You're Wrong, Planned Parenthood. Genitals Do Determine Gender

By Michael Brown, Op-ed Contributor Friday, August 18, 2017

Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

In keeping with standard transgender talking points, Planned Parenthood wants parents to teach their preschoolers that "their genitals don't determine their gender." Instead, gender is whatever you make it to be. As I've heard endlessly from LGBT activists, "Gender is not what's between your legs, it's what's between your ears."

But if that's the case, when a biological boy is convinced he's really a girl, why is he put on hormone blockers to stop the onset of puberty so he won't develop as a boy. And why, when he's old enough, does he get sex change surgery to change his genitals? I thought genitals didn't determine gender?

Why can't he just be a girl with male private parts? Why mess with his private parts if genitals have nothing to do with gender? And why put him on hormones for life so that he won't grow a beard as a female? Isn't that gender stereotyping? Who says that women shouldn't have beards?

After all, we read today about "menstruating men" and "men" having babies. Why not bearded ladies? (Now that I think of it, Tom Neuwirth, aka Conchita Wurst, has basically said, "Yes, why not?")

And why should a woman who has sex change surgery to become a man have her breasts removed? Why not keep her female organs intact and identify as a man who nurses his baby? (Now that I think of it, that's been done too.)

We are told that the idea that boys like boy toys and girls like girl toys is sexist and bigoted. As Planned Parenthood explains, "In so many ways, society tells us how girls and boys are supposed to look, speak, dress, and act. In their attempt to sort out the world around them, your preschooler may form rigid ideas about gender and what it means for them."

But when a little girl prefers boy toys and boy clothes and says, "I'm really a boy," transgender activists say, "You see! We know she's really a boy because she likes boy toys and boy clothes."

I thought this was a bigoted way to think! I thought these were all social constructs. Why not say to the little girl, "But there's no such thing as boy toys and boy clothes"? Something is not lining up.

It's like PETA activists celebrating their latest victory with a meal at a Brazilian steak house. Or like lesbian activists celebrating the Obergefell decision by going out and marrying men. Here, in the case of transgender activists, those who argue that genitals don't matter spend tens of thousands of dollars altering them. And those who say that gender is a social construct turn around and reinforce that very construct.

Once again, I do not belittle those who struggle with their gender identity. Instead, I long to see them find wholeness from the inside out.

I'm simply saying you can't have it both ways. Either biological markers matter or they don't. As for those with chromosomal or biological abnormalities, those difficult exceptions prove the rule: The biological norm for 99 percent of the population is male or female.

According to GLAAD, "Gender identity is a person's internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman (or boy or girl.) For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into those two choices. For transgender people, the sex they were assigned at birth and their own internal gender identity do not match."

But what is "internal gender" if the categories of male and female are totally manmade? (Remember: We're not just talking about biological sex here. We're talking about gender categories.) And why fixate so much on the "plumbing" if that is not what determines gender?

It makes better sense to argue for "gender anarchy." At least there's a consistency there (although, to be honest, one that is in complete denial of the reality of God-given and God-established sex distinctions). Who needs husbands and wives or mothers and fathers or boys and girls? Let's all be the same! That will even the playing field. Gender won't exist at all.

A British educational website offers, "Ten ways to challenge gender stereotypes in the classroom," including, "Challenge stereotypes when you hear them."

You can do this by asking, "Why can't a boy wear pink? My Dad does." Or, "Why can't a girl like football? My wife plays for our local women's team."

But what if the boy who likes to wear pink says, "I'm really a girl! That's why I love pink." These same activists tell us, "Well, that proves that he really is a she and should be encouraged to identify as a girl. Let's get him on hormone blockers."

But I thought that liking pink wasn't a girl thing after all?

Again, I don't write this to belittle those who struggle, especially children. I write this to highlight the social madness that ensues when we deny the realities of biological sex and try to make gender into nothing and something at one and the same time.

So, parents and educators, when this stuff comes to a school near you, determine to take a stand for sanity and truth. Your kids deserve it.

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Saving a Sick America: A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation. Connect with him on Facebook or Twitter.