This Essay has been co-authored by Fr. Timothy Naples and Joseph P. Blanchette
The book Male, Female, Other? A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender, by Jason Evert, is becoming the topic of Catholic book groups in Vermont. Catholics are recognizing the devastating effects Transgenderism is having among our youth, completely distorting God’s beautiful gifts of human sexuality and marriage.
Recent studies about the mental health of our children, teens, and emerging adults uniformly document an alarming spike in the levels of mental illness, depression, and anxiety disorders that our youth have been experiencing over the past decade. Professionals in this field like Jonathan Haidt, Jean Twenge, and Erica Komisar all express similar concerns about these trends. Interestingly, Boston College professor Peter Kreeft sounded the same alarm in 1986 when he wrote, “[P]eople are hurting far more psychologically and spiritually today than ever before. Suicides are up. Depression is up. Mindless violence is up. Boredom is up. Loneliness is up. Drug escapism is up. But the barbarians are no longer at the gates. What are we escaping from? We are escaping from ourselves, or trying to, because we hurt deep down.”
Every problem Kreeft cited is much worse today. There are many reasons, including the arrival of iPhones, social media sites like Tik-Tok and Facebook, family turmoil, our sex-obsessed media, easy access to porn, predictions of climate catastrophes, gun violence, laws encouraging assisted suicide and aborting babies, and more. Add to these, the troubling data documenting the striking number of young people who, starting in middle school, are abandoning their belief in God or their religious upbringing. Why would anyone be surprised that so many of our youth are confused, in pain, and struggling? Catholic Theologian Deborah Savage summarizes the effects on our children: “They have been left alone in a cosmos with nothing to guide them, not even a firm grasp of their basic humanity, and no means of finding their way home.”
Now an alarming cultural crisis, Transgenderism, has exploded onto the scene over the past decade, further confusing and frightening our youth. Parents and grandparents today are hearing of, reading about, or experiencing situations where children suddenly inform their family that they have changed their names, their pronouns, and stating that they want to be—or already are—the opposite sex. (“I know I’m really a boy, not a girl.”) Too often, these children or teens get “fast-tracked” into life-altering puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries. Not only are these children in crisis, but their parents and entire family experience shock, fear, turmoil, and pain. Startled parents desperately ask, “What is happening to our daughter?” “What is non-binary? Gender fluid?” “Where can I get good advice?” “How should we respond?” “What did we do wrong?” Along with sleepless nights, such questions from parents multiply as they worry about their 11-year-old son or daughter.
Those not facing such a family crisis may be tempted to think these concerns are merely exaggerations of the normal growing pains of youth. The reality, however, is that this recent phenomenon is far more complicated, widespread, and serious than you might imagine. Parents must deal with the fact that our youth are being targeted by political ideologues whose goal is to disrupt the traditional, biological and cultural realities about the existence of two, and only two, sexes: male and female. These “gender activists” or “trans-activists” firmly believe that by indoctrinating youth with so-called non-binary and gender ideologies they can eliminate the natural, millennia-long understanding of what it means to be male and female. At the core, it is God’s very creation which is subjected to attack. Pope Francis has called gender theory “the ugliest danger.” An April 2024 Vatican “declaration” titled Dignitas Infinita, reaffirms his concern. “Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and women are to be rejected.”
It’s critical to understand what is taking place in society. Troubling, so-called “gender affirming” practices are being advanced by most medical and mental health professionals, and especially within the public schools starting at the earliest elementary grade levels. It’s not something distant from you. It’s all around you. When you hear of males being allowed in female-safe spaces, “trans-female (a male) wins national women’s swim title,” “sex assigned at birth,” “ciswoman,” “birthing person,” “Gender Affirming Care,” “Drag Queen Story Hour” for first graders, “Frosty the Snowperson,” “The Gender-Bread Man,” “The Gender Unicorn,” or are asked “what are your pronouns” at work or when filling out a form—as kids in public elementary schools are asked—know that you are witnessing this ideology seeping into your world.
True gender dysphoria is a serious mental health condition. Transgenderism, however, is a political and ideological movement, meant to throw into doubt all truth and knowledge of who we are as male and female. We can oppose radical, ideological trans-activists who are driving the transgenderism movement, while also caring for unsuspecting children, teens, and family members experiencing a serious mental health crisis and trauma. These families deserve our understanding, compassion, support and love. Our love and concern should move us to speak confidently of the biological truth of our existence: that there are only two sexes. The sooner we convey the message that activists, medical professionals, and schools should stop teaching relativistic, transgender propaganda to our children, the sooner young people will find inner peace for themselves and their families. Jason Evert’s book, Male, Female, Other, offers well-documented, foundational information that will enhance your understanding and ability to address this important topic.
Finally, we must continue promoting the Catholic Church’s beautiful teachings about our God-given gift of sexuality. They offer a salvific storehouse of wisdom, with excellent writings by recent popes about marriage and family, including John Paul’s masterpiece, Theology of the Body. They address the cultural challenges we are facing, and through the Holy Spirit will guide us to happiness, bringing us back to Genesis and God’s plan of salvation: “God created man in his image. In the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them… and it was very good.”
Ubi Petrus VT 