Bishops vote to prohibit gender-affirming medical care at Catholic hospitals – oregonlive.com:
U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals.
Hardly surprising given that transgender ideology directly contravenes the Catholic understanding of the sexes (not to mention scientific reality).
Major medical groups and health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender patients.
This is true only in the United States. Medical Associations outside the US increasingly call for so-called gender-affirming care (sex change operations, drug treatments) as a last resort if at all. The media continues to be complicit in pushing a narrative that says this is settled medical care. At best, it is highly disputed.
The Catholic Health Association thanked the bishops for incorporating much of the organization’s feedback into the directives. It said in a statement, “Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized.”
This is the correct approach. Gender dysphoria is a serious mental illness and those suffering from it deserve compassion and treatment.
On the same day that U.S. Catholic bishops were discussing gender identity, the heads of several major progressive religious denominations issued a statement in support of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, at a time when many state legislatures and the Trump administration are curtailing their rights.
The 10 signers included the heads of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“During a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender – a great many of us do. Let it be known instead that our beloveds are created in the image of God – Holy and whole,” the religious leaders said in a statement.
There is no spectrum of gender in a biological sense. Those who believe otherwise are scientifically incorrect—there are only two gametes for human beings, and men carry one type and women the other. Because sex describes us in terms of how our species reproduces there is no spectrum to be found. It is impossible to change sexes—to somehow have or produce the other gamete type—through drugs or surgery.