Genderqueer? More Like Confused about the Birds and Bees!

"Genderqueer"...Yup, that's the headline that caught my eye this morning on the front page of WaPo's Outlook section. Written by a law student at Georgetown, Marion Cory, and accompanied by photos (presumably the author) of a masculine-looking woman working out, the article exemplified the fact that gender-confused individuals are stuck in adolescence.

What are the characteristics of young teens? I raised five of them and am now grandparenting several. From my experience, I think it's accurate to say that teens are self-conscious, often uncomfortable with the changes in their body, voice, emotions, etc. They like to imagine things differently from what they are. They tend to be narcissistic analyzing everything by the impact on self. If they see people nearby talking and laughing, they frequently jump to the conclusion that they are the center of attention and are being talked and laughed about. They ride an emotional roller coaster and are easily hurt. Sometimes they seem not to live in the real world.

Rudolf Allers, the renowned psychiatrist calls adolescence a period of "trouble and of problems...it is essentially a period of unrest and of uncertainty...uncertainty is the very basic feature of this age."

As I read Cory's story, teenager kept flashing in my mind. Let me share some of the article to explain. The author says:

I identify as 'genderqueer' -- blurring the line between man and woman....Calling myself genderqueer is about gender fluidity, not necessarily about sexual orientation. It's about expressing a more authentic self. Existing in the gray area, I feel less confined by false notions of how I "ought" to be.

She explains "ought" as the stereotype of girls playing with dolls, baking, girl stuff, etc. vs. being a boy scout and designing a Pinewood Derby car. That just seems silly to me. Women have always done things that were unusual. I was the only woman in my graduate business class in 1969 at the University of Maryland. When I switched to George Washington into Public Administration, I was often the only woman in my class or in a small minority. My mom, a generation earlier, was the only woman in her law school class at Western Reserve University (Now Case Western Reserve). Women have always shattered the stereotypes. To act like she's the first to be "different" is silly. The Olympics currently feature numerous athletic women competing in the same sports as the men. What's different is Cory's desire to "blur the line" between men and women based on her feelings. And that, I think, is teenage behavior.

She says she saw "freedom" in the boy box -- "but a freedom that would forever be unattainable."
It's hard to understand what she's talking about since she is in a generation of women that have unlimited possibilities including getting killed in Afghanistan alongside male combatants. What is unattainable is for her to actually be a man, but she is certainly spending plenty of time at the gym working out like a man to be one of the boys.

Some of her statements sound like conversation at the Mad Hatter's tea party:

Since I couldn't be a boy, I sought solace in creating a body that felt empowering, and the gym became my temple....This is the place where I seek truth. I feel affirmed and loved, not by others, but by myself....I was born into this world wrapped in a pink blanket, and that color seemed like my destiny, whether I like it or not....[Working out like a male] is a strange experience for someone socialized as a girl -- taught to always ask permission, to say "please," "thank you" and "excuse me."....The gym invites me to expose my unfettered masculinity without apology.

I don't know about other parents, but we taught our two sons and three daughters all about courtesy. We expected all of them to say please, thank you, and excuse me. We taught the boys to open the doors for women and all our children to open doors for older people or those who needed assistance. There is no "gender-bending" when it comes to common courtesy.

Cory goes on to talk about how going to the gym hurts. She has to think about which locker room to use. (Really?) She's "stared at" and feels traumatized "every time I change in front of women."
Why this should be the case is hard to understand. She is, after all, a woman. Do the other women in the locker room care? Cory's expression of hurt and being stared at are obviously the way she feels. But do those feelings reflect reality? Maybe, maybe not. Are people really staring or is she reflecting her own insecurity and discomfort with who she is as described here:

The way I express my gender places me in the borderland between the men's and women's locker rooms. I don't feel I belong comfortably in in either, so I choose the one I'm most acquainted with through years of obedience to the gender I was assigned at birth.

the "gender assigned at birth?" Is she serious? I guess so because later in the article she repeats it making a nonsensical statement about "transitioning to a gender different from the one a doctor assigned at birth." Excuse me, but sex isn't assigned by doctors and it doesn't happen at birth. (Why do LGBTIQ folks always seem ignorant of the birds and bees?) The sex of a child (and there are only two) is determined when the egg and sperm unite. If the sperm is XX, the child is a girl. If the sperm is XY, the child is a boy. The sex is easily determined in the zygote if the chromosome structure can be analysed. (There is a rare abnormality called hermaphroditism where a child is born with organs of both sexes, but it is abnormal like being born with extra toes.)

It's clear from the article that Marion Cory is uncomfortable with her sex. She apparently wished she was a boy and her entire article is an exercise in narcissistic navel gazing. I'm not surprised the article made WaPo. After all, their transparent agenda is promoting the lie that there are numerous "genders." (That used to be a grammar term before the day of 53 genders and counting.) The Post demands we acknowledge and respect them all like the Aztecs called for the worship of Quetzlecoatl. But in the end it is all a childish demand to confirm the make believe, like my little granddaughter who occasionally insists she's a dog. And it also reminds me of my the days of my own small children. Once when we were talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up I got these interesting answers. "When I grow up I want to be a school bus," said one young son, and his brother, not to be outdone, chimed in, "When I grow up I want to be a snowman." Sounds like gender 54 and 55 to me. It makes just as much sense of all the others after male and female.

Please add Marion Cory to your prayer list. I found the article sad and bizarre. As our pastor preached today, many people in our world are wounded. And the more dysfunctional someone's view of the world is, the more it reflects their woundedness. Back in the early 90s at a pro-life rescue in Buffalo I met a young woman who, like Cory, dressed and acted like a man. I engaged her in conversation because I was puzzled at such a pretty young woman wanting to look like a guy. She told me she'd been raped and hated men. She clearly was hurt and I felt nothing but compassion for her. How many other stories of woundedness fill the pages of the "gender confused?" Let us pray for them all that the same Jesus who touched the heart and conscience of the Samaritan woman, will touch them as well. In Him is healing and true joy.