On Wednesday 2nd May, Wilberforce Publications launched a new book, The New Normal, with a well-attended event at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. The book critiques several attacks on the Christian view of sex and sexuality –particularly the transgender agenda. It features contributions from multiple authors with different areas of expertise, and had its origins in Christian Concern’s 2016 conference The New Normal.
Real Life Impact
Andrea Williams (chief executive of Christian Concern) hosted the event and began by introducing Nigel and Sally Rowe as examples of real life impact of the transgender agenda. Their two children were both separately disturbed by classmates cross-dressing at age 6 in their local Church of England primary school. Their sons were expected to use the preferred pronoun for the cross-dressing pupils concerned. The Rowes complained to the school and other authorities about how this was affecting their children and whether six-year-olds should be allowed to cross-dress in a primary school. They received no support or sympathy from the school or the diocese. They have now decided to home school their sons who are now much happier. The parents intend to challenge the decision of the school, pointing out that in law one cannot change one’s gender until one is 18-years-old.
Medical Issues
Dr Peter Saunders, Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship, and one of the contributing authors to the book, then presented an excellent lecture about the medical and scientific issues involved. He discussed gender dysphoria which he described as a real and distressing condition for those who suffer from it. He called on Christians to have compassion on those people, but clarified that compassion is not incompatible with disagreeing with their self-understanding. He explained that the condition used to be called ‘gender identity disorder’ and that the name was changed for ideological rather than scientific reasons. It is not the case that all transgender people suffer from gender dysphoria.
Dr Saunders argued that medical practice has gone beyond scientific evidence in moving away from psychiatric treatment to surgical treatment. Furthermore, there are no studies of the long-term effects of puberty-blocking drugs and other treatments being offered to children. These people are being given treatment for ideological rather than scientifically proven reasons. He also discussed intersex conditions and explained that these are often erroneously confused with transgenderism. In fact, transgender people have no biological conditions and so intersex conditions are a separate issue.
The Failure of the ‘Gay Rights’ Movement
Andrea then asked university professor and contributing author Bobby Lopez to say a few words. Mr Lopez described his own experience of being pressured into a homosexual promiscuous lifestyle and how he finally was able to come out and reject it. He is now happily married with children. He argued that the ‘gay rights’ movement had only succeeded in abusing and damaging people, and that the transgender movement will lead to more harm. He encouraged Christians to be bold in standing firm and speaking the truth about these issues.
The History of Transgenderism
Carys Moseley, former university theology lecturer, and now policy researcher for Christian Concern, then spoke about the history of the transgender ideology. She traced it back to German roots, and highlighted Magnus Hirschfeld as the first person to talk about ‘transexualism of the soul’, which lays the foundation for today’s idea of being ‘born in the wrong body’.
In America, it was John Money who took up the idea of ‘psychological sex’, as differentiated from ‘assigned sex’. Money’s most famous patient was David Reimer who had a botched circumcision operation. Money persuaded his parents to rear him as a girl, subjecting him to sex reassignment surgery and psychological conditioning – or brainwashing. Riemer, however, reported that he never considered himself a girl and reverted to living as a boy at fifteen. Reimer also reported that Money had forced him to enact sexual experiments with his twin brother. He later committed suicide.
Sometime in the 1960s, surgeons linked to Charing Cross Hospital Gender Identity Clinic started to perform ‘sex-change’ surgery on some patients. Transsexual rights campaigns began in the 1960s and grew in the following decades, resulting in the passing of the Gender Recognition Bill in 2004 under the Blair government. In the impact assessment of this bill, no consideration was given to the effects on families and children, single-sex spaces, consistency and integrity of official data, effects on the NHS and other relevant fields.
Another real life case
Andrea mentioned the case of ‘Bethany’ [not her real name] who as a 14-year-old girl started wanting to be called ‘Gary’. The parents did not agree with the name or gender change, but the authorities argued that refusal to allow the name change was tantamount to ‘neglect’. The parents feared that Bethany could be taken from their care. The Christian Legal Centre became involved and publicised the case, whilst retaining anonymity. This slowed down the process. Andrea was pleased to report that Bethany is now reverting to identifying as a girl and is doing much better.
The transgender movement could collapse
The evening concluded with a question and answer session. Contributing authors expressed optimism that the transgender movement could collapse if more people are prepared to challenge it because it is so contrary to truth and science. More politicians need to be encouraged to speak up about this issue.
“The New Normal” is available for purchase in Kindle or Paperback forms on Amazon here.