All parents need to understand gender ideology. The stark reality is that the “gender revolution” is being livestreamed into our children’s daily lives, offering a seductive vision that is deeply disturbing and untrue. Gender ideology is having an impact: the number of children and adolescents with identity concerns has risen sharply in recent years. (The UK, for example, reported a 400% rise over five years in the number of children seeking gender transition, and a 4,400% increase over ten years in the number of adolescent females seeking gender transition.) For families with a loved one who experiences gender dysphoria or announces a transgender identity, the situation is especially difficult. It is hard to know who to trust or how to help.
The impact of gender ideology extends far beyond the number of children and teens who personally experience identity confusion, however. Gender ideology has distorted the cultural meaning of “man” and “woman.” It is changing our language, dictating new words and meanings (e.g., “cisgender”), and altering our relationships. Every institution is affected. Employers and schools require new trainings on “transgender inclusivity” and institute new policies covering “gender identity.” Social media has become a minefield, where people who think biological sex is real, that males can never become females (and thus “transwomen” are not women at all), or that women’s sports and private spaces are worthy of protection, must tread lightly or face a virtual mob and social humiliation.
Catholics are called to respond. For Catholics, gender ideology is best understood as a troubling disconnect from the truth about who we are—the inevitable result of a culture that has forgotten God. As both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have observed, gender ideology promises a false, androgynous “utopia” even as it wages a “global war” on marriage and the family.
But where sin abounds, grace does too. This present moment offers a tremendous opportunity for the Church to re-propose the truth about the human person, and to call all persons into relationship with the merciful and loving God. Catholic families need to understand the threats posed by gender ideology and then counter its lies. We have something to offer that the world—and our loved ones—so desperately need: the truth.
Grounded in theological principles and practical experience, Person and Identity Project resources are designed to assist Catholic families and institutions in responding to the false claims of gender ideology and proclaiming the truth about who we are, in the light of Christ.