The genitals (body) are the main issue here, not gender, regarding ordination.
Hi @faye
Welcome to the forum. 
You are welcome here and you belong here. I am very sorry that your first experience on the forum has demonstrated why trans members of our community might not feel welcome or safe to talk about these sensitive and important topics.
The aspiration to ordain is truly wonderful and I just want to take a moment to celebrate this noble intention with the wish that you can overcome any barriers and that your aspirations for monastic life are fulfilled.
I want to let you know that there is a trans ordination working party that I helped set up (but is led by trans folks), which has been looking at these issues and has had input from senior monastics and Vinaya experts.
Contact me via private message so that I can put you in touch.
To all the trans folks on our forum who have been hurt or offended by comments and opinions here, you have my sympathies and my apologies. 
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I think that one way of viewing this question may be to ask:- who gets to decide if you are a man or a woman?
In the ordination ceremony I believe that it is a question to the person being ordained. So if they are a woman then the truthful answer is that they are a woman, and if they are a man then the truthful answer is that they are a man. I don’t think that the person (midwife, nurse, doctor, etc…) who made a mistake and got the gender wrong at the birth of the person being ordained gets a say at ordination time, and as I understand it, no evidence is required for the answer given.
Yes indeed. In this case, I would suggest that it is simply ‘corrective surgery’.
For those who are interested in the current scientific perspective on the thorny issue of sex differentiation, here’s a very short introduction from The Lancet on The misuses of “biological sex”.
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As far as I know, there’s nothing in the vinaya about a woman having genital surgery that prevents her from ordaining?
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What is “a woman having genital surgery”?
A woman who has had some kind of surgery on her genitals?
What is "some kind of surgery on her genitals?
I find this thread very disturbing and just wanted to leave a message of support for the trans community.
This debate reminds me very much of how women’s ordination used to be / is still being discussed. While a lot of hate speech and uninformed opinions proliferated all over the world, supportive monastics just went ahead and did the ordinations. And now we have thousands of fully ordained Theravada women worldwide, and the female sangha continues to grow and thrive.
It’s the same with trans ordinations. Trans people, as well as non-binary and intersex people, have already been ordained and will continue to be ordained. So if you’re a trans person looking for ordination, please don’t look to internet fora for guidance. Find a knowledgeable monastic and talk to them privately.
And don’t be discouraged by threads like this one. There’s a lot of support in the sangha.
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For example, vaginoplasty. A woman might have a vaginoplasty (surgically constructing a vagina) because she had a vaginectomy due to cancer, because she was born with vaginal atresia, or because she’s trans.
Well, it sounds to me that what needs to happen is the sangha needs to stop looking in people’s pants and remove sexual discrimination altogether.
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All of those points were my thoughts too. Thank you for posting.
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Surgery to correct an obstetric fistula …
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Meggers, do you know if a religious community would be punished by the law for refusing to accept a trans person, on the basis that they believe the Vinaya says its not allowed (based on a very Grey interpretation of the texts?) is that against the law?
They wouldn’t be punished. Someone objects to something, gets a lawyer, usually many, and mounts a challenge to the activity. It’s expensive, can take a very long time, and often gets much public attention, so although a challenge is usually started by an individual, lots of supporting actors get involved.
A few years ago there was an LGBT case that went to challenge under the Charter, because a private Christian university in BC was discriminating against LGBT. I don’t remember exactly what the issue in their policy was. But, there was a reading, (and this is a very complex thing with the SC and the Charter)and the SC determined the activity was unconstitutional under the Charter. The institution was told that it could not carry out that activity any more.
On the other hand, again in BC, Bountiful. Famous case. A branch of Mormons was exercising polygamy, which is illegal in Canada. A criminal complaint was laid. Someone was arrested. This led to a challenge under the Charter. I think the end result was that the SC upheld that polygamy is illegal, but the court left the consenting married adults alone. Male leaders were, however, criminally prosecuted for grooming, exploiting, raping, etc. minors under the federal Criminal Code.
There is the story in the suttas of a lay woman who grew tired of femininity and when she died she ended up as a male son to Sakka in Tavatimsa! 
He, when now residing in this heaven as a male saw that even some monks that were given alms food etc. by him when she was a female here on earth, were in a lower heaven than he was now. 
So with that in mind the actual practice is the most important aspect.
If one really feels they need to ordain to further the practice even more they are most likely already a Sotapanna right? And very accustomed with the Buddha’s teaching? But then there wouldn’t even be any view in regards to the body/self:
Sakkaya Ditthi…
Just saying that ordaining is not the most essential aspect of the path, but the actual practice.
So with that said I would never support anyone taking a buddhist sangha to court on this issue. Should somehow then the ordinary worldlings in the jury in this court case have a say in the Vinaya? And even the community get punished by law? No way! 
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Myself, I don’t think a federal Supreme Court judge qualifies as a rube.
Well you could have the best education there is, be very sophisticated and still be a hardcore materialist with a scientific outlook, right?
The thought that a federal Supreme Court Judge with zero insight could be able to punish a buddhist sangha or even demand that the Vinaya should be altered:
-based on a group of people and their identification -
(the very thing we all practice to get away from), is a little too much if you ask me and VERY UNBUDDHIST.
Buddha Dhamma Sangha
Not: Me, What I Demand & Sangha.
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Could you maybe not derail this thread with a completely unrealistic fantasy about Canadian supreme court judges changing the Vinaya?
The discrimination trans people face in Buddhism is real and tangible. What you’re posting about is not real or realistic and does not belong in this thread
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I’m not surprised by the discrimination since there are some monastics who turn out to be really bad people.
The monastics posting here on the forum are kind and considerate and obviously nothing like the really bad monks I’m reffering to.
This got me thinking of a certain monk, in Canada of all places funnily enough - who’s basically an alt-right conspiracy theory racist fool… 
(thankfully one of his friends disrobed, hopefully he will too).
So discrimination by ”buddhists” is also real to plenty of other people and not only the LGBTQ community. Worth thinking about. 
Since the other religious court cases were brought up I just responded with my thoughts on that specific thing. 
Back to topic!
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Our Charter protects the individual from the State. Please don’t misrepresent it.
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