February 21, 2023

By Bill Berkowitz

While the 2024 Presidential election may not hinge on transgender issues, you can bet attacks on trans youth will play a huge role in determining who will be the Republican Party’s standard-bearer. Recently, former president Donald Trump directed threats against transgender youth claiming that “The left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse—very simple.” 

The Catholic Church — with its sordid history of sexual abuse of children, covering up sexual abuse, financial shenanigans, backing ultra-conservative politicians, supporting Trump, and backing anti-LGBTQ initiatives — is also targeting transgender youth.

Earlier this year, the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, issued new gender identity policies. According to the Des Moines Register, the new policies that “prohibit staff, students and parishioners from using their preferred pronouns, are in effect at its 80 churches and 17 Catholic schools.”

In Portland, Oregon, The Mary Sue’s Cammy Pedroja reported that Portland area Archbishop Alexander K. Sample “has told Catholic schools in the area to completely rebuff what he calls the ‘theory’ of gender identity.”

Directions from the instructional document titled “A Catholic Response to Gender Identity Theory: Catechesis and Pastoral Guidelines,” whose purpose is “to provide clarity on the Catholic Church’s teaching on gender identity theory,” include:

• “Pronouns should accord with biological sex.”

• “Any formal institutional documentation should use legal names. Nicknames may be used on an informal basis … as long as this is not part of a social transition process.”

• Schools should not have all-gender bathrooms, and students should use the bathroom of their biological sex.

• Sports and extra-curriculars “should be based on biological sex, rather than self-perceived gender.”

• Students must wear clothing and uniforms “that accord with his or her biological sex.”

• “Catholic institutions should not post signage or display symbols in support of gender identity theory.”

The Des Moines policies “require people to follow the dress code and use the bathrooms or locker rooms that match their sex at birth. They also say students must participate in school sports, activities or programs ‘consistent’ with their biological sex and that no one can have or distribute medication that aids in gender reassignment while at Diocese of Des Moines parishes, schools, organizations and institutions,” the Register reported.

According to the document, the diocese says people coping with gender dysphoria should be treated "with personal sensitivity, compassion, patience and pastoral solicitude" and "all forms of unjust discrimination and harsh treatment must be strongly avoided and corrected." It also notes that "any response that merely ratifies and reinforces the perceived disconnect between biological sex and gender affiliation is not genuine compassion."  

"Policies such as not allowing someone to use the pronoun for which they identify, restricting access to bathrooms based on the sex at birth rather than a person’s gender identity, and not allowing physician-prescribed medication is simply wrong," Connie Ryan, executive director of the nonprofit Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, said in a statement.

The Associated Press reported in July that “the Diocese of Marquette, which encompasses Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, said pastors should deny trans, gay and nonbinary Catholics the sacraments — such as baptism and Communion — ‘unless the person has repented.’” It was signed by Bishop John Doerfler.

Last year, religious leaders of Milwaukee’s Catholic community also came up with a set of restrictive and oppressive guidelines. According to the National Catholic Reporter’s Brian Roewe, “the archdiocese's new rules stipulate that a person's biological sex dictate which dress codes they follow, that medications like ‘puberty blockers’ be barred on church property, and that transgender people and their families be directed to ministers and counselors who can provide support ‘in accord with the directives and teachings of the Church.’ The policy also bars use of preferred pronouns, a now fairly common practice in which people identify in advance how they wish to be addressed by others.”

And in Montana, as reported in The Mary Sue, a bill “sponsored by GOP Rep. Brandon Ler, and co-sponsored by more than two-dozen other Montana legislators, would declare that intentionally misgendering or ‘deadnaming’ (using a trans person’s birth name, instead of their chosen name) would not be considered discrimination or harassment by law, … [and] punishing students who intentionally harassed trans students by using the wrong pronouns or names would be illegal”.