Specific Church Teaching on Gender Transitioning?

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So if you’ve read my thread over in Family Life, you might know my brother is struggling with being transgender. We were talking about it earlier today, and he mentioned how there is no specific Church document or infallible teaching against transitioning to the opposite sex, and so he could do it and remain in good standing in the Church.

I was wondering if this was really true. Does the Church say anything - anything at all - about transitioning or being transgender? Thanks, and I apologize if this is in the wrong forum.
 
Has he spoken to a priest about it? I would imagine you would have to be celibate as a marriage between a man living as a woman and a typical man would still be a same sex marriage.
 
A major problem with transition therapies is that some of them render the person sterile.

There is also the problem of taking a normal healthy body part and destroying it.

Like I said in my other post :pray:t2::pray:t2::pray:t2: For you, your precious brother and your parents.
 
TheCatholicGryphon said:
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Papal Encyclical Laudito Si (24 May 2015):
155. Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “ecology of man”, based on the fact that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will”.[120] It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it”.[121]
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http://w2.vatican.va/content/france...-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
 
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Thanks for the replies and prayers so far. That snippet from Laudito Si is pretty interesting, but I don’t think it’d be able to convince my brother of the Church being specifically against transitioning, unfortunately. Are there any Church documents which deal specifically with this?

As for social transition versus the actual surgery - my brother would like to go through the surgery and hormonal therapy. However, it’s worth mentioning that he’s agreed to go see a few different psychologists to determine whether that would be really necessary.
 
By definition they all render the person sterile.

If you give male hormones to a genotypic female (someone who is XX), her ovaries shrink from the testosterone and go dormant.

If you give female hormones to a genotypic male (someone who is XY), his testicles will shrink from the estrogen and higher progesterone and go dormant.

What none of it does is change the DNA of the person or their genotype. An XX female who has transitioned to a male remains with XX as the 23rd pair of chromosomes - they are forever a genotypic female. An XY male who has transitioned to a female remains with XY as the 23rd pair - they are forever a genotypic male.
 
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Thanks for clarification.
Actually, mastectomy/breast implants wouldn’t affect fertility at all, but now I’m getting more detailed…
 
I meant the medications, not surgery. I misread how you meant the statement. 🙂 I see what you meant now.
 
It’s a tough cross to bear. The suicide rate among the transgendered is way above average. There is also compelling research that it is a form of intersex. I recently read that scientists identified a gene that may prevent complete androgenization of the brain in utero, thus a form or androgen insensitivity syndrome (in its complete form, XY males develop with complete female morphology including external genitalia, as their bodies produce but cannot process testosterone).

It suggests then that this a medical problem and not a moral choice, requiring that the person be loved and accepted. Of course the treatment protocol must be ethical, but first and foremost is to save a life. It is doubtful a brain that developed this problem can be rewired with the state of medical science today. People who feel they are the wrong gender are not, for the most part, being capricious. Some may be, but the true cases are serious.

I think the Church needs to be circumspect until the science is clearer.
 
I think it also has to be balanced against the rest of the populations need for safety, privacy and dignity.
 
Good summary.

A problem arises when various movements hijack the medical condition and throw everything into an umbrella term. That is unfair to those suffering from the problem, since is makes proper diagnosis and treatment problematic.

As you mentioned, sometimes surgical intervention is necessary. It the person produces but can not process one hormone, that person is likely to die, unless the source is removed.

Sometimes, a very confused person, who should have been treated via psychological means decides to do hormonal therapy, or worse, prescribed hormonal therapy, that’s the wrong treatment.

As written, the Churches wording is just fine… it’s the interpretation of that wording that gets mucked up.

Then there are the people who game the system… and that’s what a lot of posters are referring to.

Refer to “The Tell-tale Brain” by V. S. Ramachandran for a description of a lot of the hardware things that can go wrong in the brain, to say nothing of the other parts of the body as Ora points out.
 
TheCatholicGryphon said:
I was wondering if this was really true. Does the Church say anything - anything at all - about transitioning or being transgender?
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Gender transitioning is pretty new, there were only a handful of cases completed when the Vatican II council was held.

There really haven’t been any council documents or papal encyclicals discussing this directly, but it doesn’t seem like this would be approved. You see, if a man “transitions” to be a woman, he’s really just still a man, even if his genitals are destroyed or mutilated, and he’s on hormones.
 
The Church does prohibit mutilation of the body. The sticking point here is whether gender reassignment surgery is considered mutilation or medically necessary. I’m in no way advocating for such surgery – just noting that the Church has not as yet definitively stated that it’s sinful.

You mention that your brother is “willing” to meet with psychologists before going ahead with surgery. My understanding is that this is actually a requirement in the US, not an option.
 
Again, thanks for everything so far - I do just want to answer one question. Yes, my brother would have had to go to at least two psychologists anyways in order to receive the treatment. He planned to do it once he was out of our parents’ house (which would’ve been a few years) and he was making his own money. However, now that he’s discussed it with our parents, he’s agreed to go to a few different psychologists and see what they recommend - not just shop around for those who would’ve agreed with him, like he was initially planning.

Again, thanks for everything, and if anyone has anything else which can show the Church doesn’t directly support transitioning, that would be great.
 
Going to a few GOOD psychologists is a very important point. Sure he/she could shop around and find a couple psychologists that agree with any view. THAT is where a problem arises, and accounts for those poor souls who get “yeah, whatever, here’s your ok and med list”, proceed down the path, and later have regrets. It’s a one way trip, and if misdiagnosed can be a real problem.

For those with hardware problems as mentioned previously, gender correction saves lives. But the number of those people where that is true is a small % of those actually considering transitioning. Truism: there is no “changing your sex”. There is, however, correcting it to handle the body as built, with the birth defects handed to the person.

A GOOD psychologist can unravel all that. Not all psychologists are good ones.

I repeat, the church teaching CCC 2297, as given above is accurate and applies.
 
I worry that many people undergoing transition do so with unrealistic expectations. Do you think this individual will ever be taken seriously as a woman?
 
About going to the good psychologists - right, and from what little I managed to ascertain of my parents’ conversation with my brother, they plan (if they’re able) to sit in with him as he speaks to these psychologists, so they’ll know if a particular psychologist is pulling their leg. My mom’s already sent an e-mail to a particular Catholic psychologist who was recommended to us by our pastor, so that’s one good one there already.

As for whether or not he’d be taken seriously - as far as I know, at least two people have already referred to him as “ma’am” accidentally (due to the way he wears his hair and such). But yeah, I’m afraid that he’s got unrealistic expectations as well.

Again, thanks for all the help, support, and prayers. Any other evidence of Church teaching going against this stuff is appreciated. Thank you all.
 
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