My friends, Adrian and Nakia, sponsored a party in their home in May to announce the sex of their baby. Everyone was in suspense until the proud couple revealed the results of the ultrasound test. They opened a big box and three blue balloons popped out. Surprise! It’s a boy! Everyone cheered.
Every day expectant couples celebrate when they discover the gender of their unborn babies. Yet today we have educators, psychiatrists and politicians who believe it is wrong to label children boys or girls. Our culture has gone crazy.
One school district in Charlotte, North Carolina, has recommended that principals and counselors simply refer to children as “students” or “scholars” instead of using gender-specific terms. The rationale suggests that calling a sixth-grade boy a boy could result in “bullying” if he decides to “identify” as a girl. Instead of helping this troubled child embrace his masculinity, we are supposed to encourage him to explore his “options” and point him down a path of transgender confusion.
Educated people with lots of letters after their names are coming up with these absurd policies, and the pressure is on to totally change the way we label gender. Instead of the traditional options of male and female that have worked well for human beings for thousands of years, we now have a rainbow of choices: Transgender, bigender, gender fluid and genderqueer. Facebook offers its users 58 different ways to describe a person’s gender, including “neither” and “intersex.”
Sound crazy? Don’t you dare question it. We are expected to accept this unorthodox attitude because it’s progressively “inclusive.” And if you challenge the transgender movement—or dare to label gender confusion as a psychological disorder—you will be demonized as a cruel hatemonger.
It’s time for rational people to cry foul before this lunacy gains more traction. This is not just an attack on family values; it’s an attack on basic intelligence. Here are three simple reasons the “logic” of transgender activists is faulty:
1. Gender is a biological reality, not just an emotional feeling. Last year an Oregon woman named Rachel Dolezal was exposed as a fraud because she claimed she was African-American even though she was born to white parents. Dolezal even became a local leader of the NAACP until her elaborate scam unraveled. She told NBC’s Matt Lauer: “I identify as black.” But she was laughed off the national stage because everybody knows you can’t change your race just because you want to. DNA determines race. You can’t “become” black.
So why don’t we apply the same scientific standard to gender? Today’s code of political correctness says if you were born a woman but you now “feel” you are a man, you can use the men’s restroom and change your official gender identity. But if a woman can “become” a man, what’s next? Someone will decide they want to defy the laws of science and change from human to some species of animal.
2. Gender must be affirmed. I don’t know what people are smoking these days, but something has clouded the judgment of educators who think children should be encouraged to “explore” their gender possibilities. While gender is genetically inborn, a boy must be trained to be a man, and a girl must be trained to be a woman. Parents play a huge role in developing gender identity in their children.
We live in a fallen world, thus people are susceptible to gender confusion. Sexual abuse, bullying, shaming, lack of parental nurture and many other factors can cause a child or a teenager to question their maleness or femaleness. Yet if a person with gender confusion gets counseling and encouragement, they can overcome their emotional scars.
Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” The opposite is also true: If you withhold training from a child, he or she will wander in a confused state and never reach their potential. An educator who encourages a child to “explore” his or her gender options deserves an F for poor performance on the job.
3. “Gender fluidity” is a hoax. Secularists view the Bible as archaic and irrelevant, so they ignore the fact that the first chapter of Genesis says God created mankind as “male and female” (Gen. 1:27). But in the past, even non-Christians believed in what America’s Founding Fathers called “the laws of nature and of nature’s God.” Some things are just plain obvious when you look at scientific reality.
But when people rage against God and rebel against His laws, they become really dumb. Educators today have adopted the whacky idea that gender is fluid and changeable—even though science doesn’t support this. If a man decides he is really a woman “inside,” he is urged to follow former athlete Bruce Jenner—who got breast implants, took hormones, started wearing makeup and became reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner. His choice is applauded by our culture, and those who say he’s emotionally troubled are viewed as hateful and bigoted.
The apostle Paul wrote that intelligent people who reject God’s truth will eventually believe ridiculous things. Romans 1:22 says of them: “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” I pray we will not allow our schools and communities to be hijacked by foolish people who deny God, science and common sense. {eoa}
