There isn't much trans representation in the Bible, or even *possible* trans representation. That's ok, but if I can find it anywhere, for my own sake, I find it in the history of Joseph, who had the dream-coat. That's not to say Joseph *was* trans or non-binary, I don't have the data one way or the other, but I find this tale particularly relatable, and it's good to find figures in the Biblical histories to relate to and connect with on a human level, because we all have these human lives.

We see Joseph in the context of his eleven brothers, his closest male peers. Joseph doesn't fit in. Joseph, we read, reminds Jacob of his favourite wife, Joseph's mother. The brothers work in the field and Joseph doesn't. Joseph doesn't dress like his fellow men. He wears attractive and unusual garb that marks him out as different. And his brothers don't like it. Joseph is alienated. Joseph is almost synonymous with his clothing, his physical presentation. When the brothers fake his death, the blood-stained garment is all the evidence that's needed.

Way later, Joseph is in Egypt, working for Potiphar, who it's often assumed was a eunuch. Joseph isn't a eunuch, and when offered sex on a stick, he flees from it. Compare that to any of his brothers and their sexual antics in the surrounding chapters and it stands out. I know gender and sexuality aren't necessarily linked, but moving forwards to the end of the story, all of Joseph's brothers become the head of tribes. They become great patriarchs, just as Israel, Isaac and Jacob were patriarchs, but Joseph is never considered one of those. Two tribes of Israel are attributed to his loins, but not named after him. They're the tribes of his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph alone isn't looked at as a father of the nation. He's not like the others, and it almost feels like he might as well have been a eunuch. His inclusion in the list of great fathers feels more like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba in the genealogy of Jesus. A list of men and an 'oh, by the way' maternal figure.

I can make no claims about Joseph, we never met, but I see a connection with my own experience here in a way I don't with Moses or Aaron or Hannah or Mary. We're all human people in different parts of the same incredibly long story of history. Do I headcanon Joseph and Joan of Arc as trans figures? I don't know, but I would feel more awash if I couldn't find them.

I have a favourite couplet in the Joseph musical, which, pronouns aside sounds a glorious goal: his outrageous clothing took the biscuit, quite the smoothest person in the district. I could be a smooth person.

By the way, the coat of colours, ‘kitonet pasim’, in the Hebrew, might be translated a coat of colours, a striped coat, a coat with sleeves, a floor-length coat, an embroidered one, or a coat with pictures, all of which sound a great addition to any wardrobe. I am a person with too many clothes - I even make them myself - and I particularly like the open brief of ‘a coat with pictures’. The only other time we hear about a ‘kitonet pasim’ in the Bible, it belongs to King David’s daughter Tamar, and again it’s garb representing a particular favouritism. It’s not great to have a favourite child, and it obviously worked out poorly in Joseph’s case. Then again, he came out of the loins of Jacob’s favourite wife, so already it was a shonky family dynamic. There is much more to say about Jacob and that musical and my estwhile namesake Benjamin, and I’m sure we’ll get to them again in a few days. Either way, Joseph’s garb was fit for a princess, or to use the gender-neutral term, a prinxe, a word that is useful in any limerick about a sphinx, lively kinks, or jar jar binks.