This is a very confusing world.  Bruce Jenner is now known as Caitlyn Jenner.  The NEA considered replacing “mother” with “birthing parent.”  Employers are requiring employees to use preferred pronouns.  Toronto police were recently asking for help finding a missing woman.  However, the “woman” looked very much like a man.  Some female sports are now dominated by those who are genetically male (so much for Title IX). 

Bible

The Bible seems clear.  God created mankind “male and female” (Genesis 1:27).  Jesus said, “Have you not read?  He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’…? (Matthew 19:4-6).  God created two sexes, male and female.  The sex of Adam was male.  The sex of Eve was female.  Their sexes were determined by God in creation.  All is declared to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  Luke wrote of “men and women” (Acts 8:12; 9:1-2).  A third sex is not mentioned by any writer of the Bible.

Science

Science seems to be clear.  Those born with XY chromosomes are male.  Those born with XX chromosomes are female.     There are some rare abnormalities.  (1) Some males are born with an extra sex chromosome.  (a) There are XXY males (Klinefelter Syndrome).  This affects about one in 500 males (Klinefelter Syndrome by Cynthia M. Smyth M.D. and William J. Bremner M.D., Ph.D., jamanetwork.com). (b) There are XYY males (Jacobs Syndrome).  This affects about one in 1,000 males (XYY Syndrome by Kimberly Holland, healthline.com).  (2) Some females are born with only one X chromosome.  These are XO females (Turner Syndrome).  This affects about one in 2,000 females (turnersyndromefoundation.org).  (3) Some females are born with an extra chromosome.  These are XXX females (Triple X Syndrome).  This disorder affects about one in 1,000 females (Triple X Syndrome – Symptoms and Causes – Mayo Clinic, mayoclinic.org).  (4) Some are born with ambiguous genitalia (Intersex or hermaphrodite).  About one in 1,000 babies are born this way (study: About 1 in 1,000 Babies are Born ‘Intersex’ by Robert Preidt, webmd.com).  “Hermaphroditism is a rare problem.  In such cases, through abnormal development a person is born with ambiguous external sexual features but usually has make or female internal sexual organs… In an XX female hermaphrodite, the internal Wolffian anatomy (female) is developed with both external genitalia present.  The XY make hermaphrodite has internal male structures and both external genitalia… Nature usually produces a clear-cut make or female.  These exceptions are very rare and even they are thought of in terms of one sex or the other based upon chromosomes and sexual structure” (Counseling Homosexuals by Bill W. Flatt, Ed.D.; Jack P. Lewis, Ph.D.; and Dowell E. Flatt, Th.D., p. 66-69). 

It is important to understand that these abnormalities do not create a third sex.  Moreover, they are not the cause of the LGBTQ movement.  The LGBTQ movement has nothing to do with science.

Identity and Reality

We live in an age when some believe that their thinking, what they inwardly identify as being determines reality.  Rachel Dolezal became a news story in 2015.  She presented herself as a black woman.  She even became the head of the Spokane NAACP.  However, her own parents outed her as being white.  She said in a Vanity Fair interview, “If people feel misled or deceived, then sorry that they feel that way, but I believe that’s more due to their definition and construction of race in their own minds than it is to my integrity or honesty, because I wouldn’t say I’m African American, but I would say I’m black and there is a difference in those terms.”  Again, “I don’t know spiritually and metaphysically how this goes, but I know that from my earliest memories I have awareness and connection with the black experience, and that’s never left me” (An Interview with Rachel Dolezal by Allison Samuels and Justin Bishop, July 19, 2015, vanityfair.com).  In 2019 Elizabeth Warren apologized for almost two decades of claiming to be Native American (Elizabeth Warren Apologizes For Calling Herself Native American by Annie Linskey and Amy Gardner, February 5, 2019, washingtonpost.com).  A woman in Norway claims that she is a cat trapped in a human body (Woman Claims She’s a Cat Trapped in Human Body by Katherine Timpf, January 28, 2016, nationalreview.com).

There are things done which do not change reality.  (1) Subjective thoughts do not change objective reality (Proverb 16:2, 25).  (2) Behavior does not necessarily change reality.  David once pretended to be insane (1 Samuel 21:13).  He was not insane. Nebuchadnezzar once ate grass like an ox (Daniel 4).  He was not an ox, though he behaved like an ox.  (3) Surgery and hormone treatment does not change one’s sexual chromosomes (These points are made in an article by Weyland Deaver, Transgenderism and The Bible, biblicalnotes.com).

Gender and Sex

Brent Pollard has suggested that a distinction can be made between the words “gender” and “sex.”  Yes, the terms can be used interchangeably.  They can also be used with distinction. He cites the Oxford English Dictionary. OED references in 1945 the Americal Journal of Psychology, saying gender is the “socialized obverse of sex. “Sex has to do with biology.  Gender can refer to what society perceives as masculine or feminine.  Esau might be considered by some more “manly” than Jacob, but they were both males by sex.  He writes, “Even today, what constitutes ‘manliness’ is subject to varying cultural concepts around the globe.  In South Korea, for example, men are more likely to use cosmetics than men elsewhere in the world.  And in Scotland, men might wear a kilt.  It looks like a ‘skirt’ to Americans, but we understand it is culturally appropriate apparel for Scottish men” (Sex and Gender, May 20, 2022 by Brent Pollard, preacherpollard.com). 

Love

We need to show love.  Consider the story of Chloe Cole.  She decided to transition at age 12.  She began hormone treatments at age 13.  She had a double mastectomy at age 15.  She regretted it by age 16, and began detransition.  She says, “I was going through a period where I was just really isolated at school, so I turned to the internet… My dysphoria was definitely triggered by this online community.  I never thought about my gender or had a problem with being a girl before going on Tumblr… I started being exposed to a lot of LGBT content and activism… I saw how trans people online got an overwhelming amount of support, and the amount of praise they were getting really spoke to me, because at the time, I didn’t really have a lot of friends of my own… Because my body didn’t match beauty ideals, I started wondering if there was something wrong with me.  I thought I wasn’t pretty enough to be a girl, so I’d be better off as a boy” (‘I Literally lost organs’: Why De-transitioned Teens Regret Changing Genders by Rikki Schlott, June 18, 2022, nypost.com).  This is a girl who needed love.