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If a person we're both transgender and religious, which of the gendered brachos would they make for birchos hashachar?

Shelo asani isha: this person was either MADE an isha or BECAME one, so making a birchas hoda'a seems inappropriate.

She'asani kirtzono: as above, they clearly do not think their birth state (how they were "made" by Hashem) is preferable, so offering thanks would seem to be inappropriate.

Additionally, would the answer be different before surgical transition?

To explain, I am NOT asking how we define the gender of such a person - I am asking how such a person would handle making the brachos in question, since each would appear to result in either a falsehood (as they were not "made" that way) or something they would not properly be making a hoda'a on (which is apparent due to the premeditated switching of genders).

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  • Possible duplicate of How is gender halachically determined?
    – Mithical
    Aug 9, 2016 at 11:02
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    @Mithrandir Not at all. Regardless of how we assign halachic gender, the resulting bracha would seem to be something that this individual wouldn't be making a hoda'a on... or factually false... Aug 9, 2016 at 11:12
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    Secondly, the mishna in Brachos clearly states we make a bracha on the bad just as we do on the good. So if one thinks being born a male is no good, he still would be making the bracha shelo asani isha.
    – Mennyg
    Aug 9, 2016 at 12:23
  • Another point to back up my second point is that the very language of the twi berachos that are in question seem to indicate that it is preferable to be a male. Yet, my wife makes the bracha sh'asani kirtzono every day
    – Mennyg
    Aug 9, 2016 at 12:26
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    @Mennyg regarding your reference to the end of Brachos - that we make a bracha is independent of which bracha we make - we don't offer identical brachos over good and bad events, and it's not clear to me that making a Baruch Dayan HaEmes is a birchas hoda'ah rather than a birchas shevach or bakashah. Does one make a hoda'a over something they actively detest? One doesn't make a brachas nehenin on something unpalatable or dangerous... Aug 9, 2016 at 14:54

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