A  movement whose acronym keeps growing has set its sights on a cultural revolution that denies the objective reality of sexual difference. That’s bad enough. But worse, it now wants to wield the police power of the state to compel everyone to accept this deluded view of men and women.

I refer to what is usually called the LGBT movement. In some circles it is called the LGBTQI movement. That longer acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex.

The New World

In their new world, one can choose his or her “gender” and dress and act accordingly. Furthermore, the entire social order must be changed to accept such behavior as normal. Anyone who disagrees is disparaged as a bigot and, if many in that movement have their way, will experience the boot of punitive legal measures.

The most extreme promote the notion that children should be able to determine whether they are male or female. If their choice does not comport with the biological facts, they should be able to undergo dangerous hormone replacement therapy and bodily mutilation masquerading as medical surgery.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) recently condemned this idea in a document entitled Gender Ideology Harms Children. They explained that “Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: ‘XY’ and ‘XX’ are genetic markers of health — not genetic markers of a disorder.”

This highly respected group of pediatricians and health care professionals continued: “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. This principle is self-evident.”

However, to many in the LGBTQI movement, it is not self-evident. The ACP insists that it is:

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 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. 

Benedict’s Insights

Near the end of his papacy, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI spoke of “the profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it.” (“Anthropology” here means the theological understanding of man.).

They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves,” he said. “According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God.”

Then he offered this important insight: “The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned.” He continued:

From now on there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. Likewise, the child has lost the place he had occupied hitherto and the dignity pertaining to him.

What happens when we manipulate nature? Benedict explains: “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. … And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.”

Rushing Into Darkness

Though those who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder (GID) deserve empathy, the fact of their sexual identity remains. No surgery can change it. Surgery can only mutilate the body and destroy the bodily integrity of the person.

The spirit of the age has turned the human body into a machine with interchangeable parts. As the ACP notes, medical science confirms our identity as male or female (even our brains differ).

We live in an age rushing into darkness while professing to be enlightened. In a world with no givens, we lose the nature of the gift of our identity as male or female. As a result, we are impoverished, not liberated.