On The New Normal: A Catholic Look at Gender-Dysphoria and the ‘Trans-Rights Movement'

In this tumultuous era of social, economic and political change, the growth of the movement seeking social acceptability of transgender norms and procedures presents itself as a logical product of fifty some odd years of the ‘sexual revolution’. Yet, a more general analysis demonstrates that this movement is also a product of the disembodiment of faith and reason ushered in via Rene Descartes and the most influential thinkers of the European Enlightenment. The Catholic worldview and position concerning the nature and relationship of both faith and reason can provide much needed moral elucidation in addressing this most pressing topic.

What constitutes the transgender movement? What/Who is a transgendered person? Definitions of gender and sex are crucial for providing light into the competing and opposing answers to the above questions regarding the ‘trans’ movement. Sex and gender are not coterminous terms. It appears that both terms are often used interchangeably in common parlance, but this is most likely due to the fact that, while not coterminous, they are inseparably related to one another. Sex is biological. Every single human person is born with a biological sex that is either male or female; this duality is made evident by the existence of the male and female chromosomes that are found, one or the other, in every single cell constituting the biological body of a human being.^[1] As defined by the American College of Pediatricians: “Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of male and female, respectively – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species.”^[2] This binary reality is absolute. There is no other biological sex but male or female. This binary reality is inherent to our very nature at the most basic biological cellular level and cannot be altered or changed, especially via any type of accidental changes, i.e. sex reassignment surgery, sex change hormonal therapy, etc...).^[3]

Gender, on the other hand, is not an objective biological fact but rather, a concept that is due to sociological and physiological factors that lead to the progressive awareness on the part of the person of his/her being male or female.^[4] These factors include the cultural, societal and religious customs and values concerning what constitutes masculinity and femininity. That being said, the self-realization of gender is directly linked to the biological sex of the individual person.

All things considered, gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder is a person’s mental perception that his/her gender is different than his/her biological sex. This disorder can lead to tremendous psychological trauma for the individual who suffers from it. Statistics demonstrably show that those who suffer from gender dysphoria or those who identify as ‘transexual’, ‘trans-person’ or a ‘transvestite’ (more of an archaic term) have exponentially higher rates of depression and suicide.^[5] These rates do not lessen if one participates in a sex-reassignment surgery (sex change operation). The data concerning suicide rates among those who suffer from gender dysphoria or who identify as a ‘trans-person’ are extraordinary. According to one study, those who have successfully received a sex-reassignment surgery “...were about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and about 19 times more likely to die from suicide...” when compared with control groups.^[6] In other words, the distress that arises from gender dysphoria is real and cannot be underestimated. Those who identify as ‘trans-persons’ or who support recognition of ‘trans-personhood’ maintain that gender dysphoria is indeed not a disorder, but rather, a viable and natural state of certain people within the larger human population.

The rejection of the duality of the sexes, the view that there exists a duality and separation between the mind and the body, that truth is subjective, or that one can claim to be something that he/she is not biologically is a symptom of a society that is deficient in both healthy faith and healthy reason. The Church maintains that human beings are composed of both body and soul, a composite that is a unity. Aquinas writes: “Therefore this principle by which we primarily understand, whether it be called the intellect or the intellectual soul, is the form of the body.”^[7] Human beings are made Imago Dei and therefore the human body possesses a dignity unique in the created world. Human beings are created by God male and female and “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.”^[8] This duality of the sexes which is a biological reality must be respected and accepted by both the individual and society. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out”(CCC 2333).

In an era of heightened vigilance on the part of society regarding the exploitation of peoples, Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI, in a bit of irony, writes: “...the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure ‘sex’, has become a commodity, a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man’s great ‘yes’ to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will.”^[9] The idea that one can impose his/her will on reality without concern for the actual, physical, physiological and biological realities objectively present is a recipe for disaster; this disembodiment of reason as a priori concepts in the mind to be used on reality at the will of the individual person cannot lead to a life of human flourishing or fulfilment. Rather, it leads to confusion, depression and chaos as a result of the necessary breakdown of societal and familial structures that necessarily result as a product of such non-rational thinking.

Indeed, the self-evident reality of man and woman and self-evident complementarity of the two sexes is the foundation of the most basic and essential human institution: the family. Therefore, it should be of no surprise that the collapse of the family, especially in Western culture, has been precipitated in a most rapid way by the presence and increasing acceptance of non-rational understandings pertaining to gender theory. One example of the odious effect that disembodied gender theory has had on traditional and rational understandings of the family is the rejection of traditional gender roles as irrelevant, even oppressive, without a natural or biological basis; the abnormal has become the normal.

In finis, the modern movement which posits non-rational understandings of gender theory, and specifically, the normalization of transexual norms and values does not conform with the self-evident reality of biological sex and gender. Aquinas maintained that truth is that which “...is insofar as being is in accord with intellect, which accord is called the adequation of intellect and being…”^[10] In other words, truth is simply that which is.^[11] Nature confirms the reality of man and woman as expressed in Genesis: “...masculum et feminam creavit eos…”^[12] This reality is further confirmed by the physical sciences and is a self-evident principle of nature which cannot be overlooked or discarded. Therefore, an authentically Catholic anthropology and epistemology allow for a whole and complete understanding of biological sex and gender while dissipating the shadowy confusion and irrationality ever so present in the conversation surrounding gender theory and transgenderism in contemporary society.

[1] Michelle A. Cretella, M.D., Quentin Van Meter, M.D., Paul McHugh, M.D., “Gender Ideology Harms Children,” American College of Pediatricians (orig. pub.: March 2016, updated on: January 2017): Accessed: 4/23/2017, https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children.

[2] Michelle A. Cretella et al, “Gender Ideology Harms Children”.

[3] Michelle A. Cretella et al, “Gender Ideology Harms Children”.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph. D., Paul R. McHugh, M.D. “Special Report: Sexuality and Gender: Findings from Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society Number 50, (Fall 2016): 9, accessed 4/24/2017, http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/20160819_TNA50SexualityandGender.pdf.

[6] Lawrence S. Mayer et al, “Special Report: Sexuality and Gender: Findings from Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences”.

[7] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica in Great Books of the Western World: Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas Vol. I, transl.by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province, revised by Daniel J. Sullivan(Chicago: William Benton, 1952), 379.

[8] Catechism of the Catholic Church, Modified from Editio Typica, (United States: Image, 1997) sec. 2393.

[9] Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est [On Christian Charity] Vatican website, December 25, 2005, sec. No. 5. Accessed on April 25th, 2017, http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est.html.

[10] St. Thomas Aquinas, “De Veritate”: in Thomas Aquinas Selected Writings ed. & transl. by Ralph McInerny (England: Penguin Books 1998) 167.

[11] Aquinas, Thomas Aquinas Selected Writings, 167.

[12] Robert Weber, trans. Biblia Sacra Vulgata, (Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft 2007) 5. (Liber Genesis I:27)