The Gender and Sexuality Wars

With the Equality Act in the news, discussions of gender and sexuality have remained heated.  Proponents say that its focus is to prevent discrimination.  Opponents say that it does more than that; that it erodes religious freedom and enforces an unscientific definition of sexual identity.  Everyone, it seems has a dog in the fight. It is hard to find anything resembling an objective discussion of the sexuality and gender issues. 

This article in the Atlantic Magazine is a couple of years old, but I thought it was a good discussion, especially as regards parenting, and didn't jump uncritically on the gender theory bandwagon. From the article:

"The current era of gender-identity awareness has undoubtedly made life easier for many young people who feel constricted by the sometimes-oppressive nature of gender expectations....But when it comes to the question of physical interventions, this era has also brought fraught new challenges to many parents. Where is the line between not “feeling like” a girl because society makes it difficult to be a girl and needing hormones to alleviate dysphoria that otherwise won’t go away? How can parents tell? How can they help their children gain access to the support and medical help they might need, while also keeping in mind that adolescence is, by definition, a time of fevered identity exploration?"

"...Experiencing gender dysphoria isn’t the same as experiencing anxiety or depression or psychological ailments, of course. But in certain ways it is similar: As with other psychiatric conditions, some people experience dysphoria more acutely than others; its severity can wax and wane within an individual based on a variety of factors; it is in many cases intimately tied to an individual’s social and familial life. For some people, it will pass; for others, it can be resolved without medical interventions; for still others, only the most thorough treatment available will relieve immense suffering. We recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating anxiety or depression, and a strong case can be made that the same logic should prevail with gender dysphoria."

A few personal reflections:   The LGBTQ+ shorthand may be a convenient way of grouping everything in one basket, but it is also a mash-up of issues which are not the same.  

The latest issue of our archdiocesan paper is focused on the Equality Act, and also the proposed update of the Omaha Public Schools sex education curriculum.  

Regarding the proposed sex education curriculum update, I think the archdiocese makes some valid points, about the separation of biological sex and gender.  People are not "assigned" a gender at birth, it is an objective reality. There are a few people whose mental and emotional identification as male, female, or none of the above, doesn't match their biological sex, however this is the exception rather than the rule.  And there are some concerning things about age inappropriate material, and usurping the place of parents to guide their own children's moral formation.

However I would feel better about  Catholic reaction to the Equality Act and related cultural issues if the emphasis was more on how we as Christians are to treat people, and less on reacting from a place of fear.