Transsexuality?

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Vox_Borealis

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This is probably the wrong forum for this question, but…

Some friends and I were discussing recently, and the topic of transsexuals came up. My friends noted a case wherein an employee of a Catholic college told his employers that he was, after long reflection, going to undergo gender re-assignment surgery. Upon this announcement the school informed him that he would be fired for this act. He has since filed a suit against the school.

I am not interested in whether the school is in the right or not. Rather, my friends expressed that they did not understand why the Catholic church would view becoming a transsexual as an inherently sinful act IF the individual remained celibate. In other words, they asked why would this act alone warrant dismissal?

I offered a few suggestions off the top of my head for why the Church would oppose this surgery, but otherwise I could not respond adequately. So my questions:
  1. What is the church position on transsexuality and gender re-assignment surgery? At what point (if at all) does discomfort with one’s own physical gender become a sin?
  2. What documents has the church produced that I can consult?
Thanks.
 
I dont know the official stuff, but it would be changing what God created. And that sounds like something the evil one would try to do or get people to do.
 
I don’t know of any documents.

In getting into similar type discussions, I have come to believe that just because we want something does not mean we have a right to it.

God has given us all struggles/ “crosses to bear” whether it be dealing with a violent temper, infertility, difficult relatives/marriages… In learning to deal with these crosses in our lives, we become the person we need to be in order to be with God someday which is always what He desires for us. Perhaps having to deal with these sexual identity issues leads this person to overcome vanity or some other sin that is keeping him from his relationship with God. To change his sexual identity then could be feeding the sin which is keeping him from God instead of working to change the part of himself that gives into that sin. That is just my 2 cents.
 
Vox Borealis:
  1. What is the church position on transsexuality and gender re-assignment surgery?
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Mutilation of the sexual organs is mortally sinful. If a person does that, they may not receive communion until they have made a good confession.
Vox Borealis:
At what point (if at all) does discomfort with one’s own physical gender become a sin?
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When that discomfort preoccupies their thoughts, so that it becomes vanity.
Vox Borealis:
  1. What documents has the church produced that I can consult?
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Humanae Vitae may be helpful in this matter too
 
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m134e5:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Humanae Vitae may be helpful in this matter too
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I checked out the CCC but did not find anything specific.

I agree that the individual would have to make a good confession, but how does that square with his dismissal from his job at the Catholic college? If he can confess, then it implies the sin is onlythe discrete act of mutilation. The dismissal implies that the state of being a transexual is sinful, unless I am misreading things.
 
Vox Borealis:
I checked out the CCC but did not find anything specific.

I agree that the individual would have to make a good confession, but how does that square with his dismissal from his job at the Catholic college? If he can confess, then it implies the sin is onlythe discrete act of mutilation. The dismissal implies that the state of being a transexual is sinful, unless I am misreading things.
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I think the person in question is planning on getting “gender reassignment surgeries and procedures done”.
 
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ThornGenX:
I think the person in question is planning on getting “gender reassignment surgeries and procedures done”.
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I think you’re right. But, why should the individual be fired? Is the discrete act(s) of getting the surgeries sinful, and if so, what exactly are the church’s teachings on the topic? Are all sinful acts worthy of being fired from a Catholic institution, or are some more serious than others?

Or, is it the case that once a person has gender reassigment surgery the state itself is particularly problematic so the individual must be dismissed from his position?

Again, I am not arguing with the college’s decision to dismiss the individual, nor am I questioning Church teaching. I am just looking for more clarification on the Church’s position regarding transsexuality and the related procedures. (Mainly because my friends ask me this stuff as the “Catholic expert”).
 
Rand Al'Thor:
I dont know the official stuff, but it would be changing what God created. And that sounds like something the evil one would try to do or get people to do.
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Sometimes people are born with both sets of genetalia. The doctors then have to decide what sex to make the baby. If the doctors choose wrong, then correcting the mistake of the doctor can’t possibly be wrong.
 
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snoopy:
Sometimes people are born with both sets of genetalia. The doctors then have to decide what sex to make the baby. If the doctors choose wrong, then correcting the mistake of the doctor can’t possibly be wrong.
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This is not quite accurate.

Very, very rarely a male child may be born with genitalia severely malformed. This most likely occurs with extrophy of the bladder.

One case was made famous because of the wrong doings of a Johns Hopkins doctor who recommended surgery to make the male into a female. This individual was maladjusted for the rest of his life and committed suicide.

Sex is assigned by what sex chromosomes you are born with. The sex chromosomes are found in every cell of the body. That cannot be changed.

Those who pretend to change their sex assignment are disordered and should seek psychiatric treatment.
 
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JessicaCeleste:
Being born with both sets of genitalia is not transexuality. Having both or amiguous genitalia is called hermaphroditism, or intersexed (the latter being the more accepted terminology).

Transexuality is a real and legit disorder that is extremely misunderstood.

Some informational linkage:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transgender-related_topics
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersexual
users.southeast.net/~help/sexdiff.html

Jessica
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My point is, how do we know what this person’s problem is? Maybe it is hermaphroditism, and maybe it is transsexuality. If both want a sex change, my point is you can’t judge if a person is committing a sin or not because maybe the sex change will be just correcting a doctor’s mistake. True, they know more about this now, but 50 years ago they just did the best they could.
 
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snoopy:
My point is, how do we know what this person’s problem is? Maybe it is hermaphroditism, and maybe it is transsexuality. If both want a sex change, my point is you can’t judge if a person is committing a sin or not because maybe the sex change will be just correcting a doctor’s mistake. True, they know more about this now, but 50 years ago they just did the best they could.
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Oh, I’m in agreement with you. No one (except God, of course) is in any position to say they know what’s going in the mind of another nor should we, as imperfect people, judge them. But, that’s an ideal world, we all know that judgements get made without knowing what’s really going on. My point is that if people are educated, then maybe that will minimize the misinformation that is out and about in the world.

YMMV, naturally.

~Jessica
 
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