are and that sex doesn’t change. … Children will come to believe that their sex is whatever they think they want it to be. This is dangerous from a psychological point of view. It’s disrupting the natural process of gender identity formation.41
Dr. Cretella told me that it’s important that both parents and children understand that it’s our genes, our DNA, that determine our sex. Biological sex can’t be changed; it’s hardwired. Gender identity is what we feel and how we think about our biological sex. That, she says, is not hardwired. And around the age of seven, the idea of the permanence of biological sex is formed in a child’s cognitive development.
Thus, reading children books that say people can be whatever sex and gender they choose is encouraging a lie. And if this is reinforced by parents and medical professionals who “affirm” a child’s gender confusion, says Cretella, “the child will eventually be put on hormones that make him or her sterile, that harm bones, harm brain development, and increase the risk for stroke, diabetes and cancer over his lifetime.”
There are critics who think the traditional Christian point of view is intolerant and unsympathetic. The truth is, we can have sympathy for people — children and adults — who suffer from gender dysphoria without tolerating educators teaching our children falsehoods.
Transgender Truths
Dr. Paul McHugh is the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Writing for The Public Discourse, McHugh cites a thirty-year follow-up study of sex-reassigned individuals in Sweden where, he points out, the culture is “strongly supportive of the transgendered.”42 The study found evidence of “lifelong mental unrest,” and suicide rates up to twenty times higher than for comparable peers. In other words, sex reassignment wasn’t an answer. “The treatment should strive to correct the false, problematic nature of the assumption and to resolve the psychosocial conflicts provoking it. With youngsters, this is best done in family therapy,” according to McHugh.
Walt Heyer has written extensively about transgenderism from a unique point of view: he used to be transgender. He agrees with McHugh that children who want to switch genders need intervention, not encouragement. Writing for The Daily Signal, Heyer says that by the age of four he wanted to be a girl.43 He sought help from a gender specialist who told him the only way he’d find relief was by having gender reassignment surgery. And that’s what he did at the age of forty-two, living as Laura Jensen for eight years. “While studying psychology in a university program, I discovered that trans kids most often are suffering from a variety of disorders, starting with depression — the result of personal loss, broken families, sexual abuse, and unstable homes,” Heyer writes. “Deep depression leads kids to want to be someone other than who they are.” This resonated with Heyer. “Finally, I had discovered the madness of the transgender life. It is a fabrication born of mental disorders. I only wish that when I went to the gender counselor for help he would have told me I couldn’t really change genders, that it is biologically impossible.”
Gender Ideology in Schools
Parents at the Nova Classical Academy, a charter school in Minnesota, were confronted with the issue of transgenderism when the parents of a kindergarten boy insisted that he be treated as a girl by the school and his classmates. The school’s existing anti-bullying program wasn’t enough, they said. They wanted the issue addressed head on by, among other things, having the book I Am Jazz read in the kindergarten classroom. Some parents objected, and the student withdrew. His parents later sued the school for “allowing families to opt-out of classroom instruction on transgenderism, refusing to inform their son’s classmates of his ‘preferred’ gender pronouns, and not allowing a pro-transgender book to be part of the kindergarteners’ classroom instruction,”44 according to a LifeSiteNews report. D.C. McAllister wrote about the case at The Federalist: “The child is a male who is confused about his gender. To play along with this psychological confusion instead of helping the child in a supportive and loving way to bring his thinking into alignment with reality is a form of child neglect, something no school should support.”45
The parents of a six-year-old transgender girl successfully sued for discrimination when Eagleside Elementary school in Colorado wouldn’t allow him/her to use the girls bathroom. It wasn’t enough that they gave the child permission to use the restrooms in the teachers’ lounge and the nurse’s office. Similarly, the Nebraska School Activities Association now recognizes gender identity, rather than biological sex, as its standard for student athletes. The state’s Catholic bishops expressed disappointment in the decision and said they would continue to urge that the policy be rescinded. This joint statement by the bishops is worth noting:
Any person who experiences gender dysphoria is entitled to the respect that is the right of every human person, as well as genuine concern and the support needed for personal development and well-being. Such support, however, must be provided with due consideration to fairness; the safety, privacy, and rights of all students; and the truth about the human person.46
At Rocklin Academy charter schools near Sacramento, over forty families pulled their children out of the school as the board continued to defend a transgender lesson presented in kindergarten that included reading the book, I Am Jazz, by transgender activist Jazz Jennings.47 Several parents said their five-year-olds were traumatized, and that they weren’t notified beforehand. In Swampscott, Massachusetts, an elementary school principal announced that he was a woman and would now dress as a female. The Superintendent of Schools there has praised his “courage, honesty and transparency.”48 Teachers in the state of Maine are now forbidden to inform parents if their children identify as transgender while in school.49
Situations such as these will only increase as transgender rights take center stage in the culture. It will become increasingly difficult for parents not only to avoid having their children exposed to the idea of gender fluidity, but to avoid having it taught to them as gospel. Here’s what Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City wrote in a column for the archdiocesan website on this issue:
Gender ideology is the next tsunami that threatens to sweep away centuries of accepted human wisdom about the complementarity and real differences between men and women. These differences are not merely about self-expression and personal choice. Science, philosophy, theology and the accumulated wisdom of every culture have recognized that these differences are rooted in something real and objective. They are rooted in biology, and, more fundamentally, they are rooted in the design of the Creator.50
For parents who can afford it, many Catholic schools certainly offer a safer choice than public schools. But parents should still do their homework when choosing a school.
For example, Mercy High School in San Francisco, a Catholic girls college preparatory school, made the decision to allow a teacher who’d been at the school for four years to remain on staff, even as she “transitioned” to becoming a transgender man. Parents were sent a letter of explanation by the Sisters explaining that “we strive to witness to mercy when we honor the dignity of each person in a welcoming culture that pursues integrity of word and deed.”51 According to Daniel Guernsey of Crisis Magazine, the Sisters of Mercy also offered counseling “to help the students of the all-girls school accept the biologically female teacher’s new gender identity as a man.”52
Although the Sisters maintain they are being merciful to the teacher, by accepting her rejection of her biological sex they are assenting to what Pope Francis has called a false “gender ideology.”53 We could also question whether the decision is in the best interests of their students, which the sisters seem to at least tacitly acknowledge by their offer of counseling.
Daniel
