By Father Francis Onyekozuru
Gender dysphoria can lead a person to attempt changing his or her sex and gender. It is a real challenge. Many of our people are directly dealing with this reality in themselves, in their families, in their workplaces, and among their relatives and friends. Data shows that between 2011 and 2017, the number of Americans who report having close friends or family members who are transgender almost doubled from 11 percent to 21 percent (James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy, eds., Understanding Transgender Identities, 2019, p. 205).
About 95 percent of kids who express gender dysphoria grow out of it. Only about 5 percent carry the dysphoria through adulthood. In the last election, the State of Texas did well to vote down giving puberty blockers to minors, but the upcoming federal HHS mandate would approve giving puberty blockers to minors who seem to experience gender dysphoria.
Some would argue that transsexual surgery and procedures are strictly for therapeutic medical reasons to treat gender dysphoria. Yet, gender dysphoria (which is why people undergo transsexual surgeries and procedures) is more of a psychological issue (probably like body dysmorphic ailment) and never goes away with invasive surgeries. Unfortunately, the hormonal and surgical attempts to reassign sex do not really reassign sex biologically. They also fail to bring psychological wholeness (Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, New York: Encounter, 2019, p. 78).
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a nationwide mandate promising to promote nondiscrimination in health programs and activities. The intention of ensuring that everyone benefits from proper healthcare is praiseworthy, yet the implications of this mandate go deeper than the title. If the rule goes into effect, it will impact our lives in various ways: from healthcare coverage to religious freedom, from abortion procurement to patient privacy, from gender identity to transgender surgeries, from information affecting non-English speakers in healthcare services to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Also, parts of the mandate seem like immediate attempts to reject the recent good news of the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision.
On July 27, 2022, while foreseeing the publication of this mandate, the Public Affairs Office of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released a joint statement of the chairmen of various USCCB committees. The statement rightly condemns aspects of this impending regulation as harmful. It recognizes them as efforts to force gender ideology and abortion practice on religious hospitals and healthcare workers. The statement explains that if this federal mandate is allowed to take effect, it would “force health care workers to perform gender transition procedures, require health insurance issuers to cover them, and entertain a mandate to perform elective abortions. … [They] threaten our ability to practice medicine, … mandate health care workers to perform life-altering surgeries to remove perfectly healthy body parts … a violation of religious freedom and bad medicine” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Public Affairs Office Statement, July 27, 2022).
On Aug. 24, The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) sent out a message rallying men and women of goodwill to stand against the impending rule. The NCBC notes that in addition to forcing “health insurers to cover the myriad surgical and pharmaceutical interventions that mutilate healthy sexual organs,” the mandate would persuade people to accept “the view that it is possible to ‘transition’ from one sex to another” (The National Catholic Bioethics Center, Breaking News on Transgender and Abortion Mandates, August 24, 2022).
The USCCB and the NCBC are not alone in the fight against parts of this impending HHS mandate. They have been joined by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, The Catholic University of America, the Catholic Medical Association, and the National Association of Catholic Nurses U.S.A. On Sept. 7, 2022, these organizations jointly sent 20 pages of comments to the HHS on this proposed mandate. The comments are very detailed, thoughtful, highly educating, and well-sourced with expert articulations of the effects of transgender surgeries.
Transsexual surgery is a medical operation that tries to change someone from one sex to the other. It involves the surgical removal of a person’s healthy biologically formed reproductive and sexual organs. In many cases, it involves formulating artificial materials to mimic the real sexual and reproductive organs of an individual. It is typically very invasive as well as cosmetic. The terms “transsexual surgery” and “gender reassignment surgery” are misleading. They suggest that sex and gender can be changed and/or reassigned. They support the view that gender and sex could be reassigned through surgery and/or hormone therapy.
Transsexual surgery itself is also a misnomer because a person’s “sex” cannot be “transitioned” after its original formation. Sex is created and formed in the womb long before a person is born. It cannot “transition” or be “transitioned” to the opposite sex after it has been created in the womb. Although surgeons are getting better at building and attaching artificial genitalia, their skillfulness still does not change a person’s biological sex. No matter how real the results of plastic surgery on the reproductive organs may appear, it never creates the organs of the opposite sex (Anderson, When Harry Became Sally, pgs. 100-101).
Transsexual surgery makes no impact on the genetic make-up of a person and the person cannot reproduce as a member of the opposite sex or their own birth sex because their fertility is destroyed by transitioning procedures and surgeries. They neither create a man nor a woman but harm their reproductive organs among other things.
Pope Francis affirms the difference and reciprocity of a man and woman in nature. Such difference and reciprocity are being threatened by gender ideologies that try to create a dangerous and misleading separation between sex and gender. When we separate sex and gender, we become our own creators. We leave the choice of being male or female in the hands of the human person whose choice could change back and forth at any time (Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, no. 56.). If this becomes the case, sex and gender would become changeable at any time and at any phase of a person’s life and choosing. Sex and gender would cease to be a constant and lifelong essence of a person. This will also affect the roles of masculinity and femininity as we know it. There is a cogent need to reemphasize that biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex and gender can be distinguished but not separated.
The sufferings of transgender folks are real. There are startling statistics of the horrendous things done to these, our brothers and sisters: 57 percent have family members refusing to speak to them; 50-54 percent are harassed at school; 60 percent have been refused healthcare by doctors; 64-65 percent suffer physical or sexual violence; 57- 70 percent have been discriminated against and/or mistreated by law enforcement; and 69 percent have experienced homelessness. The rate of suicide attempts in the general population is about 4.6 percent, but it is 41-46 percent for transgender and gender non-conforming folks (Beilby and Eddy, eds., Understanding Transgender Identities, pgs. 156-157).
Transsexual surgery adds to these sufferings, for it is the mutilation and sterilization of persons (adults and minors). It ought to be discouraged. Human biology is a precious gift from God. For healthcare workers to purposefully remove and destroy healthy human sexual and reproductive organs is a form of mutilation. Such is immoral and illicit. Within these 29 counties of our diocese and beyond, we have many hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities with numerous healthcare workers and other medical personnel.
We are all encouraged to compassionately and sensitively accompany our brothers and sisters who struggle with gender dysphoria. Work to discourage folks from transgender and transsexual surgeries. Encourage all to affirm and accept their birth-sex. Legally and civilly resist any affront to our freedom of religion. Contact every known elected official that can help. Voice out against parts of this impending mandate to anyone that would listen. Create awareness about this through various news and social media outlets.
Bring it all to God in prayer. Despite the real sufferings that accompany gender dysphoria, Christ is always present in our sufferings. He finds helpful ways to accompany us, without harming or destroying our healthy sexual and reproductive organs.