Fifty-Five Transgender Propositional Theses

I propose these as worthy of belief within the Catholic Transgender milieu and worthy of discussion for the matters that relate to Transgender Persons and our struggles.

As indicated below, the following is excerpted from an appendix to a larger essay, an open letter to the Church. It discusses and appeals to transgender inclusion and acceptance from many angles, using terms and ideas that Catholics and Transgender persons alike could accept.

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APPENDIX C:

Fifty-Five Transgender Theses

The purpose of the following is to give a summary of the preceding letter and its core points through the following theses. The name this appendix takes its inspiration and name from the ‘24 Thomistic Theses’ promulgated under Benedict XV. Locations where further support for these Theses are cited after each Thesis. These are not to be read as a series of mere logical deductions or proofs, but simply statements of belief, worthy of consideration and further discussion, as simply a summary of the ideas in the essay as a whole.

Metaphysical Theses

1. The Nature of Creatures (Nature, that is, Nature taken in se and in itself; or Essence) is such that it is always Ontologically Prior to all Affectations of the Creature when instantiated in Creation. (page 20)

2. Essence Precedes Existence. That is, Nature or Essence must exist ontologically prior to the Creature’s coming into Being. (Page 20)

3. The Nature or Essence of any Creature is a gift lovingly bestowed by the Creator. (pages 20-21)

4. The Diversity of God’s Creatures, down to fine biological variations between particular beings even of the same species or family, are due to what may be termed God’s Permissive Will. (pages 21-22)

5. Existentialism itself is false and dangerous. Rather, society may be said to create social constructs that are imposed on a Creature’s Nature only after such creatures come to exist and express themselves in the World. (Page 20)

6. Creatures express their essence by their Creaturely activity. Thus the Nature of a Creature may be discovered, and not invented, by Observation and Natural Reason. (Page 20)

Transgender-Specific Theses

Ethics

7. It is particularly cruel and detestably unjust to cause a person to live contrary to the aspects of their Nature that are most fundamental and life-giving. (Pages 12-14,31)

8. Gender Identity is a truly life affirming aspect of the Nature of Persons, one which is more or less neurologically innate. (pages 12-14, 31)

9. The active and deep repression of an otherwise life-affirming Gender Identity is destructive to the human person and contrary to one’s infinite dignity. (pages 15-16)

10. The internal experiences of Transgender persons may be approximated by the experience of David Reimer, who was caused to live contrary to his basic instincts about his gender identity, and his reversion to living as male is analogous to transitioning. (pages 12, 31)

11. To refuse or disallow medical or social transitioning in the case of someone suffering from gender dysphoria is to cause them to live against their instincts (as was done to David Reimer) and is therefore the matter of cruelty and injustice. (see pages 35-39)

12. Transgender persons, in a way not fully understood, but indeed in a way that is well documented, have inherited a Nature which is the cause of their identification with the gender of the opposite Sex. (pages 14-15, appendix A)

13. That Transgender Persons have inherited such a nature is knowable through neurological MRI imaging, reports of transgender children diverging from the gender norms of their birth Sex at extremely young ages, miscellaneous bio-physical indicators such as phantom limb syndrome or general gender dysphoria / gender euphoria at expressing themselves as the opposite sex. (pages 14-15, Appendix A)

14. Gender Dysphoria is caused by being out of alignment with one’s psychologically innate gender identity, which itself in a way of speaking is to be out of alignment with one’s inherited Nature. (pages 12-13, 15-17)

15. Gender Euphoria is caused by living in alignment with one’s psychologically innate gender identity, and this is just as important to the transgender experience, for the opposite reason as Gender Dysphoria. (pages 17-19)

16. The use of medical interventions for Transgender Persons are little different in intent than other medical interventions such as the need of glasses for the eyes, braces for the teeth, surgeries for the heart, etc. The main difference is that such interventions are aimed at the integral and holistic good of persons psychologically, rather than that of certain tissues. (pages 17-19, 34-38)

17. Even if Genital Reconstruction or Hormone treatment were considered sins, the only consistent view would be that it would be venial, insofar as such decisions are made under genuine and sufficient psychological duress, or such that the psychological benefits gained from such interventions outweigh the negatives (in accord with the principle of double effect). The venial nature of this should be seen as analogous to a lie told to protect a person from a murderer, which can only be consistently considered venial.

18. In alignment with Nicea I on castration in medically necessary situations (canon 1), the side effect of temporary or permanent sterilization may be permitted as medically necessary without offense to the order of things. Bioethically, this can only be allowable if such an intervention tends towards the overall integral and holistic psychological good of the Person; and in fact, the restoration of psychological integration through Human Medical Genius brings glory, and is pleasing to, the Creator of All. (Nicea I, Canon 1; pages 17-19, 35-38)

19. Self-expression is not a sin, if such behavior leads to a genuine expansion of an integral and holistic interior freedom and integration. (affirmed by author throughout)

20. Further, as Aquinas affirms, it is acceptable for one to wear the clothing of the opposite sex provided that there is some legitimate motive. Alleviating legitimate psychological distress and approaching integration of selfhood is such a motive, and therefore it does not have the matter of sin. (Summa Theologia, II-II, Q169, a2 reply obj3)

Anthropology / Psychology

21. Although they are grouped together for convenience by society, Transgenderism may be treated completely separately from LGB topics. (implicitly affirmed by author throughout)

22. A Soul is not rightly termed Male or Female. Rather, the Soul gives rise to structures that lead to a Male or Female body; and then in the brain, a Male or Female identity. (page 33-34, 24 Thomistic Theses, 14-21)

23. Mind is distinct from Soul, being as it is that Soul is the ground on and in which the Person’s Being is constituted; Mind arises from Soul. (page 33-34, 24 Thomistic Theses, 14-21)

24. Psychological Identity proceeds from the Intellect’s apprehension of a variety of causes that proceed from the Animal Faculties of the Soul, and this is just as much apart of the Nature of the Person as one’s Bodily Nature. (page 34)

25. Gender Identity and Sexual Identity are distinct, but cannot be separated since both proceed from the overall Unity of the Person’s Nature. One proceeds from Bodily realities, the other proceeds from Psychological realities. (affirmed throughout)

26. God has created Sex as Bimodal, Gender Identity as a spectrum, and Gender Expression as best when it is in conformity to one’s Gender Identity. All of these are distinct terms; Sex may be known as Bimodal from Intersex persons, and the other terms’ meanings are made clear by basic observation of society itself. (see Appendix D)

27. The existence of Transgender and Intersex Persons greatly magnifies the fact that Gender Identity are gifts lovingly bestowed by the Creator in a way that is not a social construct, being as it is that transgender persons strongly resist being socially conditioned to be of a psychological gender they are not. Thus the Church may find allyship in Transgender persons in her fight against Nihilist Existentialism, or Social Constructionist views about Gender Identity. (pages 20-22)

28. A Transgender Identity is just as much as a gift from God as a Cisgender Identity. (pages 20-22, 31)

29. Far from rejecting God’s gifts, a Transgender Person rather affirms God’s gifts by accepting themselves and living accord with their psychological Gender Identity. (pages 20-22)

30. A Trans Man and a Trans Woman are, respectively, Men and Women. This should be affirmed in the sense of being in regards to their Gender Identity, even if they respectively remain materially sexually Female or Male by appearance. Thus, they are merely a type of Man or type of Woman. (implicitly affirmed by the author)

31. Gender Identity is distinct and completely different from Sex such that these two terms refer to different realities. (page 11-12)

32. Gender Identity should be understood as a mostly neurologically innate psychological disposition, one that exists on a spectrum between male and female, whereas Sexual Identity is a Bodily state existing under two distinct modes of male and female; i.e. it is Bimodal. (page 12-13)

33. It is only one’s expression of gender which may be said to be socially constructed and maintained, since these differ from culture to culture. This is different from gender identity itself, which as has been said, is more or less neurologically determined and is prior to its expression. (appendix D)

Biblical Interpretation

34. God beholds the inner person, and sees not as human beings do, who only judge by appearances (1 Samuel. 16:7). In this way the psychological Identity of Transgender Persons is regarded by God as legitimate, and there is little force to the idea that male or female tissues determine one to have a certain psychological identification. (pages 32-33)

35. As the Bible says, God created humans male and female. Transgender and Intersex Persons are merely variations of this order of male and female in a way that brings glory to Him, no less than as twilight or solar eclipses do with the categories of Night and Day. (pages 20-22, 33)

36. God taken in se shares in a Complex Gender Identity. For instance, the Logos is beautifully personified as Lady Sophia in the Old Testament and described as the best Bride of all, whom the Lord Loved from of Old (see Sirach 24, Wisdom 6-8, or Proverbs 8). Also, being Pure Act or better still the Pure Act of Being itself, God does not lack any essence, and therefore He is both Male and Female, in a way that transcends both categories. (pages 22-25)

37. When Jesus said that one must become Eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom, this was indeed a metaphor for celibacy. However, it must be said that this metaphor enunciated that Gender and Sexual diversity are no barrier at all for communion with God, especially when contrasted against Deuteronomy 23:1. (implicitly affirmed by author)

38. Galatians 3:28 proves even further that God does not draw ultimate distinctions between a relationship with Him and one’s gender identity, let alone sexual identity. (page 27)

History

39. Transgender People have always existed, and are not the invention of theorists. This may be easily proved by anyone well versed in archeology, history, or sociology. (pages 25-30)

40. It is significant to discussions about Gender and Spirituality that various male mystics thought and wrote about themselves as female to God, or used female metaphors to describe their relationship with God, i.e. as Bridal. Most eminently, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Mystic and Doctor of the Church. (ibid)

41. It is significant that many people who were once assumed to have a female gender identity lived as male monks in antiquity for most of their lives. Notably, Sts. Marianos the Monk or Euthrosyne of Alexandria (ibid)

42. Such persons throughout history unequivocally prove that one may be gender-expansive while serving both God and Society. (ibid)

Miscellaneous / Multiple Categories

43. As St. Augustine affirms, it is a dangerous and harmful proposition, not to mention false and ignorant, to affirm that Human Biodiversity is merely a product of Sin or the Fall. (pages 21-22, 33-34)

44. Moreover, it is impossible to prove that Gender Diversity is an effect of the Fall. Otherwise, other normal human variations, such as lefthandedness, eye color, or heaven forbid, race, could be argued to be Fallen on similarly prejudicial grounds. (ibid)

45. Even if Gender Variation was said to be an effect of the Fall, this should be spoken of only as other conditions that require basic medical correction are spoken of, such as glasses, braces, heart conditions, etc. and not as evidence of any kind of Sin on behalf of the person. (ibid)

46. As St. Augustine and certain psalms affirm, it is the Diversity within God’s Creation that brings a special glory to Him through the manifestation of His Wisdom. (City of God, 16.8; Psalm 104: 24, pages 20-22)

47. It is uniqueness from a set norm which gives enhanced meaning to the norm itself. (implicitly affirmed by author)

Theses Relating to the Church

48. It is the duty of the Church not to repeat her history of rejecting the legitimate findings of Science. (Magnifica Humanitas, 23, 177; pages 9-10, 39)

49. The current situation of the Church in regards to Transgender Persons may be likened to the historical situation of Heliocentrism and Slavery, both of which the Church has apologized for her role in. (ibid)

50. The present stance of the Vatican on transgender persons involves the affirmation of a false and harmful dialectic, within which one must seemingly choose between their mental health and implicit/explicit excommunication. (See page 8, and 2023 Response to Dubia)

51. In its official documents the Vatican has largely understood not transgenderism taken in itself i.e., as an anthropological phenomenon, but has pretended that it is due solely to a school of thought that may be termed existentialist, foucaultian, nihilistic, marxist, etc. the errors of which are affirmed in this letter as dangerous to individuals, the family, society, and to Church. Even still, such errors have nearly nothing to do with the experience of most Transgender persons. (pages 6, 20, 29, 35)

52. Inasmuch as the Church has not addressed the legitimate experiences of Transgender persons, her teachings on Transgenderism are not binding to Transgender people except against insofar as they embody the aforementioned legitimate errors of existentialists. (ibid)

53. The Church must recognize the fact that she openly or at least tacitly approved the forced castration of young boys in the case of ‘Castrato’ singers for centuries, and that this was only officially phased out with the destruction of the Papal States and officially rid of by Pius X in 1903. Due to this, the Church has no moral ground to stand on in condemning transgender persons until such a recognition is issued. (affirmed specifically here)

54. It is displeasing to Christ that anyone be turned away from attending church due to prejudice, especially out of mere ignorance. (pages 3-6))

55. The need for active, open, and authentic intellectual communication with the Transgender community and the Church, that All may enter therein, is very great, and this is to the degree that not to do so would constitute shutting the Kingdom of Heaven before Human Beings. (pages 39-40).