I’ve seen numerous incidences in the news over the last couple years of transgender discrimination and for the most part, while I’m technically in that minority, I haven’t felt that it was my calling to make a huge stir about it. I’ve included topics such as these in my posts in the past but normally, they discuss much larger issues as a whole. I have yet to post about one specific issue.

So what happened? Well, if you’ve been under a rock for the past week. At Achille Middle School in Oklahoma, the school was closed on Monday and Tuesday (August 13th and 14th) after fears that counterprotesters would show up to a group of peaceful protests out in front of the school. It was for the safety of both the protestors and the students. But what’s important is why this all started.

Allegedly this incident began when after 12-year old transgender student Maddie used the girl’s bathroom on her first day of seventh-grade. I personally feel that there is more to the roots of this story as one article mentions that Maddie had also gotten in trouble on her first day of class for peeking over a stall devider. If this entire incident was over that one day she couldn’t find the staff bathrooms, then when did she peek over the stall walls and what was the outcome of that incident? But I digress.

I would prefer to not fill this post with repetitive information about the incident and if you want to know more, please read the following articles:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/15/us/ach…
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/08/15…
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-o…
https://abcnews.go.com/US/oklahoma-sc…

However, if there was one point of this incident that I would like to discuss, it’s the “Achille ISD Parents Group” that was started on Facebook around this incident. When two parents complained about Maddies use of the girl’s bathroom, the group exploded with hateful comments and threats of bodily harm to the young girl. And this is where I want to start; I don’t care if you think transgenderism is right or wrong. I don’t care if you think GOD will send you to hell for being transgender, or gay for that matter. YOU DO NOT! I repeat, DO NOT! Threaten any child (or adult) like that!

I’ll be honest, I’m still a bit torn on the transgender subject and I still struggle to this day to come to a final belief if my Christian faith finds it okay or not.  Sadly, while some can point to verses about homosexuality and what GOD created us, there is no black and white line drawn in the Holy Word. If you claim to be Christian, I need you to understand that Jesus taught us to love others; much of the three gospels have stories of him dining with sinners. Jesus was a progressive for his time period and we as Christians need to understand that. While I don’t believe we should be casting Jesus in our modern day lens, he didn’t go on Facetablet and write hateful comments about the all the prostitutes in town. Honestly, we as Christians like to look the other way on adultery and other terrible sins but yet transgenderism (something that isn’t clearly defined as wrong) is what we like make death threats over? This is why I’m sickened that so many Christians have looked the other way with our president all because they now have something to gain from him.

I’m saddened to see that this is what American Christianity has come to. Even in my own church which has a large number of some truly passionate people after GOD’s heart, I’ve experienced them make some downright hateful comments in front of me. These comments disgust me and make me sad to think about all the kids at my church that might deal with gender identity issues such as myself and won’t get the help they need because these Christian aren’t any better than the ones I grew up with – they might even be worst.

I don’t want to leave out girls who struggle with their gender but I’m personally passionate about boys who struggle, hence my own struggle. My heart goes out to Maddie and Rebecca (transgender girl elsewhere in the world) especially. There has been a lot of misconceptions for years now over childhood development in regards to gender identity. I came out of a time period were girls played with dolls and if you had a penis, you were a boy. It was a different time and I believe that a lot of adults today who struggle were very likely raised in this time period, much as myself.

Today it has become common to prescribe puberty blockers to young children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I believe it’s only become so common because we can. It doesn’t make it wrong but it also doesn’t make it right. There are a number of people who are practicing artificial social engineering and in cases where we’re getting it wrong, it’s doing more hurt than good.

Recent articles have peaked my interest regarding the psychological evaluations of non-gender conforming boys. Some articles are really good and talk about how boys need to have the opportunities to express themselves and find who they are. And in many cases, they develop into perfectly healthy normal men, many one-day having children and wives. However, there are those who get labeled trans or gay, and sadly, they usually end up becoming a victim of this artificial social engineering.

There was one article I read that gave some statistics and I would agree that some of the numbers seem skewed for an unknown reason. One place claimed that 30% of non-gender conforming boys would become gay or trans, while another claimed that number more around 70-80%, which proves my point. With numbers like these, it’s honestly hard to judge if a boy “should” receive puberty blockers or not – especially when we don’t fully understand the long-term effects they [and hormones] have on our bodies. I would agree that if a boy is likely to become trans then you would want the puberty blockers, as it only improves how well they transition later.

I believe I’d be a perfect example of a “boy” that might have benefited from puberty blockers, that’s assuming I would have had access to them in my preteens. I struggle today thinking that I’m far too late and could never fully become who I identify as. I actually feel some jealousy towards these boys and wished I could have received the help I needed. I don’t want to see another boy suffer like I did and that’s why I want to help fight. How I come to remedy my struggle is still to be discovered.

In the meantime, my spouse and I are working on being foster parents. Coming back to the situation of people we know at church, there are many who are foster parents themselves. Before we had started the process one lady from church advised us, to not let our licensing agency transfer us to any other agency. Her reasoning was because every other agency has an LGBTQ+ agenda, as she put it. She tried to claim that so many of these agencies denied families she knew simply because they were Christian. First off, this is sort of a contradiction, in this day and age, just being Christian doesn’t make you anti-gay or anti-trans. Second, the agency had to have a reason, I don’t believe they could simply say, “Oh, you’re a Christian? Okay, goodbye!” I responded to her with the question, “What LGBTQ+ agenda?” When that wasn’t good enough, I clarified, “I know the LGBTQ+ agenda but I don’t know what their LGBTQ+ agenda is.” She obviously wasn’t interested in arguing her claim of being a victim.

She couldn’t explain it to me and I believe she was only referencing the number of recent influx of social services removing trans children from their homes because their parents are denying them transitional help. And this is likely why they are being denied, I honestly wonder if they at some point were asked about fostering trans children and they came on a bit too strongly about their belief of said children.

Anyways, I’ve made it a goal that I don’t ever want to turn a trans-child away, because far too many Christians are already doing this. If we’re to be Christian, then we need to welcome them into our family and show them love. Also, these foster parents from our church love to speak about how much these children need GOD, so why are you turning them away? If being trans is wrong then that even more of a reason to bring them to church and let them experience GOD. I’ll need to write more about this at a later date.

And lastly, I’d love to be given the opportunity to foster a trans kid, so I could learn personally from them. I wish to know what goes on in their head and how they feel. It might help me understand myself better. And because I believe my church has been living in a bit of a bubble from the LGBTQ+ community, I’d like this to be an opportunity to open dialog with people. The question of bathroom use at my church would likely come up. Since my spouse and I volunteer in the children’s ministry at church, I’ve seen the way they direct boys and girls to use the bathroom. I know some parents would have problems about it.

I hope you enjoyed this read and I’m trying to post more frequently. I usually spend my time writing in my book since I only have a few hours a week to write. Anyways, thanks for reading and consider sharing if you liked it. 😀