September 27, 2016
I typically read a local newspaper and USA Today, but this morning they weren’t delivered. So I picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal and read it from cover to cover. In the health and wellness section, there is a very interesting article titled “With Insurers on Board, More Hospitals Offer Transgender Surgery.”
The article tells the story of Stacey Parsons, a 45-year old man, at least biologically, who “had genital surgery in August at Cleveland Clinic.” Stacey grew up as Scott Orms, a self-described gay man but still unhappy with his choice of sexual orientation. Then he saw a documentary on television, and it changed his life forever. As the result of what he saw on television, Scott decided to transition to Stacey. He began hormone therapy, had surgery to remove his testicles, began breast augmentation, and then began to date Mike Parsons. They were subsequently married in 2012.
Well, thereafter, as the article continues, the Cleveland Clinic performed a vaginoplasty, creating a vagina by using parts of his penis. Next came feminization surgeries and finally a wonderful new life as a female named Stacey.
“To change somebody’s life in a few hours is really rewarding,” says Rachel Bluebond-Langner, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. I guess we can thank God for the new openness to transgenderism and for Obamacare that now makes it all possible for as little as $50,000 to $125,000. If you want that kind of surgery, it’s now available.
The Wall Street Journal does mention,
Research on the surgeries is mixed. Critics point to a 2011 study published in the online journal PLOS One by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden that followed more than 300 transgender people after surgery and found they had a higher rate of psychiatric care, suicide and mortality than a control group. But a number of other studies have shown that transgender people undergoing various surgeries report greater quality of life and satisfaction years later. Doctors say with more academic institutions tracking the procedures, higher quality studies in the future should produce more evidence-based outcomes.
So they admit there is at least the possibility that you might want to kill yourself, but that this is not conclusive.
This is a new world in which we live. A world in which biology is no longer associated with your gender; rather, I should say, is no longer associated with your biology, it’s associated with whatever feeling you happen to have. In New York City it’s illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender identity. The New York City Commission on Human Rights is committed to “ensuring that transgender and gender nonconforming New Yorkers are treated with dignity, respect” and part of that means that an individual has the right, I’m reading right from their Gender Identity Card statement, “use the locker room most consistent with their gender identity and/or expression without being required to show ‘proof’ of gender.” “Courtesy 101,” according to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, “If you don’t know what pronouns to use, ask. Be polite and respectful; if you use the wrong pronoun, apologize and move on…Respect the terminology a transgender person uses to describe their identity.” It could be “Bi-Gendered,” or “Crossdresser.” It could be “Drag King” or “Drag Queen.” So, if the person is a “Drag Queen,” you want to make sure that you say, “Drag Queen.” If it is “Bi-Gender,” you want to make sure you say, “Bi-Gender.” Other identities include: “Butch,” “Two-Spirit,” “Third Sex,” “Gender Fluid,” in other words you switch back and forth from one gender to another depending on the time of the month or day of the week, “Gender Gifted,” “Gender Blender,” and many others. I think there are some fifty-six or so genders now.
We live in an age of gender fluidity and according to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, “If you believe you have been discriminated against,” well there is something like a 911 number to call, instead of 911 it is 311. It’s the New York City Commission on Human Rights, you call them. And you say you have been discriminated against. If you are a man, who feels that you are a woman, and you go to the woman’s locker room, you start to shower there, and someone says, “What are you doing here?” and discriminates against you, you have a hotline number to call.
It is a brave new world, and it is not a joke. Quite frankly, sometimes when you read these things, you this cannot be serious. It is in the Wall-Street Journal in the Health and Wellness section, it has to be a joke. But, it is not a joke. It is dead serious. The culture has changed dramatically. It has changed with vast rapidity, such that today, again as I mentioned earlier on, biology no longer determines your gender, your gender is determined by how you feel at any given moment.
—Hank Hanegraaff
Blog adapted from the September 27, 2016 Bible Answer Man broadcast.
