Recent Catechetical Documents on Gender Identity: Very Good...But a Few Concessions on Terminology Lend Support to the “Transgender” Movement

Due to the relentless assault on God’s creative order by people who claim that any individual can change his or her gender merely by declaration often accompanied by various forms of sinful body mutilation in bizarre efforts to make a person appear to be the opposite biological sex* than what he or she objectively is, the Catholic Diocese of Arlington and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee recently published catechetical documents that specifically address the many problems with so-called Gender Theory and the irrational actions taken by many in support of so-called “transgenderism.”

These documents are indeed quite good and insightful, and I urge all Catholics to access them online and read through them carefully. Arlington’s “A Catechesis on the Human Person & Gender Ideology” was published on August 12, 2021, and Milwaukee’s “Catechesis and Policy On Questions Concerning Gender Theory” was published a little more than a week ago on January 20, 2022.

However, there is one particular statement made by Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia (and elsewhere) that is also set forth approvingly in each catechetical document (albeit with slight variations) that actually plays into the hands of those who declare that gender is a socio-psychological construct, and as such, it permits separating gender from biological sex despite the Pope’s statements to the contrary.

In the Arlington catechesis, we read:

“From medicine, natural law, and divine revelation, we know that each person is created either male or female, from the moment of conception. ‘It needs to be emphasized,’ writes Pope Francis, that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated….’”

And in the Milwaukee catechesis, we read:

“Therefore, while biological sex and ‘gender’ – or the socio-cultural role of sex as well as ‘psychological identity’ – can be distinguished, they can never be separated.”

Also of concern primarily in the Milwaukee catechesis is an accepted definition of gender dysphoria as “the state in which a person claims to experience an incongruity between psychological identity and biological sex.” Once again note how gender is considered to be merely a psychological identity.

Now, even though it is rightly declared that gender and biological sex can never be separated, by not recognizing them as essentially synonymous with each other as has been done since at least the 15th century, and by also proclaiming that gender is how one views and manifests oneself as either a male or female (or perhaps some kind of a hybrid), a de facto separation between biological sex and gender favored by “transgender” advocates is unnecessarily put into play. As a result of this approach that is increasingly accepted throughout the world, we continue to witness the ongoing and increasing destruction that this view of gender as psychological identity has wrought throughout all of society, including the abuse of women by many men who irrationally declare themselves to be women based on their insistence that gender as they and their fellow travelers understand it is the more fundamental reality than biology is in determining who is a woman and who is a man.

Both the Pope and the dioceses apparently never stopped to think about how the meaning of the word gender has been purposely manipulated to provide the “transgender” movement with ammunition to disqualify the accurate psychological diagnosis of “gender identity disorder” (not long ago watered down to "gender dysphoria") as a mental disorder that should be treated in the hopes of a cure. To be sure, job one of the “transgender” movement was to change the recognized meaning of gender as synonymous with biological sex, and too many people have indeed caved into this manipulation, including many members of the medical and psychological professions who engage in egregious malpractice by simply refusing to recognize the reality of their emperor patients without clothes to help put an end to the destruction that comes about from accepting and promoting this objectively irrational behavior as rational.

But there is also some malpractice here on the part of Church leadership as illustrated above, and what Church leadership should do immediately is reject any separation or distinction between gender and biological sex, and also make it clear that the Church recognizes legitimate gender identity disorder as not a tension between one’s biological sex and gender since they are one and the same, but simply and objectively as a tension between one’s objective biological sex or gender as either male or female and irrational feelings of actually believing oneself to be the opposite biological sex or gender. In other words, true gender identity disorder deals with delusions concerning the objective biological reality of gender that also encompasses delusions that one can “transition” from one gender to the opposite gender. It also refuses to accept without appropriate qualification any of the terminology employed by the “transgender” movement, and, save for the problems and acceptance of the terminology mentioned above, the Arlington Catechesis does an excellent job in pointing out the danger of using other terms favored by those who push the false “transgender” narrative.

Society, societal laws, business practices, educational practices, and so on and so on are increasingly accepting and making use of the terminology favored by “transgender” advocates, and this is why it is extremely important for the Church to never give in even a little bit to the use of their favored terminology and definitions, and the most important term that provides the base of operations for the movement is gender. “Transgender” advocates want the term to continue to be accepted as one’s psychological identity and/or socio-cultural role because this permits more manipulations of reality in furtherance of their cause. To counteract this assault on God’s creative order, we must always and everywhere strongly affirm that gender and biological sex are one and the same thing, and we must also refuse to accept irrational declarations that somebody is a “transgender” male or female because such things simply do not exist in reality.

*It never ceases to amaze me that even though we are repeatedly told by “transgender” advocates that gender is different than biological sex, and gender as they understand it is much more important than biological sex and is the fundamental reality, the vast majority of those who falsely claim to have “transitioned” from one gender to another go out of their ways to try to make themselves appear to look more like the biological sex they claim is not what really matters in terms of what they are. Even in their distorted outlooks, they still seek to actually connect biological sex with gender. The irony here is quite illuminating.