Vatican: People Cannot Choose or Change Their Gender Identity

The Vatican this week released guidance created by the educational arm of the Catholic Church trashing the idea that gender identity is fluid, in a document titled “Male and Female He Created Them”.

The NYT reports: ‘The document, issued by the Vatican department overseeing Catholic education, echoed past statements by Pope Francis. It argued that acceptance of flexible ideas of gender posed a threat to traditional families and ignored the natural differences between men and women. It lamented “calls for public recognition of the right to choose one’s gender, and of a plurality of new types of unions, in direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman, which is portrayed as a vestige of patriarchal societies.”’

USA Today reports: ‘LGBTQ Catholics denounced the document, stating that it “will cause families to reject their children, and it will increase alienation of LGBT people from the Church.” “By ignoring new scientific understandings of gender identity, and by refusing to engage in dialogue with LGBT people about their lived experiences of self-understanding and faith, the Vatican remains in the dark ages, promoting a false teaching that relies on myth, rumor, and falsehoods.” writes Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics.’

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