Taking Gender Bending Mainstream

One thing about being born in 1950 is that I have been around long enough to know that gender bending is not some new phenomenon. In the late 1960’s and into the 70’s, I witnessed countless examples of people who were pressing the boundaries of what was considered normal expressions of sexuality. Like all sin, this behavior continues to leaven with every subsequent generation as they cross boundaries and redefine what is considered normal and what is not.

Much of this was being promoted by rock stars like the sexually androgynous David Bowie or unashamedly gay rock stars like Elton John and the rock group Queen. Later, other rock stars like Boy George and the recently deceased George Michael left the days of closeting their sexuality far behind them. This movement towards sexual liberation included the cinema as well as the popular music of the day. There were early films like Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman (1915) where Charlie dressed in drag and played for the affection of various men. Later, Hollywood movies began to treat the subject matter more frequently and more seriously, e.g. Midnight Cowboy and Brokeback Mountain. Movies like The Bird Cage (1996), a remake of the 1978 Italian film, La Cage aux Folles, took the subject of males impersonating female stars mainstream.

From the beginning of recorded history, homosexuality and all such manifestations of gender bending were anything but mainstream. Until the 20th century, such behaviors had been criminalized by almost every government the world over. The Bible is not silent about prohibiting such activities. Modern civilization has ridiculed any secular and/or religious injunctions against these behaviors.

With the humanistic pendulum swinging (as it is apt to do), from prohibition to tolerance to acceptance, societal norms have changed dramatically over the 20th century. Recently, the National Geographic Magazine dedicated an entire issue to this subject. Their featured article has a preteen male decked out in girl’s cloths. They selected a trans-activist 9-year old boy named Avery Jackson for the cover of its special January 2017 “Gender Revolution” issue. Of course, Avery, or A.J. as he has come to be known, is no newcomer to this subject. At the ripe old age of 7, Avery began to speak out as an activist for the LGBTQ community and he has gained widespread notoriety ever since.

The problem with this entire gender bending experiment that has led to the dissolution of age-old societal norms such as male and female roles, traditional marriage of a man and a woman as well as the breakdown of the traditional structure of the nuclear family. Many of these changes are welcomed by those who do not want to believe there is such a thing as axiomatic truth and, whether we like it or not, this truth cannot be disregarded without resulting in serious consequences.

There are those who have trusted in the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24) and have experienced ultimate truth in the Person and redemptive work of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. We have come to the realization that truth is not relative.

People are born with a particular gender for a reason. That is not to say that sin does not cause serious problems for those who struggle to accept their biologically assigned gender. Sin is not just the transgression of God’s Law, it is a chronic and fatal disease that distorts us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Sin renders us incapable of doing the right things for the right reasons. People are the sum total of a combination of nature (what our parents passed down to us via the DNA blueprint) and nurture (all of our experiences). God’s provision for humanity is not rehabilitation or additional education rooted in worldly wisdom. God’s provision is the radical transformation found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the reason that Jesus told Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” John 3:3.

When a society strays from the biblical worldview, they are left with atheistic humanism as their guide. This is how a child, whose brain is not going to be fully developed until he or she is 25 years old, can be allowed to make decisions that they have no business making.

The American College of Pediatricians

There is a serious concern for those who are being told that gender bending is some harmless passing fade. Don’t take my word for this. The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) considers gender bending harmful to children. These transgendered children are psychologically confused and at risk for mental health disorders. The College stated:

No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one…

A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes that he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V) …

The American College of Pediatricians is not alone in their description of GID as a mental disorder. When medical and mental health professionals feed into the young patient’s distorted view of themselves and begin hormone therapy they are guilty of malpractice. You would not tell an anorexic that they are correct in their view of themselves as overweight. Why would you fed into a young person’s confusion by attempting to change their physical appearance to align with their psychologically distorted view of their gender? Whether or not the alleged professionals see this as a problem, I can assure you that allowing children to make decisions that may involve hormone therapy, much of it causing irreversible changes in the biochemistry of a child that is not yet fully developed, is a form of child abuse. It matters little if someone has decided to change their physical appearance to match what they believe is their true gender, allowing this trend to continue will do more harm than good.

The Gospel

At the Creation Studies Institute, we will continue to stand on the clear teaching of the Word of God. We choose to tell others that God’s love is unconditional, sacrificial and intelligent. The gospel is about God’s provision for those who are sinners in need of the Savior, and that includes everyone, Rom. 3:23. He is both are Creator and our Savior. The One who created us in His image tells us while we were in our mother’s womb:

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well, Psalm 139:13-14

We have experienced His amazing grace, a grace that is greater than all our sins. He is the One who offers this promise to anyone who is seeking a real and permanent solution for sin. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope, Jer. 29:11.

Submitted by: Steven Rowitt, Ph.D.