When Our Lord issued the Great Commission to the Apostles, He was telling them, and by extension us, to be bigmouths. The Lord of all knew that the Enemy of man would never cease telling lies and that the only way to confront those lies is by never ceasing to tell the truth. The Church has been, throughout her history, the Great Truth Teller. Until recently that is. No longer does she breathe truth upon the ideological lies that the World tells but plays the part of the mute. As proof of this, let’s compare the number of Papal Encyclicals dealing directly with the Socialist/Communist Revolution. Nearly every Pope from Leo XIII to John Paul II addressed this ideological lie directly, never growing weary of repeating themselves. Now compare that with the number of Papal Encyclicals against Sexual Revolution—one. That one, Humanae Vitae, landed with a great thud and has been unceremoniously dismissed. Whatever work John Paul II did in this area has been caught up in the whirlwind of ambiguity that is the current pontificate (i.e. Amoris Laetitia). The point is that the Church attacked Socialism and all its incarnations directly while they have left gender ideology unscathed despite John Paul II calling it the “new ideology of evil”. As the silence mounts, more and more Catholics fall in line with the ideological spirit, especially during the latest manifestation, Transgenderism. This should not be read as a complaint or a rebuke of clergy, but an undeniable statement of fact. Ideologies have a way of silencing dissenters, so I am more interested in mobilizing and arming those willing to speak truth against the lies, than to blame anyone for not speaking out.
Because of the relative silence on this issue, there are no authoritative statements regarding Transgenderism. Clarity is not a habit normally associated with this lie, but for the sake of clarity we will distinguish between gender dysphoria as the internal struggle that one has with their sexual identity and Transgenderism as the act of attempting to alter one’s sexual identity. The former is a psychological condition and the latter is a physical action that is said to solve the conflict. It is relatively easy to show via Catholic moral principles why Transgenderism is wrong. It can never be a real solution to the problem and ultimately does great harm to the person. Nevertheless, because it is cloaked in a medical solution it is important that we understand the principles.
The moral principles involve the recently discussed Principle of Totality. To summarize and review, this bioethical principle says that “except to save life itself, the fundamental functional capacities which constitute the human person should not be destroyed, but preserved, developed, and used for the good of the whole person and of the community.” Whether it is a surgical intervention or hormonal replacement, the “treatment” modalities involved always seek to destroy the biological sex characteristics and replace them with simulated versions of the opposite sex. The use of the term “simulated” is deliberate because “sex reassignment surgery” simply is not possible. The person may resemble the opposite sex, but they can never actually be the opposite sex. No matter how much plastic surgery you perform, you cannot artificially manufacture a sex organ. It will always fail in its primary purpose.
The Harm Done
These principles are masked because the harm that is done to these people is often hidden. It is a pernicious lie that, rather than solving the problem, puts the person into a sexual void. They will have mutilated the bodily capacity that identifies one’s true sex and they will never be their “new” sex. To solve the problem of confusion by causing them to truly identify as neither sex is, self-evidentally, not a real solution. But anyone who questions this, including doctors and psychiatrists are ostracized and vilified, although never refuted.
Rather than acknowledge this they cover it with an ambiguous term gender. It is labeled as a “social construct” because of the inherent failure to construct sex themselves. This is probably why many gender dysphoric people choose not to have surgery. It is also why one of the few (semi-)reputable studies done found that those who had surgery were 19 times more likely to commit suicide (and this was a study done in “tolerant” Sweden).
Hormone intervention likewise have lasting effects and often constitute a chemical mutilation of sort because they render the person sterile. Included in this are so called “puberty blockers” which permanently stunt the growth and development of children. When a child presents with gender dysphoria, this is the standard treatment modality. We do not let children under 16 vote, drink, smoke or choose not to go to school because of their intellectual and physical immaturity. We will however allow them to decide what gender they will be and to begin permanent steps in making that a reality. There is a built-in mechanism to clear up confusion related to sexual identity called puberty. That is why the reputable studies of gender dysphoria all show that between 80-95% of children who express discordant gender identity come to identify with their biological sex over time (a statistic cited in Ryan Anderson’s excellent book When Harry Became Sally). Those two sets of numbers, the 80-95% and the 19 times more likely to commit suicide would suggest that any medical intervention should be delayed until the person has reached full maturity. The fact that these are never mentioned is because the best interest of the person is trumped by ideology.
The Intersex Exception
There is another aspect of this that is important to grasp. Abortion supporters often argue from “the rape and incest and mother’s life in jeopardy exception” in favor of abortion on demand. Transgender ideologues do something similar with their Intersex exception. The argument goes something like “because intersex are biologically neither sex, therefore there are more than two sexes.” Even if this was true, it is an example of the exception proving the rule. Intersex individuals have a genetic defect, that is, they have a deviation from the normal condition. Transgender ideologues, like the abortion advocates, would have us think the exception should be the rule and therefore a person should be able to decide on his own what sex he will be.
Second, the intersex condition is based upon direct observation. Transgenderism is based upon a subjective belief not rooted in any external condition. The intersex individual is not changing their sex characteristics but attempting to repair them. Quite frankly, it is surprising that the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) is so ambiguous in their language and allow the Transgender idealogues to co-opt what is a true medical, as opposed to psychological condition. The ISNA says that persons with disorders in sexual development are not a third gender, but male or female. Those are the only two options, even if may not always be easy to decipher.
In order not to appear to be “obsessed” with all of the issues of the Sexual Revolution, the Church has chosen to be silent. It isn’t the Church that is obsessed but the culture. In order to break that obsession the Church cannot be silent. Millions of people are becoming ideological and there won’t be a culture to save unless we speak out. We must arm ourselves with the truth and a willingness to engage. We must be the bigmouths that Our Lord calls us to be.