Transgender Confusion Goes beyond Elementary School Bathrooms

Published: May 26, 2016, 4:36 p.m.

b'This week, 10 states announced that they would sue the Obama administration following its executive order mandating that school districts allow transgender students to use their bathroom of their preferred gender. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed an amendment aimed at preventing the US government from withholding federal funds from North Carolina, after the state passed its controversial \\u201cbathroom bill,\\u201d requiring people to use the bathroom that matches their birth certificate this March. This comes on the heels of the Justice Department\\u2019s decision to sue the state for the law for \\u201cstate-sponsored discrimination.\\u201d Few of these political fights have helped anyone better understand the nuances of transgenderism, says Mark Yarhouse, the author of Understanding Gender Dysphoria and founder of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity. \\u201cPeople experience legislation as an attack on the things that they believe in, and other people think that legislation is symbolic of the things that matter the most to them,\\u201d he said. \\u201cYou could easily have two sides speaking past each other. I think that\\u2019s what we have today.\\u201d CT believes that God created people with male and female identities and would generally encourage integration and alignment of gender identity with biological sex, based on a creational account of male and female (Gen. 1-2) and the overall goodness of bodies and embodiment. But what does that belief mean for how Christians engage this topic in the world? Yarhouse joined Morgan and Katelyn on Quick to Listen this week to discuss what\\u2019s behind the term cis-gender, what the Supreme Court\\u2019s ruling on same-sex marriage may mean about evangelicals\\u2019 response, and how one transgender Christian has handled the bathroom conversation in her church. (5:30) What do bathrooms have to do with larger discussions about gender identity and the broader LGBTQ movement? (8:45) Is it accurate to describe transgender people as an immutable class or is it more complicated than that? (14:20) What ways other than politics and reality shows that Americans can learn more about the transgender experience?\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices'