I have heard many Christians respond to the whole “issue” of transgender people with this piece of advice: “we need to teach our children to love their own gender.” I believe that Christians say this to address their own fears, biases and judgements towards anything they simply don’t understand or don't want to understand. What this advice fails to realize is that there are babies born with more than one gender. Do we then teach them to love both of their genders?
The kind of judgment most Christians show towards someone in the LGBT community is based on ignorance. They don’t realize that gender, as the medical community might define it, or one’s sense of gender is based on many factors. In Understanding Human Sexuality by Janet Shibley Hyde and John D. Delamater, there are 8 variables of gender which include:
1) Chromosomal gender: XX in females and XY in males
2) Gonadal gender: Ovaries in females and testes in males
3) a. Prenatal hormonal gender: Testosterone and MIS in the male but not the female before birth
b. Prenatal and neonatal brain differentiation: Testosterone present for masculization, absent for feminization
4) Internal organs: Fallopian tubes, uterus, and upper vagina in females; prostate, vas, and seminal vesicles in males.
5) External genital appearance: Clitoris, inner and outer lips, and vaginal opening in females; penis and scrotum in males.
6) Pubertal hormonal gender: At puberty, estrogen and progesterone in females; testosterone in males.
7) Assigned gender: The announcement at birth, “It’s a girl” or “It’s a boy,” based on the appearance of the external genitals; the gender the parents and the rest of society believe the child to be; the gender in which the child is reared.
8) Gender identity: The person’s private, internal sense of maleness or female.
In most cases, all 8 variables are in agreement, but there are many factors during the course of prenatal sexual development that can cause any of the variables to be misaligned with the others. When there are contradictions among any of the first 6 variables, which are purely biological, a person is said to have an intersex condition. The gender of an intersex person can then be biologically ambiguous. There are a number of syndromes that can lead to an intersex condition or gender ambiguity. Here are just a few:
1) Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH): With this condition, a genetic female develops ovaries normally as a fetus, but later in the course of prenatal development, the adrenal gland begin to function abnormally (related to recessive genes) and produces an excess amount of androgens. Therefore, prenatal sexual differentiation does not follow the typical female course and as a result, the external genitals are partly or completely male in appearance. The labia are partly or totally fused so there is no vaginal opening and the clitoris is enlarged to the size of a small penis or even a full-sized one. At birth, these genetic females may be identified as males. (Meyer-Bahlburg et al., 2004, 2006)
2) Androgen-Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS): In this syndrome, a genetic male produces normal levels of testosterone but because the body tissues are insensitive to the testosterone, prenatal development is feminized. Therefore, the individual may be born with more of an external appearance of a female with a small vagina though no uterus and undescended testes.
3) Micropenis: a condition in which a genetic male is born with a very small penis. The medical standard is that an infant’s penis is 2.5 cm or more. This condition, of course, can affect sexual satisfaction in life, more so if the infant’s parents’ chose to raise the infant as a female following surgery, according to one study (Wisniewski et al., 2001).
4) Genetic-endocrine problems that can lead to genetic males appearing female at birth such as 5-alpha reductase deficiency syndrome. These infants will have a vaginal pouch instead of scrotum at birth and a clitoris-sized penis. At, puberty, however, the biological process kicks in and these “girls” now have penises. This phenomenon has been studied in the Dominican Republic where these individuals are called Guevodoces (“penis at 12”) by the people in their culture. In this culture, therefore, there are three genders and not just two. This syndrome can also be found among the Sambia of New Guinea who also have a three-gender culture.
5) Any kind of hermaphrodite condition where people are both with both male and female parts.
6) Klinefelter's Syndrome: a genetic condition where a male has an extra X chromosome. Symptoms include low testosterone, breast development, reduced strength and possible confusion about gender identification. Eddie Redmayne does an excellent job of portraying what might have possibly been the first trans woman, born a male with Klinefelter's Syndrome, to ever have sex reassignment surgery in the movie The Danish Girl.
Among the more than 200 Native languages spoken in Native America, at least 2/3 have a term that refers to a third gender beyond male and female. Natives prefer the term "two-spirit" to label this third gender. A two-spirit may be different from a "manly hearted woman" who may be more aggressive and independent than the typical Native woman or a "warrior woman" who may participate in traditional male gender roles in addition to traditional female roles in the Native culture. However, a male could be married to a two-spirit male and, from a Native point of view, the marriage would not be considered homosexual because the two are of different genders.
I’m hoping one day, the Western World and Christians in particular will not be so close-minded when it comes to sex and gender. I recently heard of a local church who decided to accept the LGBT community into their congregation. As a result, they lost most of their original congregation and had to shut down. What a shame! Any house of worship that is exclusive like that, isn’t based on the love Jesus had for everyone, regardless of what issues they are dealing with or struggling with. But Christians continue to turn a judgmental eye to any issues or discussions involving sex or gender. I’ll be praying that this will change one day.
However, I think it's important that we don't become even more divided by our desire or need to increasingly label ourselves as this or that gender or this or that sexuality. I think, as we do so, we focus too much on our differences and not enough on our connectedness. Furthermore, such trends drive us to focus more on the physical and less on the spiritual and in doing so, keep us enslaved energetically and spiritually from ascending and evolving. I'd also like to add that I do believe there is a demonic transgender agenda in motion as Luciferians and Satanists idolize their transgender God, Baphomet. Many of these Luciferians and Satanists hold positions of power and influence in the media, in Hollywood, in the music business, and in politics. A portion of them will transgender their children as a form of worship to Baphomet. We are being tricked and mocked in the process as we believe certain men and women in influential positions in the world are really one gender when they were really born the other gender.
I have worked for a fortune 500 company where I saw this transgender agenda in process. At the time I worked there, I was still brainwashed by the mainstream media and still confused about what I was perceiving. At this company, I was a case manager and a good portion of my clientele were transgender. I don't have anything personally against those that believe they are transgender. This company actively recruited clientele by advertising specifically for top or bottom surgery (this was a healthcare company). The only training that was required by the company was a SOGIE training which stands for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression where we were trained to state our pronouns and ask our clientele for their pronouns which really angered the clients who were not in the LGBTQ community. When I brought up to my boss that I would like to have other cultural trainings, my request was denied. She also told me that that workplace was not a place where we "emote" yet in this SOGIE training, people were allowed to emote all over the place.
Furthermore, the boss above her was a sociopath and could not keep a team due to the high turnover of her subordinates. For example, she used to do something called "call out's" during our team meetings where she would bring up all the things people were doing wrong. Is that a way to inspire productivity or creativity among your staff? Despite my complaints and others' complaints about her abusive behavior, they would not fire her or hold her accountable because she was in the LGBTQ community. In fact, at that workplace, the people that were promoted to positions of power were typically those in the LGBTQ community.
So, I can see both sides of the issue. Despite the transgender agenda being in full swing, it is important that we not judge people who are confused about their sexual or gender identity or identify as something that we don't fully understand. Jesus loved all people and he healed everyone with the power of unconditional love. That should be our same aim as Christians.