i stopped reading halfway through
when the cruelty began in earnest.
i've taught children all of my adult life.
i hate bullying.
becoming nichole tells the story of a transgender child growing up in maine with her twin brother. she was drawn to girl toys and dressing up before she was two. her twin shared in her interest as her twin..... but he soon outgrew it and she didn't.
nichole began life as wyatt.
her parents didn't want a girl.
they were delighted with twin boys (adopted).
nichole began telling them she was a girl from about the time she could talk. she referred to herself as a boy-girl.
when she began preschool, she begged to wear the dresses given to her by her best friend... a girl.
her parents refused, occasionally allowing her a pink shirt or pink sneakers.
they were understandably worried.
soon they began to seek therapists to help them with this peculiar behavior from their son.
it didn't work.
they finally agreed to let her be who she desperately wanted to be.
her friends from school accepted her without question. they had known her all of her life and thought of her as a girl.
her twin once told her parents that they had to accept that they had a son and a daughter.
and they finally found an endocrinologist that explained that wyatt had gender dysphoria, a condition now recognized by the diagnostic and statistics manual of mental diagnosis, a handbook for doctors and psychologists.
it turns out that gender identity is a product of the brain. it forms weeks after the anatomical physiology is determined.
both are the result of hormones acting on the fetus.
there has always been indisputable evidence of what was once called hermaphrodites. the term is now intersex and is the condition where the body has the anatomy of both male and female reproductive parts.
in the past, surgery decided which sex organs would be removed. today they are usually allowed to wait until their gender identity can me determined.
most of intersex individuals have a chromosome anomaly.
there are four common chromosomal disorders: down's, edward's, patau's and turner.
the one most recognizable is down's syndrome.
these children are beautiful. they grow to be beautiful adults.
(i believe one of their genes is a gene for sweetness).
they did not choose to be different.
and neither do transgender children.
https://www.joinonelove.org/learn/transgender_relationship_abuse/
there are sadly those who bully children with down's syndrome.
but they generally do not identify themselves as christians.
not so with transgender children.
professing christians lead the bullying with the excuse of exercising their "rights"
homosexuality has been documented in 450 species of animals.
http://www.yalescientific.org/2012/03/do-animals-exhibit-homosexuality/
i believe that god created our bodies as they are... and that includes those whose bodies are different from mine.
yes, paul spoke against lesbians and the old testament has rules against homosexuality.
but it also has rules about eating pork. we don't protest ham eaters. (in the south, barbecue pork is sacred).
paul also spoke against women going without head covers and speaking in church... although he praised women leaders in other places.
we don't get to choose which rules in the bible make other people unloved by god.
and there are certainly more passages about the evil of those who consider riches greater than the needs of the poor. they are not considered fodder for bullying.
no one is worthy or unworthy of god's love.
and it's not our job to punish them for their "sins" in a way that we don't feel deserving of the same punishment for "our" kind of sin.
once again, the theme of all the bible is clear. treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated.
this is how we show our love for god.
it is our job to show love to people and let god do any judging.
right now, i have too much personal pain to finish this book. it is such a painful read.
but when i'm stronger, i will.
i will honor their pain the way i honor the pain of immigrants and abused children and all of the widows and orphans of our time.
they have a story.
we need to hear it and we need to love them.
that's what i believe is the calling of every christian.
No comments:
Post a Comment