Understanding Gender Ideology and Its Consequences – Part 2

An earlier article discussed the development of gender ideology, the basis of the belief of much of the American establishment, including health professional associations, in transgenderism from a presentation by Jay Richards of the Heritage Foundation at the Southern Evangelical Seminary’s apologetics conference on October 13-14. Frank Turek, President of the apologetic organization CrossExamine.org, then discussed the inconsistencies and ongoing disaster of gender ideology at a subsequent lecture.   

As an introduction to the horrors that transgenderism opens up, Turek began by discussing an account of a woman, Kellie King, who attempted to transition to being a man, who took the name Scott Newgent, and was featured in the documentary “What Is a Woman?” He reported Newgent as saying “during my own transition, I had seven surgeries, I also had a massive pulmonary embolism, a helicopter flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, a stress induced heart attack, sepsis, a seventeen month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a failed operation to give [her] an artificial penis.” Also, “sixteen rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily … antibiotics, I lost all my hair, only partially successful arm reconstruction surgery, permanent lung and heart damage, a cut bladder, insomnia induced hallucinations, and frequent loss of consciousness due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra. All this led to a form of PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year. Between me and my insurance company medical expenses exceeded $900,000. This is the goal of transgenderism for most people, to go through this kind of surgery.” 

The Inconsistencies of Transgenderism

Turek then presented five severe problems transgenderism. First, there are claimed to be many genders. But “the design of the body proves that there are only two genders.” If one is a mammal, one can produce only either a sperm cell or an egg cell. Some people can do neither, but “this is an incapacity,” they are not a third sex. Transgenderism “obviously does not comport to the design of just about every living thing.” The sudden acceptance of transgender claims by so many in our society is astonishing, he said. During the confirmation hearings for Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, people were told to categorically believe a woman rather than a man accused of sexual abuse. But at the hearing for the confirmation of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, she refused to say what a woman is. In four years’ time, Turek said, “we went from ‘believe every woman’ to ‘what’s a woman.’”

Secondly, the whole transgender argument “must presuppose there are two genders.” In order to know that one is in the wrong body, one “must have some idea” of what a man or woman is to know that there is a “mismatch” between body and soul. “Gender dysphoria would be impossible, it wouldn’t exist.” To attempt an impossible physical transition to the opposite sex, one must still have an idea of what a man is and what a woman is. Transgenderism really rules out the possibility of transgenderism, and homosexuality or bisexuality as well, since these all depend on there being fixed sexes. Transgenderism essentially erases sex, also ruling out feminism, thus causing tension in the cultural left. The response to criticism of the irrationality of transgenderism is to resort to name calling (“transphobe,” “bigot”).

Thus, “you can change your mind but not your biology.” Transgender ideologists insist that the body be changed to conform to one’s sense of self. But it is impossible to change one’s DNA. Sexed biology cannot be changed. One’s identity as male or female cannot be changed, although sexual anatomy can be mutilated. In all other mental disorders, professional counselors will attempt to correct attitudes and behavior, he said. With transgenderism (and really with homosexuality) an obvious deviation from biological reality is taken as the norm, and for transgender claims the body altered. He noted that Dr. Paul McHugh, of Johns Hopkins University, has compared transgenderism to anorexia. One does not treat anorexia by agreeing that the victim is overweight and perhaps needs to reduce weight further. Another example is Body Integrity Disorder, in which people believe they are properly one armed or one legged and ask for amputation. But with sex organs, on the other hand, “perfectly functioning sex organs are being destroyed” because people are deluded about their sex. “This is not the way forward. So you can change your mind, but you can’t change your biology, it’s impossible.”

Additionally, “sex is not assigned at birth, it’s discovered  at birth.” The term “sex assigned at birth” is attempt to alter language and make people believe what we all know is not true. Through ultrasound sex can be discovered before birth. Indeed, if sex is arbitrarily assigned, then “sex” has no meaning. Belief in sexual self-determination is not helping persons who are truly confused about their sex.

Finally, “although claiming to have rights, there are no rights – there are no transgender rights.” True rights come from God, anything else is simply opinion. Turek emphasized that without God, there is no right to life or natural marriage, nor any right to the sexual license the sexual revolution claims. If God does exist, there are rights to life and natural marriage, but not sexual license. The government should recognize the God-given rights that people have (which do not include creating your own reality) and protect them.

Facts about Transgenderism Today

Turek then reviewed important facts to know about transgenderism in the contemporary world. He said that gender dysphoria is a real problem with some people, who commonly “have other mental health conditions, and have experienced trauma.” Not uncommonly, this is sexual abuse. This condition once affected mainly men, more specifically, 1 in 10,000 men. He said that from 63-80% of true gender dysphoric people have “some other co-morbidity.”

Additionally, the skyrocketing increase in transgender individuals “is almost completely social media driven.” He noted that Abigal Shrier in her book Irreversible Damage (2020), said that in some girls’ schools 30% of the students claim to be transgender. They attend to social media, where they are encouraged to pursue transgenderism, and do not know the dangers of “transitioning,” such as “osteoporosis, increase for stroke, heart damage, you become sterile in all likelihood, and in fact your own sexual function will probably evaporate. You will not have sexual pleasure, if you continue down this road.” Also, many want “some sense of community.”

Although the social media (and establishment encouragement) draws kids to transgenderism, there really is a natural basis for much of what’s happening. Kids in early adolescence are drawn to transgenderism by the trauma of puberty. Instead of being recommended to sexual mutilation, they need to be told that during puberty “it’s normal to feel odd … it’s one long transition.” He noted the commonly referenced statistic that 80% or more of adolescents who experience gender dysphoria will identify with their biological sex by the age 18. Gender ideologists, however, are endeavoring “to break the gender binary, they’re trying to destroy civilization as we know it,” and consider ruined lives the price of revolution.

Turek pointed out that atheist Bill Maher has spoken against transgenderism, while most pastors and Christians prefer to avoid the subject. Meanwhile, “kids are being mutilated.” Turek said, as he did last year, that we should not follow our heart. First because the “heart is deceitful and wicked, and it wants what it wants.” We cannot follow our every impulse. Otherwise, we “will end up broken, alone … and probably dead.” Secondly, “you often have two hearts on the same issue.” Thirdly, “your heart changes.” This is particularly true when one is young, he maintained. Finally, following one’s heart is often  really “following our culture.” Turek said that instead of following our hearts we should take the admonition of the Book of Proverbs to “above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Prov. 4:23). He added that “parents need to help guard the hearts of your kids.”

The claim that suicide is the only alternative to the sexual mutilation of transgenderism is particularly egregious. Turek noted that transgenderism has a greatly elevated suicide rate, but generates a lot of money for large pharmaceutical companies and doctors (indeed a continuing stream of revenue, as a transgendered person commonly needs continuing medical attention).

He referred to Chloe Cole, who experienced gender dysphoria at puberty and had a double mastectomy at age 15. At age 18 realized she made a mistake and is now suing her doctors for lack of informed consent. Some time after surgery, she was diagnosed with autism, but finding any problem other than body and soul mismatch was not considered important. In testimony before Congress, she said that after declaring herself transgender, her parents turned to professional counselors, who recommended puberty blocking drugs be begun immediately. They were asked the common question “do you want a dead girl or a live boy?” She said that she was not suicidal when she decided for surgery, but as a result of her double mastectomy, she testified that she had had “a huge part of my womanhood taken from me.” She will never be able to breastfeed. She then did become suicidal. She testified that her parents then did “almost have a dead daughter.” Turek observed that the suicide rate for people with gender dysphoria is 13 times higher than the general public, while for those who undergo sexual anatomy altering surgery it is 19 times higher than the general public 10 years after the surgery.

Referring to Scott Newgent, who tried to transition to becoming a man, Turek quoted her as saying “I would not transition again, it has given me permanent heart and lung damage … a deformed arm, it cut my dating pool by 90%, it took years off my life span, this decision has cut short the time my kids will have me if I meet them at all … Medical transitioning is not for kids, it doesn’t fix anything, it is not lifesaving, but convincing people it is sure makes a lot of money for companies and doctors, doesn’t it?” She said that if current transitioning continues to grow at its present exponential rate, 20% of the population will be transgender “and that is a ton of money.” A transgendered person has to take cross-sex hormones for the rest of one’s life to “force your body to go into a direction it was not designed to go.” Transgenderism is not a solution for anyone, Turek said, “but certainly not for children.”

Finally, Turek said that “the government is coming for your kids.” He noted the Biden Administration in 2022 proposed removing children from their parents if they disagree with a child’s self-determined sex. Transgenderism leads to sexual mutilation, sterility, loss of sexual function and rape (in girls’ bathrooms and prisons where men and boys may be present). But gender ideology must be protected, regardless of the consequences. Turek again noted that many churches and pastors try to avoid addressing transgenderism (or it should be added, any other sexual issues) in any critical way, and “just preach the gospel.” But he compared their stance to the German churches that “sang louder” as the box cars to Auschwitz passed.

Moral Imperatives Arising from  Transgenderism

In this situation, Turek asked, “what does love require of us?” We are not imposing our morality on others. All laws, he said, impose morality (certainly sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) laws do). We ought to have just laws that mandate true morality, obvious from nature. As the Scripture says, people suppress this morality (Rom. 1:18-19). They know that they should “not mutilate children, but they’re doing it anyway, so why aren’t you speaking up?”

This writer would add that transgenderism represents, in the clearest form yet, rebellion against God’s creation order, and the ambition of the enemy of souls “to steal and kill and destroy” (Jn. 10:10). Transgenderism, like abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, and unilateral divorce before it, is being done in the interest of quality of life. All of those things were and are justified in terms of the quality of life of the individual at the moment without the fear of God or regard for fellow human beings. Now we see that even the point of the sexual revolution (sexual pleasure) is destroyed by transgenderism.

The response of Christians, and all people of good will,  must be that justice (or dignity, or freedom or whatever the term of virtue used) must be based on reality, not self-will. And the reality is that there are only two sexes, male and female, which exist for procreation. It is reasonable that an opposite sex couple form a natural family of man, woman, and their offspring, bound together by the intimacy of monogamous opposite-sex intercourse. Certainly this has been the basis of all civilizations, whether all individuals achieve this ideal or not, and whatever deviations from the ideal were tolerated. Christian apologetics shows that God is the ultimate reality, to which we are responsible. Even the apostle Paul, whose life was surrendered to God, struggled with sin (Rom. 7:14-25). But we have God’s promise, in great measure fulfilled in Christian civilization, that in him we will “have life, and have it abundantly.”