Endnotes

¹ “BSA Addresses Gender Identity,” Boy Scouts of America (January 30, 2017): http://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/bsa-addresses-gender-identity.

² For example, Russell Moore, “The Transgender Revolution and the Rubble of Empty Promises,” The Gospel Coalition (June 6, 2017): https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/transgender-revolution-and-rubble-of-empty-promises.

³ That is, a man who has socially, hormonally and surgically transitioned to become (or, at least, appear to become) a woman – otherwise known as an MTF (male to female).

⁴ J. A. Simpson & E. S. C. Weiner (eds.), Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). However, it is important to note that distinguishing gender from sex is not the same as disconnecting gender from sex. This has been a more recent development.

⁵ Cisgender, however, is something of a loaded term, for it is often employed as a way of normalising transgender experience. In other words, it suggests that it is just as natural for a person’s gender identity to land on the other side of their sex, as it is for it to land on the same side.

⁶ DSM stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association.

⁷ Needless to say, this has been a highly controversial change and is regarded by some psychiatrists as an “abrogation of professional responsibility in the interest of political correctness.” Richard B. Corradi, “Psychiatry Professor: ‘Transgenderism’ Is Mass Hysteria Similar to 1980s-Era Junk Science,” The Federalist (November 17, 2016): http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/17/psychiatry-professor-transgenderism-mass-hysteria-similar-1980s-era-junk-science.

⁸ Interestingly, even the Intersex Society of North America is opposed to the idea that intersex people constitute a third gender on pragmatic grounds. See http://www.isna.org/faq/third-gender.

⁹ In deference to them, and for the reason given above (i.e., that Intersex covers a range of biologically based DSDs), I will use the LGBTQ+ acronym in this essay. As is generally understood, L stands for ‘lesbian’, G for ‘gay’, B for ‘bi-sexual’ and T for ‘transgender.’ Q normally stands for ‘queer’, although it sometimes doubles up to cover ‘questioning’ as well. The letter A – for ‘asexual’ – is also becoming increasingly common. It can also double up for ‘ally’ (i.e., for someone who is an LGBTQ ally). Further letters are sometimes added, but to keep the acronym manageable, these are often covered by ‘+.’

¹⁰ Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references are taken from the The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV®). Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

¹¹ In philosophical terms, this speaks of the triumph of existentialism over essentialism. For in essentialism, essence precedes existence (i.e., what you are determines what you do, being determines act). But in existentialism, existence precedes essence (i.e., what you do determines what you are, act determines being). When linked with the postmodern ‘turn to the subject’, this shift opens the door not only to transgenderism (identifying as a gender contrary to one’s body), but to transracialism (identifying as a race contrary to one’s ethnicity), transableism (identifying as disabled contrary to one’s ability), and transspeciesism (identifying as a species contrary to one’s DNA). All such identifications take the notion that “truth is subjectivity” to a place Søren Kierkegaard (who coined the phrase) never intended or imagined. For a recent defense of the thesis that the “considerations that support transgenderism extend to transracialism,” see Rebecca Tuvel, “In Defense of Transracialism,” Hypatia 32:2 (2017): 263-278.

¹² See “Gender Master List,” Genderfluid Support (July 30, 2017): http://genderfluidsupport.tumblr.com/gender.

¹³ Sarah Marsh and Guardian readers, “The gender-fluid generation: young people on being male, female or non-binary,” The Guardian (March 23, 2016):https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/23/gender-fluid-generation-young-people-male-female-trans.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ Mount Holyoke, Admission of Transgender Students: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/policies/admission-transgender-students#q2.

¹⁶ The series, which premiered on 11 July, 2013, features a black transgender character played by trans-woman (i.e., MTF) actor, Laverne Cox.

¹⁷ This was the verdict of a 2014 TIME magazine cover story. See Katy Steinmetz, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” TIME (May 29, 2014): http://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point.

¹⁸ Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (translated and edited by H.M. Parshley; London: Picador, 1988), 295. First published in French as Le Deuxième Sexe in 1949.

¹⁹ For a more comprehensive account of the many connections and conflicts between feminism, gay and lesbian studies, queer theory and trans ideology, see Patricia Elliot, Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory: Contested Sites (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016); also Talia M. Bettcher, “Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (January 8, 2014): https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/feminism-trans.

²⁰ Despite claims to the contrary, there is no clear or consistent evidence that gender identity is determined by microstructures in the brain. As Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh write, “[T]he current studies on associations between brain structure and transgender identity are small, methodologically limited, inconclusive, and sometimes contradictory. Even if they were more methodologically reliable, they would be insufficient to demonstrate that brain structure is a cause, rather than an effect, of the gender-identity behavior” (“Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” The New Atlantis (Number 50, Fall 2016): 104: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/20160819_TNA50SexualityandGender.pdf.

²¹ Mark Hodges, “Teens are becoming transgender because it’s trendy, expert says,” Lifesitenews (April 12, 2017): https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/govt-provides-gender-service-for-kids-who-fancy-themselves-as-transgender.

²² Lily Edelstein, “Sexual fluidity: Living a label-free life.” ABC News (February 20, 2016): http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-20/sexual-fluidity-label-free-life/7162884.

²³ Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” D. Fuss, ed., Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories (London: Routledge, 1991), 13.

²⁴ Judith Butler, “Preface (1999),” in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 2006), xxiv.

²⁵ Butler, Gender Trouble, 9-10.

²⁶ Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, “Gender Diversity and Christian Community,” The Other Side 37/3 (May-June 2001): http://www.transfaithonline.org/articles/other/tos/genderdiversity.

²⁷ Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Omnigender: A Trans-Religious Approach (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2007), 167.

²⁸ Ibid, 8.

²⁹ Joseph Brean, “Vancouver School Board’s genderless pronouns – xe, xem, xyr – not likely to stick, if history is any indication,” National Post (June 17, 2014): http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/vancouver-school-boards-genderless-pronouns-not-likely-to-stick-if-history-is-any-indication.

³⁰ Nahema Marchal, “University of Iowa Introduces Gender Neutral Pronoun Policy,” Heatstreet (July 27, 2016) https://heatst.com/culture-wars/university-of-iowa-introduces-gender-neutral-pronoun-policy.

³¹ Tumblr currently lists 54 different sets of alternative pronouns. See “Pronoun Master List,” Genderfluid Support (July 30, 2017): http://genderfluidsupport.tumblr.com/pronouns.

³² Lizzie Crocker, “The School that Killed the Word ‘Mr.’,” The Daily Beast (January 30, 2015): http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/30/this-university-banned-the-word-mr.html.

³³Justin Wm. Moyer, “Washington State University class bans ‘offensive’ terms like male, female, tranny, illegal alien” (September 2, 2015): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/02/washington-state-university-class-bans-offensive-terms-such-as-illegal-alien-and-tranny/?utm_term=.57b427f93810.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ Mary Emily O’Hara, “Judge Grants Oregon Resident the Right to Be Genderless,” NBC News (March 23, 2017): http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/judge-grants-oregon-resident-right-be-genderless-n736971.

³⁶ Frank Bruni, “The Republicans’ Gay Freakout,” The New York Times (April 2, 2016): http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/opinion/sunday/the-republicans-gay-freakout.html?_r=0.

³⁷ For example, on June 11, 2017, thousands participated in a national Equality March for Unity and Pride, with a central march in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, the aim of the march was to bring together and affirm members of LGBTQ communities and their allies, to highlight discrimination and to call for expanding LGBTQ rights. See Jenna Gray, “At Equality March, thousands rally for LGBTQ rights,” PBS NEWSHOUR (June 11, 2017): http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/lgbtq-rally-national-equality-march.

³⁸ Michelle A. Cretella, Quentin Van Meter and Paul McHugh, “Gender Identity Harms Children,” American College of Pediatricians (August 17, 2016): https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children.

³⁹ There is some debate about which conditions are rightly categorised as Intersex. If the category is restricted to those conditions in which chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic (e.g., genital) sex, or in which the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female, then the true prevalence of intersex is about 0.018%. See Leonard Sax, “How common is lntersex? A response to Anne Fausto-Sterling,” The Journal of Sex Research (39:3, 2002): 174-178.

⁴⁰ As to the view that Adam was an androgyne (i.e., a mix of both male and female) prior to God bringing forth Eve from his side, two things need to be said. First, if it were true, God deemed it ‘not good’ and, having remedied it, made it irrelevant from that point on. Second, every indicator in the text of Genesis tells against it. Adam, after Eve’s creation, remains Adam (minus a rib!) and Eve is called ‘woman’ (’ishshah) precisely because she was taken out of ‘man’ (’ish). In other words, Adam was a man (’ish) before and after Eve’s creation.

⁴¹ Contrary to the claims of ‘queer’ parents. See, for example, Katherine D. M. Clover, “Please Stop Calling My Child ‘Little Man’,” Ravishly (March 18, 2016): http://www.ravishly.com/2016/03/16/please-stop-calling-my-child-little-man.

⁴² Lest I be misunderstood, I’m not suggesting that biology alone dictates how a person expresses their gender (e.g., manhood) or performs a gender role (e.g., motherhood). For the Christian, this will be determined by the word of God and by the application of godly wisdom to our personal circumstances and to our particular cultural context.

⁴³ I maintain this despite claims that biological men will be able to receive womb transplants and bear children within a decade. See Doug Mainwaring, “Health experts: ‘Transgender’ men will bear children within next decade,” Life Site News (July 4, 2017): https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/health-experts-transgender-men-will-bear-children-within-next-decade.

⁴⁴ Both the Hebrew word saris and the Greek word eunouchos can refer either to a court officer (Gen 39:1) or to a castrated male (Isa 56:3) or to one who was both (possibly Acts 8:27).

⁴⁵ See, for example, D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” F. E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Vol. 8 (Grand Rapids: Regency, 1984), 419; L. L. Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 485-486; R. T. France, The Gospel According to Matthew (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 725.

⁴⁶ See F. P. Retief and J. F. G. Cilliers, “Congenital eunuchism and Favorinus,” SAMJ 93:1 (January, 2003), 73-76.

⁴⁷ This is a much contested question. See, for example, Shaun Tougher, The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008); Kathryn M. Ringrose, “Eunuchs in Historical Perspective,” History Compass 5:2 (March 2007): 495–506; idem, The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003); Mathew Kuefler, The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).

⁴⁸ Contrary to the suggestion of Megan K. de Franza, Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 66.

⁴⁹ For example, “‘Inner man’, ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, ‘mind’, ‘heart’, – all do duty for the incorporeal part of man and different functions thereof. ‘Outer man’, ‘flesh’, ‘body’, ‘members’, ‘mouth’, ‘face’, and several metaphors do similar duty for the corporeal part of man.” Robert H. Gundry, Sōma in Biblical Theology: With Emphasis on Pauline Anthropology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987), 156.

⁵⁰ Admittedly, there are two texts that suggest a distinction between ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ (1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 4:12), which some see as evidence for a trichotomous or tripartite view. However these texts might best be interpreted, they do not disturb the general, two-fold distinction between the inner and outer person.

⁵¹ Some passages of Scripture (e.g., Matt 26:41; 1 Cor 5:5) employ a parallel contrast between ‘flesh’ (Gk. sarx) and ‘spirit’ (Gk. pneuma).

⁵² John W. Cooper, Body, Soul & Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 78.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ Oliver O’Donovan, Begotten or Made? (Oxford: OUP, 1984), 28-29.

⁵⁵ Cited in Vaughan Roberts, Transgender (Epsom: The Good Book Company, 2016), 43.

⁵⁶ Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament(Peabody: Hendrickson, 1997), 1429. See also Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, Charles A. Briggs, James Strong, and Wilhelm Gesenius, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic: Coded with the Numbering System from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996), 1072-73.

⁵⁷ Richard M. Davidson, Flame of Yahweh: Sexuality in the Old Testament (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007), 171.

⁵⁸ Ibid. See also the arguments of Peter J. Harland, “Menswear and Womenswear: A Study of Deuteronomy 22:5,” ExpTim 110 (1998): 74-75.

⁵⁹ Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2002), 1.945.

⁶⁰ Harland, “Menswear and Womenswear,” 76.

⁶¹ Transsexuality: A Report by the Evangelical Alliance Policy Commission (London: Evangelical Alliance, 2000), 47. In fairness to the report, it then goes on to modify its own verdict and in a helpful footnote admits that “we need to be careful not to dilute Scripture at this point.”

⁶² Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 512. The issues of intention and effect also require consideration. That is, might it be possible to engage in cross-dressing for (say) the purpose of entertainment without the intention or effect of confusing either self or others or ‘blurring established boundaries’? Perhaps. But there are obvious risks. While intentions can be innocuous, effects are much harder to predict and impossible to control.

⁶³ See Gordon J. Wenham, “The Old Testament Attitude to Homosexuality,” ExpTim 102 (1990-91): 359-63.

⁶⁴ Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 241.

⁶⁵ Robert J. Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 311.

⁶⁶ Ibid, 312.

⁶⁷ Consequently, transwomen are the fastest growing demographic of HIV-positive people in the US. See Sunnivie Brydum, “Why Transgender Women Have the Country’s Highest HIV Rates,” Plus (2 April, 2015) at http://www.hivplusmag.com/case-studies/2013/04/08/invisible-women-why-transgender-women-are-hit-so-hard-hiv.

⁶⁸ For example, commentators debate whether Paul is talking about head coverings, veils or hairstyles and what he means by “because of the angels” in v. 10. For a clear, scholarly and accessible exposition of both the meaning and implications of this chapter, see Claire Smith, God’s Good Design: What the Bible Says About Men and Women (Sydney: Matthias Media, 2012), 53-80.

⁶⁹ Ciampa and Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, 503.

⁷⁰ Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 805.

⁷¹ T. R. Schreiner, “Head Coverings, Prophecies and the Trinity,” in John Piper and Wayne Grudem (eds.), Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway, 1991), 138-139.

⁷² Smith, God’s Good Design, 78.

⁷³ Schreiner, “Head Coverings, Prophecies and the Trinity,” 138.

⁷⁴ I say ‘largely’ because it is impossible to disentangle the “complex interplay of nature, nurture, environment, and choices. Incremental choices made in response to impulses may strengthen the same impulses.” See R. J. Gagnon, “How Should Christians Respond to the Transgender Phenomenon,” First Things (October 16, 2015): https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/10/how-should-christians-respond-to-the-transgender-phenomenon.

⁷⁵ Not surprisingly, the instance of ‘sex-change regret’ is disturbingly high (and little publicised) and, tragically, the experience of undergoing ‘gender transition’ seems to do little to address the high attempted-suicide rate of transgender people (over 40%). In fact, one longitudinal Swedish study (published in 2011) found the attempted-suicide rate following transition was some twenty times that of comparable peers. See Cecilia Dhejne, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Anna L. V. Johansson, Niklas Långström, and Mikael Landén, “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” PLoS One 6:2 (22 February, 2011): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043071.

⁷⁶ John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1 (ed. J. T. McNeill; transl. F. L. Battles; 2 vols.; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), vol. 1, 737 (3.11.10).

⁷⁷ Contra Mark A. Yarhouse, “Understanding the Transgender Phenomenon,” Christianity Today (8 June, 2015): http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/july-august/understanding-transgender-gender-dysphoria.html?share=7K2biduOkWQzgfy+4ihDhypi09ikaJk3&paging=off.

⁷⁸ Robert A. J. Gagnon, “Gender Dysphoria and ‘Practical Application’: A Rejoinder to Mark Yarhouse” (August 28, 2016): http://www.robgagnon.net/Yarhouse%20Rejoinder.htm.

⁷⁹ Oliver O’Donovan, “Transsexualism and Christian Marriage,” Journal of Religious Ethics 11:1 (1983): 151.

⁸⁰ John Wyatt, Matters of Life and Death: Human Dilemmas in the light of the Christian faith (Nottingham: IVP, 2009), 98.

⁸¹ Ibid., 100. Furthermore, as O’Donovan argues (“Transsexualism and Christian Marriage,” 152), “Whatever the surgeon may be able to do, and whatever he may yet learn to do, he cannot make self out of not-self. He cannot turn an artifact into a human being’s body. The transsexual can never say with justice: ‘These organs are my bodily being, and their sex is my sex.’”

⁸² Richard P. Fitzgibbons, Philip M. Sutton & Dale O’Leary. “The Psychopathology of ‘Sex Reassignment’ Surgery: Assessing Its Medical, Psychological, and Ethical Appropriateness,” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 9:1 (2009): 97.

⁸³ Ibid., 98.

⁸⁴ Given the alarmingly high rate of post-transition suicide attempts and the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in persons who successfully suicide, the claim that withholding treatment increases suicide risk is misleading. See J. M. Bertolote and A. Fleischmann, “Suicide and psychiatric diagnosis: a worldwide perspective,” World Psychiatry 2002;1(3):181–185; Mayer and McHugh, “Sexuality and Gender,” 106-113.

⁸⁵ Mark A. Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture (Downers Grove: IVP, 2015), 151.

⁸⁶ Yarhouse, “Understanding the Transgender Phenomenon.”

⁸⁷ See Richard Hove, “Does Galatians 3:28 Negate Gender-Specific Roles?,” 105-143 and Daniel R. Heimbach, “The Unchangeable Difference: Eternally Fixed Sexual Identity for an Age of Plastic Sexuality,” 275-289. Both essays are found in Wayne Grudem, ed., Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood (Wheaton: Crossway, 2002).

⁸⁸ Augustine, The City of God, 19.22.17.

⁸⁹ Mark David Walton, “What We Shall Be: A Look at Gender and the New Creation,” JBMW 9/1 (Spring 2004), 19.

⁹⁰ As to the idea that the intersexed will be raised as intersexed, this would seem to fly in the face of the fact that all diseases, disorders and disabilities will be healed in the resurrection.

⁹¹ Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (4 vols in 14 part-volumes; eds. Geoffrey W. Bromiley & Thomas F. Torrance; transl. Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1975), III/I, 195.

⁹² C. C. Roberts, Creation & Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage (New York: T & T Clark, 2007), 165-166.

⁹³ This is why it appears, and how it is classified, in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the weakness of DSM-V, as we’ve already noted, is that it is only the dysphoria or distress that is seen as the clinical problem, not the gender incongruence itself (as was the case in DSM-IV). This leads to a focus on alleviating the consequence (distress) rather than attempt to resolve the condition (incongruence) causing the distress. However, there are stronger reasons for regarding gender incongruence itself (irrespective of the distress it may or may not cause) as a mental disorder. This was the helpfulness of the category of ‘Gender Identity Disorder’ in DSM-IV.

⁹⁴ See Paul McHugh, “Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme,” Public Discourse (June 10, 2015): http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/06/15145.

⁹⁵ Ibid.

⁹⁶ Russell Moore, “Joan or John? My Answer: Part Two,” Russell Moore (May 26, 2009): http://www.russellmoore.com/2009/05/26/joan-or-john-my-answer-part-two.

⁹⁷ Nick Cater, “How ‘diversity’ became a weasel word for the gender warriors,” The Australian (August 30, 2016): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/nick-cater/how-diversity-became-a-weasel-word-for-the-gender-warriors/news-story/9ae57ce7593d2be3657a936b66524898.

⁹⁸ See R. Albert Mohler Jr., We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2015).