Patron Saints for Those with Gender Dysphoria?

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That’s not quite accurate. She was not called to live a man’s life. She wore armor for protection of her body and chastity, she had a sword, but preferred her banner. She would have rather spun wool on her wheel than lead troops to war, but she was called to do God’s will in an environment typically meant for men. She was burned at the stake because the extremely biased English court believed she was cross-dressing after agreeing to stop wearing armor. Why was she wearing it? Her jailers were trying to rape her. Not because she wanted to play soldier or be a man.
 
I know the story of Joan of Arc in great detail. Your version isn’t quite accurate either. The relevant context is that women did not do any of the things she did in her life- her lifestyle violated gender norms. There were many reasons her life ended the way it did, but she was not playing soldier, and jail was not the first time she wore armor. Her life story is too much for all the books that exist.
 
PJH_74 said:
he DSM-5, the current Psychiatric book that sets the standards by which all diagnoses have to be made, does not.
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That book is used by american psychiatrics, most brazilian books (the ones I have access) still classify gender dysphoria as a mental illness.
That may change in a near future however,
The LGBT lobby is getting stronger in my country and they’re pushing for that change.
 
Wolfie said:
The relevant context is that women did not do any of the things she did in her life- her lifestyle violated gender norms. There were many reasons her life ended the way it did, but she was not playing soldier, and jail was not the first time she wore armor. Her life story is too much for all the books that exist.
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If I made it sound like she wore armor only once, I apologize for not being clear. Her lifestyle violated the norms of the time, yes, but that’s not what you said. You said St. Joan of Arc:
Wolfie said:
was called by God to live a man’s life
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Which she was most definitely not called to do. Perhaps though I am taking your words too literally.
 
Because we as people are so much more than our gender, suggest finding saints who relate in other areas of life.

Saints who were magicians or who played sports or who were singers or who were bakers or were wrongly accused.

Gender Dysphoria is a relatively new term (added to the DSM in 2012). Patrons arise over time.
 
Katherine438 said:
Even though that is the case, most people that suffer with it don’t want to be called mentally ill.
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It’s not mental illness to not want to conform to society’s sex binary. What’s missed here is that transgenderism is not “all I want is to transition fully one way or the other and I must have my genitalia modified”. From a procreative way we certainly need male and female reproductive abilities, but does that mean we have to have defined social roles or have disdain for those who wish not? This is especially true for those born men and want to be more feminine. Women can be Tom Boys, but men are either perverts, wimps, or gay and it’s especially bad if they aren’t pretty in the way that women are forced to be. Those who are transgender in someway fight against this and I’d submit that these forced cultural norms make people go further than they otherwise would simply to comply with these norms.

Take a step back and understand how all of this hurts even “straight” people. Women frequently develop anorexia, have more plastic surgery, and similar to comply with these “ideals”. Men have strict expectations of behavior that promote machismo, emotional suppression, not showing weakness, etc.
Aulef said:
I thought of him too. He helps a lot those who seek chastity.
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Chastity or sexual activity is not the same as gender identity.
 
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Aulef said:
What do you mean by gender identity?
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Thanks for asking.

Gender identity = What gender you perceive yourself to be, whether in a transgender or normal situation.
Sexual orientation = The gender you’d like to have a sexual or marital relationship. E.g. gay or straight. I’d also throw chastity in here as it is also a state sexual and possibly relationships.

The main point I was trying to make is that praying to saint of chastity is not going to address gender questioning, not having sex is not the same as gender questions.
 
Imagine a person who is perfectly chaste, i.e., a person with no desires at all. Do you think it will matter if he or she is heterosexual or something else?
 
Aulef said:
Imagine a person who is perfectly chaste, i.e., a person with no desires at all. Do you think it will matter if he or she is heterosexual or something else?
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To me at least, Chastity implies not having sex for a purpose. If a person were “perfectly chaste” I’d take that to mean one that has completely mastered not wanting sex for the purpose desired. A person that is just not interested in sex at all for no particular cause I’d call asexual. So no, I don’t think being heterosexual or something else directly matters much when it comes to being “chaste” as there is a cause associated with not having sex.
 
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No, all Catholics are supposed to be chaste unless they are married. It doesn’t matter what you might like as long as you aren’t doing it.
 
Fauken said:
Which she was most definitely not called to do. Perhaps though I am taking your words too literally.
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Yeah, I don’t mean she was directed to physically transform her body (not that that was a concept back then.) I meant she was called to appear, do duties, and move about the world in way that was considered to be for men only. She was not so firmly the idea of a ideal/typical woman was supposed to be.
 
Actually, all of us are called to chastity! That just means different things for different states of life. For someone in a celibate state of life (such as the priesthood or religious life), that means total abstinence, but for a married person, chastity means keeping all sexual acts within marriage and in alignment with God’s plan for our sexuality (i.e. freely offered, total, open to life, and faithful). Chastity and abstinence are two different things–we are all called to chastity, but those who are married need not be abstinent. 🙂
 
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