Securing and enforcing trans rights has been a priority for our president. In addition to the Obama administration’s intervention regarding transgender rights in the military, health care, and North Carolina’s state law, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” on May 13, 2016, directing all public schools to allow students to use the bathroom and locker room that corresponds with their gender identity.[1]The New York Times reports:
A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so,” according to the letter … A school’s obligation under federal law “to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns,” the letter states. … As soon as a child’s parent or legal guardian asserts a gender identity for the student that “differs from previous representations or records,” the letter says, the child is to be treated accordingly – without any requirement for a medical diagnosis or birth certificate to be produced. It says that schools may – but are not required to – provide other restroom and locker room options to students who seek “additional privacy” for whatever reason.[2]
Clearly, the matter of transgenderism cannot be avoided, and it is not going away. There is no longer any merit to the common challenge, “How will the way a person chooses to present themselves, sexually, affect anyone else?” Or, as Siobhan Lynch phrased it, “Its [sic] not about you … Its [sic] about me. My experience, my reality, my body. How does it hurt for you to humor me, even if you don’t agree and your worldview is based upon a Judeo-Christian one that has erased the allowances for non-binary genders and sexes. [sic]”[3]
Regardless of how personal a matter this may be for a transgender person, it is no longer a private matter. It ceased to be a private matter when the transgender community began lobbying for special rights and privileges. Such requests transform this issue into a public matter, and it is unreasonable to expect that the public will not discuss, critique, debate, and, at times, oppose an issue and a movement which is seeking to alter such fundamental issues of society and government as the nature of sexual identity. As Carlos Flores notes in his article for the Witherspoon Institute:
LGBT activists are actively working to make it the case that the state and private businesses cover “gender-reassignment” surgeries, that men who identify as women be able to use women’s restrooms, that girls who identify as boys be able to play on male sports teams, that we consider it immoral to refer to infants as male or female lest we insidiously impose upon them a “gender” they might not identify with, that we ban therapy to treat gender dysphoria, and that we generally co-opt language and social norms to reflect pernicious falsehoods about the human body.
How a man’s identifying as a woman will personally affect me, you, or John Doe is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether we will make public policy and encourage social norms that reflect the truth about the human person and sexuality, or whether we will obfuscate the truth about such matters and sow the seeds of sexual confusion in future generations for years to come.[4]
This article comes from Transitioning: A Biblical Understanding of Transgenderism.
As a former missionary to Asia for twelve years and the author of several books, Timothy is passionate about helping people understand the relevancy of God's Word in today's world. His goals are to help Christians discern truth from error, empower Christians to speak into cultural matters with relevancy, and to help Christians capitalize on the opportunities that these matters provide for sharing the truth about God and His gospel message.
4. Flores, Carlos. “The Absurdity of Transgenderism: A Stern but Necessary Critique.” Public Discourse, February 6, 2015. Accessed May 17, 2016. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/02/14305.
