In our Update #756, dated October 7, 2016, the Q&A was entitled, “What Does the Bible Say About the Transgender Debate?” In over 6 years since that Q&A was first published, there has been, inevitably, more “progress” on this distressing situation.
We have recently published a 3-part series, entitled “Discrimination is a big issue today. How do you view this?” https://www.eternalgod.org/discrimination-is-a-big-issue-today-how-do-you-view-this-part-1/; https://www.eternalgod.org/discrimination-is-a-big-issue-today-how-do-you-view-this-part-2/ ; and https://www.eternalgod.org/discrimination-is-a-big-issue-today-how-do-you-view-this-part-3/ .
We will now review this situation on transgenderism, as it is a constituent part of the overall racial discrimination discussion and package.
The Daily Mail published on 23rd January 2023 an article by psychologist Dr Max Blumberg, entitled, “13 reasons why people DON’T want to get married anymore – and why staying single makes you happier.” In this long article, he stated that “2021 was the first year that more children were born out of wedlock than in it: that marriage rates have also been steadily declining since the 1970s and claimed that marriage has little value anymore and often comes with costs.” It is against this relentless backdrop of negativity about that which God ordained (marriage between a man and a woman only) that other forms of relationship seem to blossom.
Today, in 2023, it seems that any relationship is acceptable as long as it appears to make people happy. But quite frequently, the very opposite is the case with distress, unhappiness and mental problems, often being the result of ungodly relationships. Transgenderism is but one of them which has caused much anxiety and anger. This is hardly surprising as it promotes a lifestyle which God has prohibited.
Scotland’s former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who recently resigned her position, had been at loggerheads with the government in Westminster over her proposal to allow lowering the age at which people can change their legal gender from 18 to 16.
The website cityam.com reported the following on 23rd January 2023:
“The Scottish government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which the Holyrood parliament passed just before Christmas, had always promised to be controversial. Essentially, the bill would make it easier to obtain a gender recognition certificate in Scotland, lowering the age at which people can change their legal gender from 18 to 16, removing the requirement of a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and reducing the waiting time from two years to six months of living in an acquired gender.
“Last week, the Secretary for Scotland, Alister Jack, announced that he would invoke section 35 of the Scotland Act to deny the bill Royal Assent. This provision can block the passage of a legally competent bill if the UK government believes it would affect matters of reserved competence, in this case the Equality Act 2010. This is the first time that section 35 has been used, though it has been a provision of the devolution settlement for a quarter of a century.”
Why a mature woman and the rest of her party (the Scottish National Party) would want to become embroiled in such an argument is a moot point, but the outrage at it has been reported widely, and this may have been the final straw in her resignation.
Again in January 2023, a report said that Police were investigating after a sign threatening to “decapitate TERFs” [which stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”] was displayed at a demonstration in Glasgow as author JK Rowling mocked the “temporary blindness” of SNP (Scottish National Politicians) who posed near the banner. The author has previously described Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a “destroyer of women’s rights.”
The vast majority of protesters held signs with peaceful phrases such as “respect democracy” and “Trans rights are human rights.” One protester tweeted: “That’s a horrific sign, and it wasn’t there when I joined the demo.” “Violent hateful language, of any kind, is unacceptable and has no place in the peaceful movement for LGBT equality and democracy.” This shows, quite clearly, how this issue has become part of the overall discrimination package which we have looked at closely in previous Q&As.
One protester at the rally held a sign comparing the Section 35 legislation to the Section 28 legislation, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality. Section 28 in the UK was implemented by Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister (1979-91) which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Of course, in our permissive society, this was overturned and the homosexual lobby and lifestyle have gone from strength to strength since then. Such measures to prevent the young from the indoctrination of the homosexual lobby were overturned, and not for the better of society.
And this ongoing saga with the transgendered is not limited to the UK. The American Washington Examiner published an article in April of 2022 with the headline, “Even the Left is beginning to admit it has pushed transgenderism too far.” Of course, pushing it at all is simply wrong in the eyes of God. We quote from the article as follows:
“Transgender orthodoxy has moved so far past the bounds of sanity that any attempt to question its effects is quickly discouraged and punished. We are expected to shut up and accept that public schools are passing policies to keep students’ gender identity transitions from parents, that medical professionals can file to remove children from their parents’ custody if parents oppose physical and chemical transition efforts, that a young man competed on a women’s swimming team and took home a women’s championship title, and that a man who claimed to identify as a woman was allowed into a women’s prison where he impregnated two of his fellow prisoners.
“None of this is normal or even remotely defensible, and everyone, including many on the Left, know it.
“Few on the Left, however, are willing to say so out loud, in large part because their peers have made it impossible. Break from the transgender narrative in any way, and accusations of bigotry and violence will be thrown at you relentlessly. Just look at the abundant invectives hurled at Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, for example.
“Still, there are some, such as Rowling, who are beginning to admit that transgenderism has gone too far. Rowling and other liberal feminists recognize that the concept of ‘gender identity’ is a serious threat to women’s rights, especially the right to privacy and equal opportunity. Gay and lesbian activists realise that pushing effeminate boys or tomboyish girls toward transgenderism could create even more confusion and anxiety in youths who are struggling not with their actual gender but with their sexuality — two very different things.
“And healthcare professionals who are now being encouraged by the Biden administration to alter the bodies physically and chemically of gender-confused minors are starting to raise concerns about the permanence of such drastic interventions and ask whether there is any data to back them up at all.
“It is not a coincidence that the number of young adults who identify as transgender has increased more than twentyfold over the past several years as transgenderism has become more mainstream. What was once a rare mental affliction — gender dysphoria — is now being sold as a solution to any number of common emotional and social anxieties. The result has been a massive surge in transgender-identifying youths, the vast majority of whom, if given enough time, would snap out of it on their own.”
A further article appeared on the website askdrbrown.org: “The transgender revolution is oppressive, irrational, unhealthy, extreme, dangerous, unnatural and an attack on children. As the Daily Mail asked ‘Are children as young as 11 really capable of making life-changing decisions about their gender? We are playing with fire here, and there will likely be many, many casualties before we wake up.’”
The website thegospelcoalition.com contains further insights: “As much as contemporary academia says otherwise, the Bible believes in the organic unity of biological sex and gender identity. This is why male and female are (uniquely) the type of pair that can reproduce (Gen. 1:28; 2:20). It’s why homosexuality—a man lying with a man as with a woman (Lev. 18:22)—is wrong. It’s why the apostle Paul can speak of homosexual partnerships as deviating from the natural relations or natural function of male-female sexual intercourse (Rom. 1:26-27). In each instance, the argument only works if there is an assumed equivalence between the biology of sexual difference and the corresponding identities of male and female.
“If the binary of male and female is God’s idea, and if we are meant to embrace, by divine design, our biological and creational difference as men and women, then it stands to reason that the confusion of these realities would be displeasing to God. And so we see clearly in the Bible that men should not act sexually as women (Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-10), that men should not dress like women (Deut. 22:5), and that when men and women embrace obviously other-gendered expressions of identity it is a disgrace (1 Cor. 11:14-15). We do not have an inalienable right to do whatever we want with our physical selves. We belong to God and should glorify him with our bodies (1 Cor. 6:19-20).”
Another commentator writes as follows: “However, just because something might have a biological cause does not mean embracing the effects is the right thing to do. Some people are wired with a sexuality on hyper-drive. That does not make it right for them to engage in sexual immorality. It is scientifically proven that some psychopaths/sociopaths have brains with severely weakened impulse-control mechanisms. That does not make it right for them to engage in every deviant behaviour that crosses their minds. No matter if the gender distortion has a genetic, hormonal, physiological, psychological, or spiritual cause, it can be overcome and healed through faith in Christ and continued reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit. There is hope for everyone, transsexuals, transgenders, those with gender identity disorder, and transvestites included, because of God’s forgiveness available in Jesus Christ.”
We would question that the “gender distortion” has a “genetic, hormonal or psychological cause,” as the author erroneously assumes, rather than a choice, but whatever the cause, the point is that transgenderism can be overcome.
This fits right in with 2 Peter 3:9 which reads: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
As a final comment in this Q&A, we quote the numbers of the LGBT+ movement as Gallup reported in 2022: “The percentage of U.S. adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or something other than heterosexual has increased to a new high of 7.1%, which is double the percentage from 2012, when Gallup first measured it.
“Gallup asks Americans whether they personally identify as straight or heterosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender as part of the demographic information it collects on all U.S. telephone surveys. Respondents can also volunteer any other sexual orientation or gender identity they prefer. In addition to the 7.1% of U.S. adults who consider themselves to be an LGBT identity, 86.3% say they are straight or heterosexual, and 6.6% do not offer an opinion.”
It is interesting to see how the 7.1% have a demonstrably higher visibility in society than the percentage would normally show. Quotas in television, film, the news media and high-profile jobs given to LGBT+ people show how skewed the system is today. The original argument was that they should be shown to reflect their position in society but it has gone way beyond that. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that the figure was very much higher than 7.1% by the very presence of so many displaying, and even promoting, any deviance from God’s ordained way for men and women to behave.
Many now mock the Bible. Some don’t believe what it says and others may think that it is outdated. The inhabitants of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah were evil and their end was most unpleasant as the Bible records their depravity and its results (see Genesis 19:12-29). It would surely benefit those who are currently involved in the behaviour discussed herein to review and change their lifestyle.
There is still time but it appears that they are set on doing their own thing and it will not end well for them, or for anyone who lives a lifestyle which is not compatible with Biblical instruction. We conclude today as we did in our original Q&A on transgenderism, mentioned above, by repeating the following paragraph:
“It is a sad fact that today the biblical approach is one that is scorned and disregarded which is very dangerous to do. We should have love and concern for those who are engaged in these practices, loving the sinner but hating the sin. God instructs us in His way which is always for our own good and we ignore it at our peril. Transgender practices, along with many other sexual sins, are not to be part of any true Christian’s life. Such practices will not be allowed in the Kingdom of God and that should be enough proof for anyone with an open mind and a willing heart.”
Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)
