Gender Theory and God's Design

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airitech

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If we subscribe to the belief that God’s design for each of us in entirely intentional and perfect, and thus it is sinful to alter our bodies (such as a transgender person would through hormone therapy or surgery) then why does that logic not extend to something like coloring one’s hair, getting tattoos, or insulin injections used by diabetics?

I bring up these specific examples intentionally.
Something like hair color is obviously not permanent, but what’s the moral line here if someone with gray hair colors their hair routinely so that the true color never shows, thus making the artificial color basically a permanent aspect of themself?

Tattoos are permanent (mostly) but still aesthetic. Is it morally wrong from a Catholic viewpoint for an informed adult to choose to make this permanent change to their body?

Finally, a diabetic person using insulin. Obviously, this is a medical necessity, but the same argument could be made regarding hormone therapy for transgender individuals who rely on hormone therapy to feel at ease in their bodies. If a transgender person, for example, is in so much distress that they felt suicidal, and then undergoing hormone therapy relieved that dysphoria and benefitted them psychologically, how is that not a life-saving medical intervention just as an insulin shot is for a diabetic individual?
 
I don’t think hair color is a significant aspect of our bodies because hair is essentially dead except for the hair root.

I do think a tattoo is morally wrong, but I don’t know the Church’s position on this.

I think most transgendered people are equally distressed after transitioning as before. Hormone therapy can’t take away dysphoria because it doesn’t work on the brain, the centre of dysphoria. And, by your logic, we might be better off giving people with gender dysphoria mind- altering drugs for they do less damage than hormone therapy does.
 
I think you are started with a flawed assumption – that the Church says gender reassignment surgery sinful. As far as I know, the Church has made no such declaration.

If you have official documentation otherwise (e.g., from the Catechism, Canon Law, a conference of Bishops), please share.

Changing one’s hair color, getting a tattoo, and using insulin are not sinful.
 
Well one of these things is not like the other (gender reassignment)

To be fair, when we say you can’t change your gender, we meant that whatever you do…you still remain a boy or a girl. You can’t change that. Can’t as in impossible to change the nature of your being, not ‘not allowed’ to take hormones or surgery.

The Church hasn’t really said anything about taking hormones. Perhaps taking hormones can ease some of the distress, it’s just that the Church says that it doesn’t mean you have now changed your gender.
 
I think you have to apply some common sense here. There are some human actions that are against human nature and the natural law and the Divine Law regardless of a person’s feelings, emotional distress, or contrary desires which work against the human person’s good, happiness, and end which is God himself. You don’t heal an illness by continuing in the illness or by applying some medication to enforce it and make it worse. For example, you don’t heal alcoholism with alcohol or a person addicted to narcotics by giving them narcotics even though such people may suffer severe emotional distress from withdrawals through the process of being weaned and healed of the addiction.

Two, the sensual appetites and desires or passions are directed by human beings, unlike the animals, by their higher spiritual faculties of the reason and will to either good or evil ends. A good end is one in accord with reason and the natural law and ultimately the divine law whereas an evil end or sin is out of accord with reason and the natural and divine law. Now, gender or transgender ideology is contrary to reason and the natural and divine law and so it is a grave evil and sinful.

“A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God” (Deut. 22:5).

Speaking of so-called gender ideology, Pope Benedict XVI said in a Christmas homily in 2012 “The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.” Pope Francis has called it ‘demonic’ and comparable to the ‘educational policies of Hitler.’

Of course, we need to treat with compassion and patience those who may suffer from gender confusion especially children but we also have to proclaim the truth and help these people to realize and accept the God given gender identity they were conceived and born with and which on the Last Day we are all going to rise again with in the resurrection of our bodies. God has a special plan and purpose for every human being and it is by following and doing God’s will for us that brings us fulfillment and happiness not only here on earth but for eternally in heaven.

As Genesis says and Jesus repeated, when God created man he created them male and female. Our gender identity which we are born with is a fundamental God given identity of who we are as a human person with a female or male human nature and this gender identity is stamped in every one of the 35 trillion cells of our body. People who change their hair color or have tattoos imprinted on their body do not necessarily do this with the intention of changing their gender identity so these kinds of actions do not necessarily involve the sin of intentional gender change. Depending on a person’s intention, changing hair color or having tattoos imprinted on themselves could involve sin. For St Paul says, ‘whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’. Now many people even christians, both males and females, color their hair for various reasons which I don’t think generally involves a sin.
 
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(continued)

The issue with tattoos is a little more complicated I think. God told the Israelites “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19: 28). Whether or not this precept of the Lord for the Israelites concerned a moral precept or some kind of ceremonial precept may be debated. With the coming of Christ, we are under the New Law of the Gospel or Spirit and so christians are not bound to various ceremonial precepts of the Old Law such as those that had to do with various external purification or uncleanness rites. But, Christ did not do away with the moral precepts of the Old Law but rather perfected them and directed them not only to external actions but to the internal acts of the mind and heart too. You can google catholic teaching on tattoos and you will find various articles from priests and others. They even have some here on catholic.com I noticed. From a quick search, I’m getting that in principle, it is not a sin to get tattoos but it could be such as displaying immodest or immoral tattoos on one’s body. As I’ve mentioned earlier too, a christian who might be thinking about getting a tattoo, needs to examine their intention. I personally know some christians, catholic and other, who have some tattoos but who are quite dedicated followers of Christ. Personally, I haven’t thought a lot about the subject. I don’t have any tattoos nor do I plan on getting any. Below are a few quick links to articles I found through a google search:

https://catholicherald.org/special-sections/myfaith/is-getting-a-tattoo-a-sin/


Insulin shots for diabetics are not sinful just as taking penicillan for various illnesses is not. The health of the body is a good while illnesses and defects are a kind of evil for the body. It is not a sin to take lawful and various medications to restore health to the body or as in the case of diabetics to take insulin shots. Jesus mentions the medical art without condemning it in Mark 2:17 "And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
 
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Gertabelle said:
I think you are started with a flawed assumption – that the Church says gender reassignment surgery sinful. As far as I know, the Church has made no such declaration.
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Transgendering causes permanent sterility. The transgender person can no longer be a biological father, or a biological mother.

A transgender person lives a lie, a really big lie. And in many cases - with the new laws on their side, cause us to involuntarily participate in that lie by also forcing us to pretend that a man is a woman, or a woman is a man.
 
I don’t disagree with your points.

But what does the Church actually say about this – officially?
 
Also, I don’t think changing your hair color or making body embellishments such as tattoos and piercings are comparable to permanent changes to the body to appear as the opposite sex

The first is usually just for decorative reasons and boosting morale in the case of covering grey hair.

The desire for changes to the body for gender reassignment is totally different. It is the result of severe psychological distress.

As another poster has already mentioned, many of these changes will be permanent and result in sterility. Taking cross-hormones (i.e. the opposite sex hormones) once you get to a certain level of commitment you have to stay on them for life as you have permanently damaged your endocrine system.

Another very important aspect to consider is that many of those drugs have only been used in these qualities with teens and young adults in the last decade or so. No studies have been done as to their long term effects. The current generation are therefore Guinea pigs.

And of course it is impossible to actually change our physical sex, our chromosomes which decide our sex are expressed at conception. Our sex is expressed in all our DNA and can never be changed, our biological sex remains, even when we change the appearance of our secondary sexual characteristics.
 
From this document:


“Direct sterilization-that is, the sterilization which aims, either as a means or as an end in
itself, to render child-bearing impossible-is a grave violation of the moral law, and
therefore unlawful…”

With regard to lying – 8th commandment. Pretending to be a policeman when you are not, is a lie. Pretending to be a doctor when you are not is a lie. Pretending to be a man when your are not, or a woman when you are not is a lie.
 
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I would have said the sterilizing effect of gender reassignment was condemned, but when I look at the wording you provide, it appears not. Sterilization is condemned only if it is intended to prevent reproduction.
ricmat said:
With regard to lying – 8th commandment. Pretending to be a policeman when you are not, is a lie. Pretending to be a doctor when you are not is a lie. Pretending to be a man when your are not, or a woman when you are not is a lie.
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Yes, this is the primary justification for gender reassignment. A man or woman does not want to pretend to be a member of the other gender. Very apt that you quote this.
 
I would say there is a difference in kind and in degree.

So with the insulin situation, this is a high degree of medication in that insulin saves a diabetic’s life. However, taking some cold medicine to stop sniffles is a low degree.

Then there is a difference in kind: the difference between doing something medical vs doing something for fun or for a less-than-lifesaving reason.

Mentally, you could make a chart with degree on the side and kind along the top.

Then we need to consider the definition of health and the goal of medicine (as an industry rather than just pills).

Health is the condition of having one’s body working as it is supposed to. All the parts do what they are supposed to do, in the way they are supposed to do them. Lack of health is when something is causing a deviation from the norm as judged by the way things work for us as a species.

Diabetes is a situation in which a part of the body is not working correctly.

Transgenderism is not such a state. The body is working as it should be, but the mind of the person thinks otherwise. This may be caused by either a mental or a neurological (physical) problem, but whatever the cause, one can not say that believing one’s body is wrong in this way is healthy.

So far, someone in the hierarchy has said surgery may be ok to relieve the suffering of the TG person.

What bothers me is that we have accepted this as a normal variation of humanity. We do not see this as a problem, so we are not looking for the true cause of the condition.
 
Dovekin said:
Sterilization is condemned only if it is intended to prevent reproduction.
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In this case, sterilization is an accessory to the lie.

Sterilization in this instance also purposefully damages beyond repair a part of our bodies that was working properly. It is not removing a diseased or malfunctioning part of one’s body. This is in violation of the 5th commandment.


“Mutilation belongs to the category of murder. The difference is that mutilation is partial destruction, whereas murder is the total destruction of a person’s physical life. Moral law is concerned with mutilation because no one has absolute dominion over the body, and the violation of this principle is an offense against God’s sovereignty.”

Also: Genesis 1 tells us that “God created them male and female” - then blessed them and told them to “Go forth and multiply.” Attempting to make male into female, or vice versa, is contrary to the first and most basic statement of God about us and our roles in this life.

It is unfortunate of course that some people are born with deficiencies which prevent this from happening, but for us to make it happen on purpose…it’s a sin.
 
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