgendered Soul
One question that I have dealt with constantly which I believe is very important to answer is the nature of transsexualism and the soul. With allowance, I'm going to quote almost exclusively from Bishop Ware's wonderful book, The Orthodox Church.
The west has often associated the image of God with the human soul or intellect. While many Orthodox have done the same, others would say that since the human person is a single unified whole, the image of God embraces the entire person, body as well as soul. "When God is said to have made the human person according to His image,' wrote Michael Choniates (died c. 1222), 'the word person means neither the sol by itself nor the body by itself, but the two together.' (Ware 220)
And then on humans being made in the image of God:
The image, or to use the Greek term the icon, of God signifies our human free will, our reason, our sense of moral responsibility - everything, in short, which marks us out from the animal creation and makes each of us a person. But the image means more than that. It means that we are God's 'offspring' (Acts xvii, 28), His kind; it means that . . . .The image denotes the powers with wich each one of is endowed by God from the first moment of our existence; the likeness is not an endowment which we possess from the start, but a goal at which we must aim, something which we can only acquire by degrees. However sinful we may be we never loose the image, but the likeness depends upon our moral choice, upon our 'virtue', and so it is destroyed by sin. (Ware 219).
Yes, humans were created male and female. Yet, even if you're a young-earth creationist, it's been a long time since creation and man has fallen since then. Although the Orthodox Church does not teach that we inherited the guilt from the fall, it does teach that we have a corrupted nature. Thus, people are born with out limbs. Male royalty's blood will not clot. People are born with both male and female genitalia. Psychologically, some people are born with an extra chromosome, while others are prone to alcoholism. Therefore, why is it such a jump that men and women may be born with the wrong bodies? It is a proven case physically and it is a proven case psychologically. In my belief and through my prayers I can firmly say that I do not believe this to be necessarily an issue of faith but science. I am aware that faith and science do not have to collide and I believe that is has only done so here, is because of Fundamentalists. Rather, if one thinks his or her body wrongly matches up with his or her sex, they are probably right.
My whole point with the quotes above is to show two things. First of all, that the human person is not the mind. The human person is both the body and soul. Therefore, if one feels a state of conflict between the two it is not due to a sinful inclination, but a fallen world. It is therefore best to fix such a conflict. One would not (or at least should not) let depression go without therapy or an injured leg go without surgery. Thus, one would not let this ailment be untreated. Secondly, it must be understood that God does not judge us by our sex. Yes, there differences between the sexes. However these differences are in the human person and not the human nature itself. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal 3:28)