LGBT

Here’s What Happens When Good People Don’t Connect Gay and Trans Ideology

Nancy Mace of South Carolina and other members of the House of Representatives are fighting a valiant and important battle to keep men out of women’s bathrooms in the United States Congress. It is a wholly common-sense measure.

As Speaker Mike Johnson bluntly told reporters, “Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman.”

It is that simple.

This is a battle against the relentless redefinition of humanity and reality. It is also a battle that needs to happen and be supported by every person of good will.

  • If you cannot objectively define male and female, you cannot speak sensibly about humanity.
  • If you cannot objectively define male and female, you cannot speak sensibly about reality.
  • If you cannot objectively define male and female, you cannot speak sensibly about sexuality, marriage, parenthood, and the family.
  • If you cannot objectively define male and female, you cannot speak sensibly about God’s very image and likeness in creation.
  • If you cannot define male and female, you cannot protect women and girls, which is what every honorable society does.

Those that fail to do so are not honorable. That is where we find ourselves today.

Focus on the Family supports the strong boldness of Rep. Mace, Speaker Johnson and their colleagues standing strong for reality.

But we must also point out an important inconsistency among some opponents of “trans” -intrusion. Representative Nancy Mace unfortunately demonstrated this contradiction in a November 20 post on X.

In an effort to curtail a bit of the “progressive” backlash against her, Rep. Mace proudly proclaimed to the world, “We support gay marriage, and voted for the Respect for Marriage Act twice.”

What Mace and others who say such things fail to understand is that same-sex marriage is the ideological mechanism that delivered us directly to this present trans moment. They are two parts of the same effort.

Same-sex marriage made the humanity-challenging claim that a husband or wife, mother or father can be equally and adequately replaced by someone of the same sex with no ill-effect.

“Nothing to worry about here, and everything to celebrate!” was the claim pushed upon all of us. It effectively erased any functional meaning of male or female. That is precisely how the gay rights movement brought us the trans movement.

There is a direct line from one to the other and it has everything to do with sex subjectivism.

This is why it is certainly no coincidence that Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that created a constitutional “right” to same-sex marriage, was decided June 26, 2015 and Bruce Jenner famously appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine dressed up as a woman at that very moment: July 1, 2015.

In fact, the article highlighting Jenner’s revolutionary adventure appeared online the day before the Obergefell decision was announced: June 25, 2015. There was literally no pause between the two developments.

We all saw a literal seamless transition from the biggest win of gay rights over marriage to the launch of the transgenderism movement.

Good people fighting for women’s protections against trans intrusion like Nancy Mace, J.K. Rowling, and Megyn Kelly must recognize that the rhetoric that delivered same-sex marriage delivered the erasure of both male and female in any meaningful way. Trans madness was the unmistakable, logical conclusion. Just follow the one single thread linking both of them: the redefinition of humanity by attacking the objective necessity of male and female for the family.

Additional Resources

How the Binary in ‘LGBTQ+’ Reveals Its Utter Incoherence

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Why the ‘LGBT Person’ and ‘LGBT Community’ Don’t Really Exist

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

Are Sex and Gender Different Things?

No GLAAD, Gender Ideology is NOT ‘Settled Science.’ It’s the Opposite

Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?

Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues

Nonbinary Nonsense: HHS Proposes Rule Making It Harder to Care for Migrant Children

A proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would allow caseworkers to identify unaccompanied migrant children as “nonbinary.” The change would make it harder for HHS to keep track of vulnerable arrivals — a job it already struggles to do.

The proposal would expand gender designations in child advocacy paperwork to include “nonbinary,” in addition to male and female. HHS claims the revision will help officers better care for unaccompanied minor children.

But this change doesn’t improve HHS’ care — it just endangers the children in it’s custody.

First of all, allowing vulnerable children to identify as “nonbinary” is not compassionate or caring. Introducing and affirming gender confusion ensures kids will feel uncomfortable or trapped in their sexed body.  Some will go on to receive opposite-sex hormones, “puberty blockers” and transgender surgeries, which wreak irreversible havoc on the body and provide no mental health benefits.

In a comment opposing the rule change, Americans Advancing Freedom (AAF) claims HHS could incentivize unaccompanied migrant children to identify as nonbinary:

Introducing such children to the concept [of a third gender], which is likely much less common in many of the countries they are fleeing, may actively encourage them to adopt such an identity in hopes that it could give them a “special” advantage to staying in the United States.

In turn, AAF says HHS employees could push nonbinary-identified children toward transgender medical interventions.

The proposal’s nonsensical endorsement of a third gender is harmful, but not surprising. HHS has been pushing gender ideology for years. What is surprising, however, is how blatantly it prioritizes ideologies over the individuals it swears to protect.

HHS places unaccompanied migrant children with American sponsors after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) releases them. When a child has been with a sponsor for a month, HHS is supposed to call them and confirm their wellbeing.

HHS failed to reach 85,000 children for these phone calls between 2021 and 2023, The New York Times reports, finding the agency “lost immediate contact” with a third of the kids it had placed with sponsors.

HHS’ top priority should be recovering the tens of thousands of children it lost and preventing it from happening again. Instead, it has spent time and manpower drafting a paperwork proposal making it even harder to identify children who slip through the cracks.

Law enforcement can’t identify missing children without knowing their biological sex.

Compassionate immigration policy requires prioritizing the physical and mental safety of unaccompanied migrant children over nonexistent gender labels. Until HHS prioritizes people over politically correct paperwork, ideology will continue to outrank the children the agency claims to protect.

Additional Articles and Resources

American Immigration System Loses Contact with Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children

Familial DNA Testing on the Southern Border Shouldn’t Have Ended

Doctor Refuses to Publish Major Study Finding Puberty-Blocking Drugs Don’t Help Children

‘Trust the Science’ About ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’ What Science?

American Society of Plastic Surgeons Backs Away From Supporting ‘Transgender’ Surgeries

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends

The WPATH Files Exposes ‘Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children’

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

Girls Team Forfeits to Team with Transgender Player – Could Face Sanctions

The Stone Ridge Christian High School girls volleyball team forfeited their state playoff match rather than face a team with a male player.

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) could sanction the Christian school for its decision, reported The San Joaquin Valley Sun, explaining, “Any team that withdraws from CIF playoffs is subject to sanctions at both the Section and State levels.”

CIF “Guidelines for Gender Identity Participation” state:

All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records.

Stone Ridge Administrator Julie Fagundes wrote a message to families saying that it was the school’s Christian beliefs about God’s male and female creation that drove the decision to forfeit.

At SRC, we believe God’s Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female. We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message.

She also noted the school’s concern for the health and safety of female athletes:

We also have a duty and responsibility to care for the health and safety of our athletes. So after consulting with our students, coaches, and staff, we have made the difficult decision to forfeit Saturday’s game. Standing for Biblical truth means more than the outcome of a game.

Fagundes said it was a “heartbreaking end” to the season for the teen girls, who had a winning record of 20-12 and finished second in their league with a 12-2 record. The team beat North Hills High School to advance in the playoffs and would have taken on the #1 seed, San Francisco Waldorf, in the CIF NorCal Division VI semi-finals.

Waldorf went on to lose the championship match to St. Vincent de Paul College Prep, 3 sets to 0.

As previously reported by the Daily Citizen, Henry Hanlon, a senior, plays three girls sports at Waldorf: volleyball, basketball and soccer. Last year, he led the girls volleyball team to a CIF North Coast Section championship.

The Waldorf School is a private religious school charging $56,000 a year for grades 9-12. Waldorf Schools are based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner, an occultist who founded the “General Anthroposophical Society” and Waldorf Education, which is rooted in Steiner’s mystical, gnostic ideology.

Gnosticism undergirds gender ideology – elevating “knowledge” and “the spiritual” over the body and the material world. Christianity, on the other hand, acknowledges the reality and goodness of the body and all of God’s creation.

The Stone Ridge girls were widely applauded on social media for their decision to stand against boys in girls sports.

Women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines, author of Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost Its Mind, encouraged people to “show them some love for standing firm!

While Christians have compassion for and work to bring healing to the sexually confused, we must not agree with false gender dogma and affirm sexual identity confusion.

Kudos to Stone Ridge Christian High School and the girls volleyball team for taking a principled stand stand for scriptural truth, scientific reality, and fairness and safety for young women.

Related articles and resources:

If you or someone you know is struggling with transgenderism, Focus on the Family offers a one-time complimentary consultation with our ministry’s professionally trained counseling staff. The consultation is free due to generous donor support.

To reach Focus on the Family’s counseling service by phone, call 1-800-A-Family (232-6459) weekdays 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor or chaplain to return a call to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

We also offer local referrals for licensed counselors who align with the mission and values of Focus on the Family.

Americans are Pushing Back Against Transgender Activism

Female Athletes Pray for Activists Who Scream and Spit on Them

Four Must-Read Books for Culturally Aware Christians

Live not by Lies and the Danger of Soft Totalitarianism

New DOE Rule Discriminates Against Women in Sports … Time to #TakeBackTitleIX

Riley Gaines, Fourth-Wave Feminism and the Battle for Women’s Sports

Speaker Johnson is Right: ‘A Man Cannot Become a Woman’

Title IX Redefinition of ‘Sex’ Faces Defiance and a Flood of Lawsuits

Image credit Stone Ridge Christian

‘Pride’ and Black Lives Matter Flags to Become School Symbols

A Colorado school board is poised to make the “Pride” and Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags symbols of their public school district — just one month after trying to ban them.

Durango School District 9-R ordered teachers to remove the flags from schools in October, The Durango Herald reports, after a parent complained they violated the district’s ban on political speech. The edict elicited fierce backlash, including a student walkout, a public protest and animated pushback at a board meeting.

Last week, at least three board members expressed new willingness to exempt the “Pride” and BLM flags from the political speech ban.

The only problem? That pesky First Amendment.

Public school districts like Durango are allowed to ban some types of speech, like political speech, but must apply such restrictions equally.

That’s why the district’s lawyers advised it to remove “Pride” and Black Lives Matter flags in October. Durango can’t ban some kinds of political expression and not others without violating the First Amendment.

Importantly, neither Durango’s school board nor its lawyers deny the contested flags constitute political speech. Most people understand “Pride” flags symbolize support for gender ideology, including policies like allowing minors to undergo transgender medical interventions. BLM is an explicitly political movement geared, in part, toward disrupting the nuclear family.

Instead of trying to defend the “Pride” and BLM flags as apolitical, board members Rick Petersen, Kristin Smith and Katie Stewart say they could draft and sign a resolution endorsing the flags as speech consistent with the district’s educational and cultural goals.

“By designating it as government speech and adopting [the flags] as symbols of our school district, it avoids a First Amendment problem,” Petersen explained in last week’s board meeting.

The line between government and private speech was most recently delineated Shurtleff, et al., v. City of Boston, a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that found public organizations have more leeway to express their own speech than limit the speech of others. Writing for the majority, then-Justice Stephen Breyer explained:

The First Amendment prevents [the government] from discriminating against speakers based on their viewpoint. But when the government speaks for itself, the First Amendment does not demand airtime for all views.

Denver Public School District (DPS) successfully used Shurtleff to defend displaying the “Pride” flag in its schools. A DPS parent had sued the district for displaying the flag, calling it discriminatory and asking they be taken down or paired with “Straight Pride” flags.

A magistrate judge dismissed the suit in August, writing,

Here, DPS selected the Pride Flag, and not [the “Straight Pride” flag], as representing the message that DPS wishes to convey.

DPS’ victory doesn’t mean Durango’s path forward will be easy. The district’s lawyers do not appear to endorse the board’s proposed resolution, according to the Herald. Petersen suggests one wrong move could bankrupt the district:

What this board is trying to do is find a way where can do two things to the best of our ability. One is abide by our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging policy resolution … and the other side of it is making sure we don’t put the school out of business.

Did you catch that? The district decided to endorse the “Pride” and BLM flags in accordance with their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging resolution. Published in 2021, this document reads, in part:

Education is at the heart of social justice, as we are a huge player in determining the type of key that children will hold in their hands as adults in our society.

As the Daily Citizen frequently demonstrates, “social justice” means different things to different groups. Black Lives Matter, for instance, believes social justice involves defunding the police, monetary reparations for slavery, and teaching “anti-racism” in elementary schools.

Education requires teaching skills that allow children to grow into productive, engaged members of society. Teaching children to support and inform specific policy agendas isn’t education — its indoctrination.

Durango’s board seems content to further this indoctrination to avoid public backlash. That’s dereliction of duty.

The proposed resolution could take six months for board members to draft. In the meantime, “Pride” and BLM flags will be allowed to stay. The Daily Citizen will keep you updated on this developing story.

To learn more about politics and gender ideology in schools, check out Focus on the Family’s Back-to-School resource for busy parents.

Additional Articles and Resources

Students’ Test Scores Tank After School Consults ‘Woke Kindergarten’

BLM Coloring Book Teaches Elementary Students the Nuclear Family is Racist

Five Things for Christians to Remember During ‘LGBT Pride Month’

Back to School With Sexualized Lessons

Is it ‘Book Banning’ to Keep Sexually Explicit Books out of Schools?

Speaker Johnson is Right: ‘A Man Cannot Become a Woman’

The “trans” bathroom wars have reached Capitol Hill, courtesy of Delaware’s newly elected “Sarah” McBride – the first “transgender” person to the House of Representatives

On Monday, Representative Nancy Mace introduced a bill that would require members of Congress to use restrooms associated with their biological sex.

“Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say. I mean, this is a biological man. McBride does not belong in women’s spaces, women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, period, full stop.”

Nancy Mace is exactly right.

Elected Sarah McBride, the 34-year-old is currently serving as a member of Delaware’s General Assembly.

Born Tim McBride in 1990, the young man announced to his parents in college that he was “trans” – and has assumed this confused identity ever since.

Pressed on Tuesday about Rep. Mace’s bill, Speaker Mike Johnson stated:

“We welcome all members with open arms who are newly elected representatives of the people. I believe it’s a command. We treat all persons with dignity and respect.”

He then added:

“And I’m not going to engage in silly debates about this. There’s a concern about the uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before. We’re going to do that in a deliberate fashion with members’ consensus on it, and we will accommodate the needs of every single person.”

Later in the day Speaker Johnson spoke again to reporters and stated:

“Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman.”

Media continues to describe McBride as a “transgender woman” – a designation that actually doesn’t even exist.

Despite all claims to the contrary, there are two sexes – male and female.

We read in Genesis, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). 

Yet scroll any secular news article or watch any news report today about this McBride controversy, and you’re likely to be told otherwise.

Every major news outlet readily refers to McBride as “she” or “her” – and only because the newly elected representative claims to be a woman.

Responding to the escalating controversy, McBride tweeted:

“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing.”

Of course, the only attempt being made here is to report reality – and protect women from men who are pretending to be women.

America is hungry for leaders who speak the truth, who are unafraid to offend, unwilling to go along with lies and make believe.

We pray for wisdom and strength of conviction for members of Congress as they navigate this tragic incident of sexual confusion.

Image from Getty.