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Quick to Listen

Transgender Confusion Goes beyond Elementary School Bathrooms

Quick to Listen

Christianity Today

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Christianity

4.3622 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2016

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, 10 states announced that they would sue the Obama administration following its executive order mandating that school districts allow transgender students to use their bathroom of their preferred gender. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed an amendment aimed at preventing the US government from withholding federal funds from North Carolina, after the state passed its controversial “bathroom bill,” requiring people to use the bathroom that matches their birth certificate this March. This comes on the heels of the Justice Department’s decision to sue the state for the law for “state-sponsored discrimination.” Few of these political fights have helped anyone better understand the nuances of transgenderism, says Mark Yarhouse, the author of Understanding Gender Dysphoria and founder of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity. “People experience legislation as an attack on the things that they believe in, and other people think that legislation is symbolic of the things that matter the most to them,” he said. “You could easily have two sides speaking past each other. I think that’s what we have today.” CT believes that God created people with male and female identities and would generally encourage integration and alignment of gender identity with biological sex, based on a creational account of male and female (Gen. 1-2) and the overall goodness of bodies and embodiment. But what does that belief mean for how Christians engage this topic in the world? Yarhouse joined Morgan and Katelyn on Quick to Listen this week to discuss what’s behind the term cis-gender, what the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage may mean about evangelicals’ response, and how one transgender Christian has handled the bathroom conversation in her church. (5:30) What do bathrooms have to do with larger discussions about gender identity and the broader LGBTQ movement? (8:45) Is it accurate to describe transgender people as an immutable class or is it more complicated than that? (14:20) What ways other than politics and reality shows that Americans can learn more about the transgender experience? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.

0:11.0

Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.

0:14.5

Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.

0:20.6

Thank you. Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com.

0:29.6

You're listening to Quick to Listen.

0:34.2

Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes and set aside time to explore the reality behind a major cultural event.

0:36.0

I am Caitlin Beatty.

0:36.9

I'm the print managing editor of

0:38.3

Christianity today. And I'm joined as always by my co-host Morgan Lee. Hey Morgan. It's great to have you

0:43.3

back, Caitlin. Thank you. Glad to be back. Caitlin, today, our guest is Mark Yarrhaus, who has his

0:50.2

doctor in clinical psychology and his master's in theological studies. He is also the

0:56.0

founding director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity, and he wrote a major piece for us last year

1:01.8

called the Understanding the Transgender Phenomena. Mark, it's great to have you here. Yeah, thanks

1:06.7

for having me. Hey, Mark, it's really good to hear your voice and we at CT really appreciate your writing and your

1:13.7

expertise on really complicated issues, including the issue that we will talk about this

1:18.4

week.

1:19.4

So as our listeners know, most controversies in our world come with a lot of complexity and

1:23.2

tension.

1:24.2

And the point of this podcast is to acknowledge those tensions and work out as best we can

1:28.2

how Christians can respond well and winsomely. This week, we will be talking about an extremely

1:33.6

hot news story about the way Americans use public restrooms. So a lot of our listeners have

1:40.1

probably heard of the so-called bathroom bill that passed in North Carolina a March.

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