‘Transgender’ Dogma Stifles Dissent

We’ve written a lot at The Daily Citizen about the rapidly growing support for “transgender” ideology in the media, education, entertainment, business, sports and the law.

It’s a false system of beliefs that teaches: “Gender” is separate from sex – being male or female; people can change from one sex to the other, “gender identity” somehow trumps the physical reality of a person’s body; and there are an infinitude of genders or gender identities.

Yet another component of transgender ideology is that you and I must agree with it. Along with this growing movement is the cancellation of those who have a Christian or scientific view of human persons as either male or female.  

More and more, the gender dogma includes this: Disagree with us and you will be threatened, harassed, cancelled and shouted down. Here are four stories where transgender activists and their allies worked – or are working – to stifle the voices of those who disagree with them.

  • The Post Millennial wrote that Jeffrey Younger, who opposed his ex-wife’s social “transition” of their son from a boy named James into a girl named “Luna,” was shouted down by far-left protestors at the University of North Texas, in Denton. Younger had been invited to the school by the Young Conservatives of Texas. Members of the group were harassed and chased from the building where the talk was to take place.
  • Twitter suspended U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, (MO), from her account after she posted a tweet that read, “Women’s sports are for women, not men pretending to be women,” The Washington Free Beacon reported. Twitter said she was blocked from her account for “violating our rules against hateful conduct.”
  • Abigail Shrier, journalist and author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, gave a talk at Princeton University, “discussing everything from free speech and academic freedom to gender ideology and parental rights,” The College Fix stated. “The talk was held at an off-campus venue, the location of which was revealed solely to RSVP’d guests just a few hours before the event due to ‘threats and harassment’ organizers said were leveled against Shrier and student groups co-hosting the lecture.”
  • The White House released a statement castigating Texas and “putting the state on notice” for trying to protect children from irreversible and body-damaging drugs, hormones and surgeries. The statement called this “a cynical and dangerous campaign targeting transgender children and their parents.” Texas Governor Greg Abbot had sent a letter to the state’s Department of Family Services asking whether “genital mutilation of a child for purposes of gender transitioning through reassignment surgery constitutes child abuse.” An opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, based on his analysis of the procedures and the law, “These procedures and treatments can cause “mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning.”

There are other stories of people or groups under fire for disagreeing with gender ideology. The Media Research Center’s new CensorTrack website lists Facebook shutting down a mom’s group for opposing “Drag Queen Story Hours”; Twitter silencing a Canadian feminist who tweeted, “men aren’t women”; and YouTube censoring former transgender-identified Walter Heyer for simply sharing his story.

These are just a few of the many stories we could tell of the stifling of legitimate dissent on the transgender issue. It’s important for those of us rooted in biblical and scientific reality to speak the truth about God’s design of male and female.

While we urge Christians to speak the truth on this issue, we also encourage compassion and concern for individuals struggling with sexual identity confusion. Some people really hate their male or female body and long to be the other sex. Such internal conflict causes real psychological, spiritual and emotional distress.

But Christians believe there only two sexes, male and female, individuals are one or the other, and it is impossible to change from one to the other. We don’t believe there are a myriad of genders and gender identities that have somehow displaced the two sexes.

We believe there is real healing and transformation for those who struggle with sexual identity confusion. God is powerful enough to help this form of sexual brokenness and identity confusion – just as He is powerful enough to bring growth and health for any other type of sexual and relational brokenness.

Nor do we want to see children confused and injured by this gender movement. So Christians work to protect children from harm and help them accept and embrace their God-given identity and bodily sex.

Those who believe God’s design for human sexuality are under fire. We must continue to tell the truth – kindly, courageously and wisely. And we must continue to offer real hope and healing for those caught up in this false ideology.

Resources and help:

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Focus on the Family’s Counseling Consultation and Referrals offers help from licensed and pastoral counselors for people struggling with these issues:

To request a conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form. Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. The consultation is available at no cost to you due to generous donor support and will be with one of our licensed or pastoral counseling specialists.

Photo from Shutterstock.

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