Intersex, Transgenderism and Gender identity

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This is a series of three related areas that have been bugging me. I’d like to know if there is anything in the Magisterium or Church Tradition that deals with this.

First Intersex people. What is the Church’s view on Intersex? How are they to be cured? Should they be allowed to choose later or just assigned based on their genes?
Then Transgenders. I’ve heard that the Church doesn’t have any official teaching on this. Is gender reassignment surgery in accord with natural law? Have there been any philosophers or theologians who have thought on this matter?

Finally gender identity. Some people claim you can identify with a gender other than the one you are. Is this simply confusion on their part? Should they be accepted as their preferred gender or are they deluding themselves and need to be helped to accept their actual gender?

Quotes and links from church documents, saints, and other Catholic sources is appreciated.
 
This is a series of three related areas that have been bugging me. I’d like to know if there is anything in the Magisterium or Church Tradition that deals with this.

First Intersex people. What is the Church’s view on Intersex? How are they to be cured? Should they be allowed to choose later or just assigned based on their genes?
Then Transgenders. I’ve heard that the Church doesn’t have any official teaching on this. Is gender reassignment surgery in accord with natural law? Have there been any philosophers or theologians who have thought on this matter?

Finally gender identity. Some people claim you can identify with a gender other than the one you are. Is this simply confusion on their part? Should they be accepted as their preferred gender or are they deluding themselves and need to be helped to accept their actual gender?

Quotes and links from church documents, saints, and other Catholic sources is appreciated.
The only thing that is possibly a Church document is one subsecretum document that was leaked over a decade ago that said in cases of extreme distress surgery can be morally permissible.

catholictrans.wordpress.com/ That site is by a Catholic transwoman and has compiled a bit of information.
Here is an article that may help you. It is long but covers a lot of ground from a Catholic perspective.

catholic.org/news/national/story.php?id=54514
It irks me immensely when people conflate the people who claim gender is wholly a social construct with transgender people given that in many ways they are on opposite sides.
 
Such confusion is understandable in those who are “gender solid” one way or the other, given that they misunderstand gender dysphoria as a desire to “choose” one’s gender, but those in that situation might see no choice at all.

That said, this is an extremely new issue, and so there has been no Church teaching on it per se. Church teachings take generations, not sound bites, to form.

The Church however, does teach that each human soul was formed for and within each body. No one can therefore, have the “wrong body.”

ICXC NIKA.
 
Such confusion is understandable in those who are “gender solid” one way or the other, given that they misunderstand gender dysphoria as a desire to “choose” one’s gender, but those in that situation might see no choice at all.

That said, this is an extremely new issue, and so there has been no Church teaching on it per se. Church teachings take generations, not sound bites, to form.
It is indeed so, in those who experience gender dysphoria the dysphoria is because gender is not a choice and they are forced into a role that feels extremely unnatural to them no matter how much they attempt to conform to the one society has told them they must fill.
The Church however, does teach that each human soul was formed for and within each body. No one can therefore, have the “wrong body.”

ICXC NIKA.
Remember, since original sin occured all sorts of things have been going wrong, for example congenital blindness, deafness, etc.
 
It is indeed so, in those who experience gender dysphoria the dysphoria is because gender is not a choice and they are forced into a role that feels extremely unnatural to them no matter how much they attempt to conform to the one society has told them they must fill.

Remember, since original sin occured all sorts of things have been going wrong, for example congenital blindness, deafness, etc.
Things going wrong with the body (or happening to the body) as a result of OS do not equate to having the wrong body.

ICXC NIKA
 
Such confusion is understandable in those who are “gender solid” one way or the other, given that they misunderstand gender dysphoria as a desire to “choose” one’s gender, but those in that situation might see no choice at all.

That said, this is an extremely new issue, and so there has been no Church teaching on it per se. Church teachings take generations, not sound bites, to form.

The Church however, does teach that each human soul was formed for and within each body. No one can therefore, have the “wrong body.”

ICXC NIKA.
What about switching genders? How does the Church view that? How can it be explained to nonbelievers? Can the Church’s position be defended on purely philosophical grounds or is it more theological?
 
What about switching genders? How does the Church view that? How can it be explained to nonbelievers? Can the Church’s position be defended on purely philosophical grounds or is it more theological?
You will have to elaborate on what you mean by switching genders.
 
What about switching genders? How does the Church view that? How can it be explained to nonbelievers? Can the Church’s position be defended on purely philosophical grounds or is it more theological?
Theology is properly the study of God, rather than of human life, so these issues would fall under philosophy.

The Church holds that no one can really change gender, which is written in the genes of the entire body, and more to the point, is also in the soul, the soul of that body.

ICXC NIKA
 
Theology is properly the study of God, rather than of human life, so these issues would fall under philosophy.

The Church holds that no one can really change gender, which is written in the genes of the entire body, and more to the point, is also in the soul, the soul of that body.

ICXC NIKA
So it should really be Philosophy of the Body, right?

The Church has said nothing about gender being written in the genes of the entire body, indeed, that isn’t even scientific as women who have been pregnant are often chimeras, those who have given birth to boys often have XY chromosome cells in their body, even in some cases in the brain.
 
Things going wrong with the body (or happening to the body) as a result of OS do not equate to having the wrong body.

ICXC NIKA
The problem is an experienced incongruity. The treatment of “bodily change” is not to be taken as a sign that the body is “wrong” - it is just a means to address the experienced incongruity, which can be hugely distressing to the sufferer.
 
Such confusion is understandable in those who are “gender solid” one way or the other, given that they misunderstand gender dysphoria as a desire to “choose” one’s gender, but those in that situation might see no choice at all.

That said, this is an extremely new issue, and so there has been no Church teaching on it per se. Church teachings take generations, not sound bites, to form.

The Church however, does teach that each human soul was formed for and within each body. No one can therefore, have the "wrong body."

ICXC NIKA.
The problem is that we have mind and emotion as well as body, and those don’t always express synchronicity. {indeed in some very rare cases people are born with residual non-functioning tails!] God given/permitted nature is full of variation, and often conflict; the body and the mind can/does variously fall into that picture.

Perhaps, as in my own case, ‘there but for the grace of God go I’?
 
The Church holds that no one can really change gender, which is written in the genes of the entire body, and more to the point, is also in the soul, the soul of that body.
I think you are missing the point. Gender, as opposed to sex, is about the spirit or mind, not the body.

Transgendered people do not, as I undersrand it, deny their physical sex. They just claim that there is a mental or spiritual ‘gender’ that can be different from the physical ‘sex’ - which is where I lose the plot. But to talk to them you have to address this point.
 
So it should really be Philosophy of the Body, right?

The Church has said nothing about gender being written in the genes of the entire body, indeed, that isn’t even scientific as women who have been pregnant are often chimeras, those who have given birth to boys often have XY chromosome cells in their body, even in some cases in the brain.
Often? Source, please. On what study do you base this claim of yours?
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Microchimerism is interesting, but where’s the connection to gender identity? Has anyone ever shown any connection between microchimerism and transgenderism/intersex?
 
Microchimerism is interesting, but where’s the connection to gender identity? Has anyone ever shown any connection between microchimerism and transgenderism/intersex?
I am pointing out that sex is actually a messy concept.
 
I am pointing out that sex is actually a messy concept.
Except your cited link is not about sex being messy or not messy, but about microchimerism being linked to cancer and autoimmune diseases.

For those following this thread, below is from the Intersex Society of North America clarifying that transgenderism is not an intersex condition.

From the ISNA,
Many people confuse transgender and transsexual people with people with intersex conditions because they see two groups of people who would like to choose their own gender identity and sometimes those choices require hormonal treatments and/or surgery. These are similarities. It’s also true, albeit rare, that some people who have intersex conditions also decide to change gender at some point in their life, so some people with intersex conditions might also identify themselves as transgender or transsexual.
In spite of these similarities, these two groups should not be and cannot be thought of as one. The truth is that the vast majority of people with intersex conditions identify as male or female rather than transgender or transsexual. Thus, where all people who identify as transgender or transsexual experience problems with their gender identity, only a small portion of intersex people experience these problems.
As for the subject of chimerism: based on scientific papers and studies, chimerism in an individual refers to the coexistence of DNA cells from two distinct organisms, brought about by transplantation or blood transfusion, or physiologically, between mother and fetus during pregnancy, which would be maternal fetal microchimerism, or between twin to twin that shared a circulatory system in gestation.

This is known to happen in non-human species, e.g., cats, mice, marmoset monkeys, cattle, reportedly resulting in intersex condition. Cattle raisers come across freemartins, as an example.

Scientists and researchers believe chimerism happens in humans when fraternal twins fuse together, with the end result of the fused twin being either male, female, or a hermaphroditic individual.

I can see how investigators are drawn to chimerism as also explaning the phenomenon that is transgenderism which leads to gender dysphoria. It has been hypothesized but there is no scientific study or paper that said unsettling condition is caused by chimerism or micro chimerism.
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Theology is properly the study of God, rather than of human life, so these issues would fall under philosophy.

The Church holds that no one can really change gender, which is written in the genes of the entire body, and more to the point, is also in the soul, the soul of that body.

ICXC NIKA
Why exactly is gender in the soul? This has always confused me. If gender is reproductive organs how does it affect a soul?
 
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