At the end of August 2023, a news item appeared in Quebec social media and was picked up by the major news media. A primary school teacher in Richelieu, Quebec declared she was 'nonbinary', that is she was neither male nor female and asked to be addressed as Mx. Martine, rather than the usual salutations. The school board sent a letter to this effect to the parents of the pupils concerned.
The letter was then published on social media by an outraged parent. This led to a range of reactions, with some agreeing with the parent and others outraged by the parent's reaction, saying that the teacher's wishes should be respected. The other side answered that children must be respected and that gender ideology should not be imposed on children.
Gender theory was first introduced in 1955 by the American psychologist, John Money, who claimed that sexual identity is a social construct and that, despite the biological differences, there was no such thing as a feminine or masculine nature or temperament, and that if men and women behaved differently, it was the result of stereotyping and conditioning inculcated by the family and society. These stereotypes must be combated from the earliest age, even in day-care centers, according to complicit theorists.
As columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté wrote in the French-language daily Le Journal de Montréal on September 11, 2023, "Today, radical trans ideology pushes young people who are questioning their identity to wonder whether they were born in the right body. And some medical staff are very sympathetic to this view... Being a man or a woman is neither an opinion nor a feeling. It's a biological fact, first of all, and then a cultural one. Science has its rights. Gender theory, on the other hand, is pseudoscience... It's about time we left children alone" (and, as Mr. Bock-Côté implies, stop indoctrinating children with this false gender theory).
Gender theory is leading to bizarre new situations, such as restrooms for both sexes in schools, men (who claim they are women) competing in women's sports, and the requirement to use "preferred pronouns" or risk sanctions. Very recently, Australia, Canada, the United States and Germany have added a third option on passports. One can now identify their sex as Male, Female, or Other.
In his address to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI condemned gender theory as a form of "definitive rebellion against God the Creator":
"In these words, the famous saying of Simone de Beauvoir, 'one is not born a woman, one becomes so' lies the foundation of what today, under the word "gender", is presented as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature that man must accept and personally make sense of. Rather it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was assigned to us by society.
"The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.
"According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something previously given is what is now disputed. The words of the creation account: 'male and female he created them' (Gen 1:27) no longer apply. No, what applies now is this: it was not God who created them male and female — hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves."
In another address, on January 19, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI said, "It is the duty of pastors of the Church to put the Catholic faithful and every person of good will and right reason on guard against the trend of these ideologies. It is a negative trend for humankind, although it may be disguised by good feelings in the name of alleged progress, alleged rights, or an alleged humanism... Thus the Church reaffirms her great 'yes' to the dignity and beauty of marriage as an expression of the faithful and generous bond between man and woman, and her no to 'gender' philosophies, because the reciprocity between male and female is an expression of the beauty of nature willed by the Creator."
In a catechesis to young people on World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal on August 2, 2023, Most Rev. José Ignacio Munilla, Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain spoke on the theme of "integral ecology":
"Ecologism conceals a flagrant contradiction. While it places great emphasis on respect for nature by denouncing transgenics (GMOs, or genetically modified organisms), at the same time it promulgates transgenderism, meaning that a man can change his sexual gender and become a woman and vice versa.
"The first act of respect towards ecology is towards our bodies. To accept your body is to recognize that God created it out of love, and that in creating it he did not make a mistake. No one is born in the wrong body.
"We live in a society where people doubt the truth but not their feelings, whereas it would be logical to doubt feelings and not the truth. All this is ridiculous and we must be able to say it in front of the whole world: true ecology must be integral.
"In the context of integral ecology, it is important to be able to recognize one's emotional wounds. We all carry emotional wounds within us, and these wounds must be recognized, identified, accompanied, cared for — if that is God's will — and accepted, but they cannot become rights. All this is part of integral ecology, because we believe that God created everything with goodness. God does not make mistakes. He has a far-sighted plan for each and every one of us."
To strengthen his point, Bishop Munilla quoted Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si on ecology:
"The acceptance of our bodies as God's gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one's own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek to cancel out sexual differences because it no longer knows how to confront it."
The following are extracts from a text written on September 29, 2011 by Fr. Daniel Ange, a famous French preacher and founder of Jeunesse-lumière, and his warnings against gender theory to young people gathered in Madrid for World Youth Day:
"In Plaza de España in Madrid, 5,000 young people gathered. I said: 'Do you girls really want to be what you are: women, and grow into your specific feminine grace? And you boys, do you really want to be what you are: men, and grow into your specifically masculine grace?' Each question was answered with a resounding 'Yes'.
"Why ask such stupid questions? And with such an obvious answer? Yes, here I am, reduced to preaching that a boy is a man and a girl is a woman! And that they are not interchangeable! Or clones. Yes, that's how far we've come! Regression to obscurantism! Because this is it, it's coming to Europe. And through the front door! Behave yourselves. Fasten your seatbelts: there's no such thing as man and woman any more!
"That's it! The final battering ram to deconstruct, and therefore destroy. The family has been rammed into the wall, which is already cracked all over. For 20 years, everything has been done to weaken and undermine the family. That was all that was left: to decide that the mutual attraction between men and women is merely cultural and 'politically modifiable'.
"Isn't this the original rebellion against the Creator? The absolute refusal to be a creature. To become the Creator, to ape him, worse, to usurp him. To take over His creation. Me. To manipulate it as I see fit. The proponents of this theory have been conquering the world for over 20 years now. In fact, it's a truly international operation, calculated, orchestrated, programmed and aimed at conquering the planet, like all totalitarian systems. It is an integral part of the New World Order.
"This ideology is turning into a veritable dictatorship. Its promoters are intolerant, uncompromising and peremptory. They do not tolerate any rebuttal or contrary opinion. Soon, people will be put in prison for daring to say that a man is not quite the same thing as a woman. — Father Daniel Ange
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