LGBTQ Pride Month

persecution in the name of God

2015 Chicago Pride Parade - our last Chicago “event” before leaving Illinois

June is LGBTQ Pride month, so it seems like a great time to write about persecution. I mean it fits right in these days with the Christian-right devoting so much of their unique brand of animus toward perceived transgender issues around the country, while at the same time laughably seeing themselves as victims of persecution. That’s the kind of tension any writer would like to explore. Here’s a definition:

Hey, both “religion” and “sexual orientation” are there together — you might think the groups would be allied against undeserved hostility in all cases, but not so much. I explained in my last post how it seems to me that Christianity in America is surrendering their best stuff over to hate when I explored Ron DeSantis’ interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan. But I’ve got to say this focus on transphobia tops that in the surrendering category by a mile, and I have a hard time processing how so many committed to a religion based on pure love and compassion are so easily suckered into this campaign of hate, often directed at vulnerable children. A small sampling is worth review:

• "We have people that live among us today on planet Earth that are happy to display themselves as if they were mutants from another planet," Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, said before the House Commerce Committee approved the bill. "This is the planet Earth where God created men male and women female. I'm a proud Christian conservative Republican. I'm not on the fence, not on the fence."

• Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley mocked and misgendered Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman…….. Haley referred to Mulvaney as “a guy dressing up like a girl making fun of women.”

• Republican Rep. Scott Bottoms, a minister from Colorado Springs, offered an amendment to say the ERA should not be interpreted to include a right to abortion or to expand the definition of sex to include anything “other than the originally understood distinction between biological males and females…..There is such a thing as XX and XY,” said Bottoms, referring to chromosomes. “And no matter how much you lie to yourself and change it, and frame it in any way whatsoever, there is XX and XY.” 

• From Focus on the Family: “Those of us committed to the Christian worldview base our view of gender and sex on the biblical book of Genesis: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them….Those who create their own principles of sexuality are not models to follow. Only God’s perfectly designed plan, as communicated in His Word, should be the standard to which we aim.”

• Jason Graber, pastor of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Spokane said he believed parents of transgender children deserved to be killed. "Any parents that would have their child have a transgender surgery done on them. Any parent that would do that should be shot in the back of the head.”

I could go on and on, but surely you get the point. Now, there is no way that I will convince this brand of Christians that they are unfairly persecuting innocent children, their parents, their medical providers and anybody else who disagrees with the “Christian view of gender and sex.” For one thing, how can I justify questioning the word of God as provided by Focus on the Family, above - discussion over? For another, the fact that MANY white Christians genuinely believe they are being persecuted in our society (that cursed first amendment) suggests their very concept of persecution is considerably biased. And finally, they’re not so much fans of science when it makes them uncomfortable. That’s where I’m heading, and I’m not sure why this doesn’t seem to be part of the wider discussion.

The first thing science can do is challenge the pervasive idea that gender is simple. One common misconception, so eloquently quoted above by State Representative, Christian minister and amateur biologist Scott Bottoms, is that there are ONLY two sex-determining human chromosome combinations — XX (female with vagina) and XY (male with penis). WRONG!! There are, in fact, about 40 different biological variations to human gender, called “intersex” traits which include multiple variations in the combinations of the X and the Y chromosomes - XXY, both XX and XY, X- 0 (no Y chromosome). You can read scientific information about intersex traits at that link to the Cleveland Clinic to find that the favored “eye test” is not necessarily reliable either. Gender, it turns out, is not so simple.

Now - be clear on this - having intersex traits and being transgender are not the same. I discuss intersex traits only to blow up this ignorant idea than gender is a multiple-choice exam with only two potential answers. Often individuals with gender dysphoria do not have identifiable intersex traits — sometimes they do. Transgender describes an individual whose sense of identity — how they feel — does not match their assigned gender, an assignment almost always based upon the very first observation of their anatomy at birth.

My suspicion is that it is precisely this fuzzy word “feel,” or similar explanations, that allows doubters to conclude that being transgender is a choice by the individual or a result of conspiratorial convincing (grooming), which in turn justifies persecution. You could, I suppose, sarcastically suggest that Christians doubt the “faith” that gender dysphoric individuals have in their own gender identity. For you amateur biologists like Representative -Minister Bottoms I should point out before I go on that “feelings” and our “sense of being” do not come from the actual heart, like in your chest - that’s just a figure of speech. Rather, feelings come from electrical currents and powerful chemicals circulating around in an environment of almost infinite complexity - the human brain. Even before birth. And the story there is amazing.

I first became fascinated with this subject in 2015 after watching one of the 31 episodes of PBS’s/ Charlie Rose “Brain Series,” the episode on Gender Identity. I’ve subsequently reviewed other studies and scientific writings on the subject, including this summary from 2020. Just like most things in science, especially where experimentation isn’t possible (like direct experiments on effects to human fetus brains in vivo), the conclusions are not 100%. But that IS science - things are never 100%. And this makes scientists too shy at times to go out on the proverbial limb. However, the weight of the evidence, in my humble view, is clear — gender dysphoria is one more real, complex and NORMAL variation of human biology. Yes, I said normal - uncommon can still be normal, as any red-head should know. Gender is far from simple - Genesis 1:27, on the other hand, is absolutely wrong!!

Now, I don’t think I personally know anyone with gender dysphoria. I’m not sure whether LGBTQ individuals will find my scientific conclusions empowering and supportive or offensive, like “why can’t you just believe what I tell you.” I don’t even know if the term “gender dysphoria” is insulting. Maybe none of this is any of my business. But I hate misinformation and disinformation, especially when science is involved (or should be involved). And I hate hate. So, when I see an organized group supposedly all about love - the Christian right- spewing and legislating so much hate based on the easily disputable science of Genesis1:27 in my free country it pisses me off.

Notwithstanding how the LGBTQ community views my opinion, however, it is most fortunate and revealing that the universe of medical organizations seem to be of the same mind (even though good Christian Rev. Graber would like to shoot them all in the head). More importantly, the established comprehensive approach to care, often the target of the recent Christian-right legislative onslaught, has profound positive outcomes — “new research on gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth ages 13-20, finding that “including puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones, was associated with 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality over a 12-month follow-up." Here’s a link to an article just last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association detailing some of the standards of care broadly supported by medical and mental health professionals. Seems like something Christians should celebrate - less suicidality in kids and adolescents. Are they? Seems more the opposite.

The attacks by the Christian-right on LGBTQ issues aren’t, unfortunately, surprising after what we’ve seen over the past six or seven years. The Christian religion has historically never been especially tolerant of alternative views on anything (ask Galileo), but the coupling of Christianity with extreme right wing political operatives and media is force-feeding this and other extreme (and often unpopular) policies in “red” states into what we pretend is representative government. It’s just particularly tragic on both fronts. For the victims, of course — suffering the mocking and threats, discounting their very existence, and even official restrictions and blockages to accepted standards of medical care. But for the perpetrators as well — the Christian-right — whose wholesale surrender of supposed Christian morals and ethics to extreme and profane players undermines the very foundations of “the faith” and drives more and more Americans away. Persecution is always ugly, but especially so when dressed in the “wolf’s clothing” of love and compassion.

Meanwhile, many of us around the country will be supporting and celebrating LGBTQ Pride month, believing that ultimately genuine love and acceptance will win.