Concern about girls wanting to be ‘boys’ is a matter of fundamental human dignity

Sep 21, 2018 by Jill

by Carys Moseley, Christian Concern:

Carys Moseley looks into how the issues of transgender and abortion are intrinsically linked and argues that the Church must speak up to protect the dignity of those affected and defend the fact that we are all created in God’s image.

This week, Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Women and Equalities, ordered an investigation into why so many teenage girls want to undergo gender reassignment to become ‘boys’. On one level, this move is welcome and would certainly prove popular given the public outcry over this problem. On a deeper level, it may be too limited a move to properly address the problems. The debate over ‘Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria’ is inadequate, and a comparison with earlier evidence on gender disassociation is distinctly lacking.

There are two problems here. The first is the desire to ring-fence the notion of ‘truly transgender’ (previously ‘true transsexualism’). The second is to look only at girls who want to be male and ignore boys who want to be female – until very recently, they were the great majority of patients at gender identity clinics. The concept of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria leaves untouched any investigation into the development of gender dysphoria among adolescents before the rise of social media. It also leaves out any consideration of gender dysphoria in children. Merely inquiring about teaching in schools and social media – both topics closely linked to adolescence – conveniently avoids the question of whether there are more parents nowadays who secretly treat their children as members of the opposite sex, out of disappointment at not having a child of the desired sex.

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