Creative Commons | Photo by David Prasad
Schools, social media and culture push to affirm gender fluidity and trans identity as salubrious. However, it “is a trans cult,” said Lynn Meagher, a mother who lost two children to the movement.
Meagher was on a panel of three discussing the subject of “Transgender Movement: Separating Facts from Fiction” in a plenary discussion at the Value Voters Conference. She was joined by KathyGrace Duncan, a transgender survivor and Dr. Andre Van Mol, a board-certified family physician.
“The time is now to demand [rigorous] scientific research to examine the safety and authenticity of medical transitioning for children,” Meagher pleaded, visibly grieved by the experiences with her children. “It’s time to require accountability. It’s time to listen to the parents. I beseech you; we need to demand better for our kids and our families. I’m frightened and you should be too.”
Years ago, it was highly unlikely to hear of a 5-year-old changing their gender. Now, this social transitioning nurtured by parents, the media and culture are becoming a Civil Rights Movement in America. “A child or teen has a developing brain, so they aren’t “there” yet for adult decisions,” Mol said in a testimony for the National Task Force for Therapy Equality.
“Minors are not allowed to vote, serve in the military, purchase alcohol, sign contracts, or provide informed consent for a number of things until adulthood because of this reality. At a minimum, gender reassignment is a very adult decision, and no one should make it before adulthood.”
Children with developing brains can’t make a logical decision about changing genders. Transgender hormone therapy is called “cross-sex hormone therapy.” The goal of hormone therapy and sex reassignment therapy is to change the sexual attributes of transgender people from masculine to feminine or vice versa. The risks of taking hormones may cause cardiovascular problems, heart attacks, diabetes Type 2, bone density loss, weight gain and could increase the risk of cancer in some patients.
“We are living in a culture of affirmation,” Mol said concerning the cultural push of transgenderism.
“A child’s prefrontal cortex doesn’t mature until they are 23 or 25 years of age and that’s the brain’s judgment and inhibition center. The amygdala is the primary emotional center and that’s not mature in a teenager either, nor is the connection to the frontal lobe fully developed. That means kids think, but they tend to think emotionally. An overwhelming amount of people with gender dysphoria have underlying mental health issues and or neurodevelopmental problems, by which I mean the autism spectrum disorder primarily. They also have a large amount of personality disorders…”
Duncan’s story is distinct. Born a female, and living as a man for 11 years, she spoke about finding God 27-years ago in a stirring journey in reclaiming her birth name. Duncan accepted she should’ve been born a boy before kindergarten and lived as a man beginning at 19-years-old. She changed her name to Keith and started male-hormone therapy.
Believing she was irrevocably free, a vacancy remained. Duncan attended a church youth group with a friend and “There was something there that I hungered for even though I couldn’t describe it. God began sending deep conviction into my life. I remember reading in the Word that our bodies were the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I wondered, “What have I done to myself?” After reading Psalm 139, I began to cry because it spoke of how God had created me and how He had known me from the beginning.”
Eventually, someone found out about her secret life living as a man. “I was confronted by the leadership. Of course, I lied. The church contacted my parents. When confronted again, I told the truth. The church asked me to leave, saying, “We love you,” she wrote in her blog.
Later, a married couple entered Duncan’s life and became spiritual parents and she told them the truth. Quickly, the Holy Spirit filled her.
“I saw the next two weeks and everything I needed to do, and I had to go back to being the women that He created me to be,” said Duncan, who leads women’s small groups and facilitates discussion groups at Portland Fellowship.
“Being transgender is not the issue, sex is not the issue, it’s a relational issue. It’s that brokenness and those things we weren’t fed when we were little. I wasn’t nurtured. I wasn’t told that I was loved,” said Duncan.
“I watched my dad who was verbally and physically abusive to my mom. I watched my mom crumble beneath that abuse, so that lie presented to me was that women are weak, women are vulnerable and women are hated. And I looked at my mom and realized I would grow up to be that. I don’t want to be that. I want to be a man but not the man my dad is, so I will be the man my dad is not, and I will rescue women. That was my belief system.”
The closing statement suggested people of God need to minster to brokenness and share Christ’s love. Remembering that biology is not bigotry and that God is bigger than the culture of brokenness often found within the transgender movement.
About the Author
Corine Gatti-Santillo has spent two decades as an editor, investigative reporter and web content strategist; her work has appeared in The Christian Post, LifeZette and CBN, among other outlets. She is host of the program “Mom on the Right” on The Liberty Beacon TV. She and her husband, Rocky, live in Virginia with their infant daughter and yellow lab Maggie.