transgender

Among the most significant developments of the past year has been the strong pushback against radical gender ideology and the growing evidence against so-called “gender-affirming care.”

Early in 2024, internal files leaked from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), the self-anointed medical association that has pushed for the chemical and surgical “gender transition” of minors, were made public.

For years, clinical, political, and pop culture activists have cited WPATH in order to claim that the science on “gender-affirming care” is “settled,” and that social, chemical, and surgical “transition” interventions are safe, reversible, and lifesaving.   

The leaked files from WPATH revealed a different, and far more damning story.

Far from being settled science, these “treatments” were known to be experimental and known to lead to painful complications, including life-threatening conditions like cancers. In a leaked video, a leading WPATH doctor admitted that a minor could not fully understand the implications of “treatment,” especially for his or her future fertility. In other words, this pseudoscience was being pushed on minors who were unable to grant consent. 

A few weeks later, the U.K.’s National Health Service released an almost 400-page report on the state of “gender identity services for children and young people.” The Cass Review was a bombshell. Contrary to the standard narrative peddled by activists, this report affirmed that “gender-affirming care” is built on “shaky foundations” and that the evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries to “treat” gender dysphoria is “remarkably weak.”  

According to the report, most of the studies cited in support of social, chemical or surgical “transition” lacked the quality required to reliably and safely guide clinicians and families in caring for gender dysphoric young people.  

Much was also learned in 2024 about the comorbidities accompanying gender confusion.

For example, research out of the U.K. exposed that adults who identified as transgender were six to seven times more likely to have ADHD, four times more likely to suffer from depression, five times more likely to have bipolar disorder, more than five times as likely to have obsessive compulsive disorder and, shockingly, over 28 times more likely to have a diagnosis of schizophrenia.  

Another study found that youth who experience gender dysphoria are far more likely to have experienced emotional abuse and physical and emotional neglect. Before the summer heat arrived, a survey of millions of patients over the course of two decades dropped suggesting that those who undergo “gender transition” surgery are 12 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population.  

That last study exposes the evil of the suicide myth, an enduring lie that has effectively driven the transgender epidemic for years now. Counselors and activists have pressured parents into “affirming” their children’s dysphoria, with the manipulative question, “Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?”  

These revelations that continued to emerge throughout 2024 confirm what Christians should already know to be true. Even more, they should inspire us to steward this cultural moment faithfully. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, we must be a church not moved by the world, but stubborn in our belief that the world can be moved by a church committed to Christ and to truth. For us, this means having the courage to counter the lies of gender ideology while caring for those victimized by these bad ideas.  

This proper response requires a worldview big enough to make sense of the world. We not only must know what is true, we must have the courage to live by truth. Just a year ago, the trans agenda seemed unstoppable and out-of-control. Today, its lies have been exposed, and more people are speaking out. Praise God.  

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