Male and female created He them: Gender identity

A popular song from my youth went like this “I'm strictly a female female. And my future I hope will be,  in the home of a brave and free male, who'll enjoy being a guy, having a girl like me.” I reflects not only traditional values,  but the view that until recently was held by everyone that there are two and only two sexes,  and only two genders.

Fifty years ago likely 99%+ of the population had never even heard of the term gender dysphoria which, until 2013 was officially regarded as a disorder.  It is currently defined as the distress a person feels due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth.   We need to have compassion on anyone suffering gender dysphoria distress. Those with compassion will also want to condemn the violence and discrimination that has so often been perpetrated on entire LGBTQ+ community.  But we do need to think carefully about how to address these issues.

Treatments for this “non-disorder” gender dysphoria are radical,  and essentially irreversible. They include sex change surgery and hormone treatment.  One statistic puts transgender regret at 8% or higher. But these statistics do not reflect the effect of the current propaganda targeting ever younger children,  and making it cool to want to transition. What is particularly disturbing are moves by Governments to forcibly remove children from parents not willing to actively affirm a different gender identity. Research shows that many grow out of these feelings by adolescence. On top of this, the process of growing up includes the slow process of learning who we are, and there is strong tendency to identify with our problems. I have struggled with alcohol, but my struggle is not who I am. I am a loved and valued child of the living God (1 John 3:1).

Other issues are raised by an article on sexual experiences in transgender people. It's full of understatements such as “Being able to enjoy sex is, to many people, an important aspect of their general well-being,” and  treatment is “likely to influence the sexual experiences of transgender persons.”  

Underlying the difficulties of conducting clinical trails on this type of populations, the article was careful to stresses that the research was non-clinical. What is also difficult to objectively ascertain from a research point of view,  is the influence political correctness, and the pressure it exerts to suppress transgender and other forms of regret.  It's pretty clear that organizations such as the American Psychological Society have removed things previously diagnosed as disorders due to political and social pressure, rather than from objective research. In addition. feelings, including “a  personal sense of my own gender,” are unreliable.  Bias is everywhere, so I look to the biology, and biology and the Bible agree. In particular male and female created He them  (Genesis 1:27). Having said that we are all image bearers of God and need to be treated with dignity and respect.

Father, You are certainly touched with our feelings of infirmity (ref ),  including those of gender dysphoria. But I'm not at all sure it is compassionate to encourage someone to rush to transition,  when they may well seriously regret it later. This is particularly true for children. Only in my sixties was I finally able to fully embrace my true identity as Your child. Give us courage to speak up about these things Lord, and the wisdom and grace to do it with sensitivity.  Why should I fear man who will die (Isaiah 51:12)?  In Jesus Name Amen