How should we respond to this transgender moment?
When it comes to the issue of transgenderism, there appears to be i thing everyone is agreed on: it is complex and challenging! The claims of transgender ideology appear to have rushed on us in a moment; the problems involved touch anybody very deeply; there are baroque contradictions between advocates of transgender ideology and the other elements of the LGBT+ community, and even inside the transgender 'community' itself; and philosophical questions seem to mistiness into some real and personal bug of deep hurting which demand a pastoral response.
These bug are what makes a book like Ryan T Anderson'sWhen Harry Became Sally both so important so helpful. There are several things that are immediately helpful about Anderson'southward approach (quite apart from the vivid title!). The first is that it is rooted in primary research, and gives (in affiliate endnotes) references to published papers. The second is its conscientious analysis of the testify—indeed, a focus on prove which is not pushed out of shaped past Anderson's own theological agenda (Ryan is Roman Cosmic). In fact, i of the striking things well-nigh the book is that it contains virtually no theological reflection at all in its mapping out of the issues, a miracle to which I will render. Although there is a lot of particular about what is happening in North America in terms of legislation and ideology, the volume is much less technical than Mark Yarhouse's exploration of transgenderism and the intersex condition, and though Anderson is acutely aware of the pastoral response required, he does non offering anything comparable to Yarhouse's threefold ethical image. Instead, Anderson looks at the big picture of what is happening and why nosotros take reached this 'moment'—and this idea is also of import. He cites articulate evidence that this is not a linear trend in culture, but a particular moment on which we will likely expect back in amazement.
The Introduction and brusk start chapter 'Our Transgender Moment' offers a cursory sketch of the current situation in civilization regarding the transgender question. Like some other sections of the book, this has a focus in North America and particularly in the U.s., since this is where Anderson is writing from—merely some of the issues can be evident in the UK already. But he anticipates some of the themes which will be explored in more than particular later in the book.National Geographic's special issue on 'The Gender Revolution' featured
8 people on its combined covers, [including] 3 boys or men who identify as girls or women, a girl who identifies every bit a boy, individuals who identity as "bi-gender", "intersex non binary", and "androgynous", and fifty-fifty someone who is just "male"—only not i daughter who is comfortable being female. (p 12)
Anderson notes the shifts in medical terminology based on ideology rather than evidence, and observes the way that big business in the states has likewise jumped on the sexual identity bandwagon—but rather selectively. Whilst Paypal cancelled a major contract in protest at a North Carolina law decreeing that public toilets should exist separated based on biological sexual practice (male/female), the visitor
never explained why its international headquarters are in Singapore, where people who engage in private, consensual, homosexual acts tin can face ii years in jail. (p 15)
Chapter Two focuses on 'What the Activists Say', and forms the first office of the vital distinction that Anderson makes between transgender activists and individuals who place as transgender or every bit having gender dysphoria. For nigh of the chapter, Anderson simply quotes documented statements by activists without too much evaluation, simply the bug become evident as the chapter progresses. For example, in one context an activist claims that transgender identity
'is fixed, cannot be changed by others, and is non undermined or altered past the existence of other sex-related characteristics that practice not align with it'
Still in another context, information technology is claimed that gender identity and expression 'can change every day or even every few hours' and that this fluidity 'tin be displayed in how we dress, express and describe ourselves'. Anderson highlights the way in which (for activists) 'transgender policies follow on from transgender ontology' (p 39), that is, the claims that are made virtually the 'reality' of sexual identity—only too how the claims nearly reality really have no basis in scientific discipline or research. He likewise notes the, sometimes subtle, ways in which language has been tweaked and changed to support this agenda, the about notable being the idea that sex is 'assigned' at nativity, rather than being recognised from the evidence. The last three pages of this affiliate includes a long list of the questions and contradictions of transgender credo—though Anderson over again emphasises that these are questions foractivists speaking in the public realm (mostly but non exclusively in the States), and that nosotros demand to respond toindividuals in a different manner.
Is there a gender binary or non? Somehow, it both does and does not be, according to transgender activists. If the categories of 'man' and 'woman' are objective enough that people can identify as, andbe, mane and women, how tin can gender too be a spectrum, where people tin can identify as, andbe, both or neither or somewhere in between?
What does information technology fifty-fifty hateful to have an internal sense of gender? What does gender feel like? What significant can we give to the concept of sex or gender, and thus what internal 'sense' can we have of gender, apart from having a body of a particular sex activity?…The claiming for the transgender activist is to explicate what these feelings are like, and how someone could know if he or she 'feels like' the opposite sex, or neither, or both. (p 46)
Chapter Three is perhaps the most of import, and certainly the most uncomfortable for anyone to read. Anderson here tells the story of 'detransitioners'—those who have undergone the process of sex reassignment, so regretted their decision and tried to change back. The chapter begins with a story from the Daily Post in 2012, 'I was born a male child, became a daughter, and now I want to exist a boy once more': Uk's youngest sexual activity swap patient to reverse her sexual practice alter treatment.'
Ria Cooper made headlines last year when she became Great britain's youngest sexual activity change patient aged 17, after years of begging her family unit and the NHS to plow her in to a daughter. But now, having lived as a women for less than a year the xviii-year has decided to change back in to a homo after suffering huge mental anguish every bit a woman.
She has cancelled the total sexual practice alter operation that was scheduled for Jan and ceased the female hormone therapy that has seen her develop breasts saying that she has found the changes overwhelming and that they have fabricated her deeply unhappy.
The stories are painful at every level, and are mostly recounted in the words of the individuals themselves. But the pain is compounded by the fact that the narratives told do non fit with the transgender credo of the activists in the previous chapter, and then these people are ofttimes shunned past the activists themselves. Simply several consistent themes emerge from the stories as the people affected tell them. The first is that the unhappiness with sex identity was often rooted in other problems, oftentimes related to childhood experiences of violence and bullying.
When I was a kid I started to have this fantasy of being a girl, because information technology meant I could be safe and not suffer from this violence due to being at the bottom of the male hierarchy. (p 63)
The second is that the unhappiness was fuelled past the negative perception of sex identity inside society for the private'southward sexual activity—peculiarly in the case of girls and women. And at that place was a deep perception of the need to conform to gender stereotypes in social club to succeed in life.
The truth is that a lot of women don't feel like they take options. At that place isn't a whole lot of identify in society for women who look like this, women who don't fit, women who don't comply. (p 53)
And many of those regretting their transition felt equally though the medical profession, in adopting transgender ideology in their decisions, rather than looking carefully at deeper causes, were treating their bodies as subjects of experimentation. Anderson is careful to care for these stories in their own terms, regardless of whether the views of the individuals concerned would fit with his ain confession 'socially bourgeois stance'—and many of these stories are in the public domain online.
Chapter Iv asks the question 'What Makes us a Man or a Woman?' and is shorter than y'all might expect—and where nosotros might wait some theology, Anderson focusses exclusively on science. Anderson sets out, clearly and carefully, what scientific research says about chromosomal sex identity, how that is understood, the ways in which information technology affects human development, and the very well established sex differences betwixt men and women. Sexual activity differentiation begins from the moment of conception; it is expressed in both primary and secondary biological characteristics; and recognition of biological sex difference is vital in all sorts of ways for medicine, since men and women respond to pain differently, and are susceptible to different diseases and respond to treatments in different ways. Anderson is conscientious to note that cohort differences need to be interpreted carefully. If you gave someone a encephalon scan they could not tell whether it was male or female on its own—but the differences between male and female brains are well established in research. (The same is true of elevation, and every other variable: it is true that men are taller than women, but because acme is distributed on overlapping bell curves for each cohort, you cannot tell someone's sex past knowing their height.) Again, and most importantly for this chapter, all Anderson'due south observations are support with reference to primary sources.
Anderson then turns to the whole question of sex activity 'reassignment', exploring three of import issues. Does research bear witness practiced mental health outcomes for those who undergo transition? On the whole, the prove is poor, with the petty research that has been done demonstrating ambiguous outcomes. Does the idea of 'sex reassignment' make sense medically? Non when a proper medical understanding of biological sex is taken into account. Does this idea make sense philosophically? Only if ane accepts a mind/body duality which about medicine now rejects based on the testify from enquiry and experience.
Anderson then looks advisedly at the almost contested question in this whole contend: that of childhood dysphoria and desistance. He has, earlier in the book, introduced usa to the enquiry evidence that between eighty and 95% of children who experience racket between their biological sex and their felt gender resolve these bug over time if not pressed into transitioning—which should brand united states sit upwards and think near some of the stories that we encounter hitting the headlines. Anderson makes a plea for a responsible and informed approach to this difficult question, and is happy to draw on the research evidence of those who exercise not, in other regards, suit his agenda.
Children need our protection and guidance as they navigate the challenges of growing into machismo. We need medical professionals who will help them mature in harmony with their bodies, rather than deploy experimental treatments to refashion their bodies. And we demand a civilisation that cultivates a sound understanding of gender and how it is rooted in biological science, a culture that respects our differences without imposing restrictive stereotypes. (p 144)
Chapter Vii steps back from the specific issue of transgender, and looks at questions of gender and culture. Anderson does an excellent chore of looking at the wider debates well-nigh gender, and against them develops a example for seeing (socially constructed) gender as connected with (though not always determined in form by) biological sex.
Gender is socially shaped, only it is non a mere social construct. Information technology originates in biology, but in plough it directs our bodily nature to higher human goods. A audio understanding of gender clarifies the important differences between the sexes, and guides our distinctly male person or female qualities toward our well-existence (p 149).
This seems to me to be a much more robust and persuasive position, with much wider appeal, than the idea that we are male and female for the theological reasons that the Bible tells us this is the fashion God fabricated u.s.a.. We really know we are male and female because that is what scientific discipline tells u.s.a.—and Scripture gives a theological significance to this concrete reality.
The final main chapter looks at policy question in the United states, and his conclusion notes that the public are not all persuaded by the claims of transgender activists, so this 'transgender moment' might pass—though information technology will need courage for all sorts of people in public life to make a stand for the truth and the evidence that nosotros have.
If yous want a comprehensive, readable, show-based case for questioning the assumptions of this transgender moment, then Anderson's book is for you. I think it must exist essential reading for anyone engaging in the sexuality debate, in the Church of England and elsewhere.
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