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Has the Pope or other Church officials made statements that are harmful to transgender and non-binary people?

Has the Pope or other Church officials made statements that are harmful to transgender and non-binary people?

Yes. Over the last several years many Church officials, including Pope Francis, the Vatican and various bishops have issued documents and statements that point to the Church’s moral and ethical view of the binary nature of sex and gender, that trans and non-binary persons should learn to accept their bodies, care for and respect them as essential elements of genuine human ecology, as opposed to thinking that trans/non-binary people enjoy absolute power over creation.

These communications include the Vatican’s February 2019 document (released in June 2019) entitled Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education; the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois’ Policy and Pastoral Guide of January 2020 (Policy 650); An open letter (signed by four U.S. Catholic Bishops) dated December 2017 entitled Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders; the Pope’s August 2016 “Ideology of Gender” remarks1; the Pope’s April 2016 Amoris Laetitia Apostolic Exhortation; the Pope’s May 2015 Laudato Si Encyclical; and numerous statements from bishops worldwide. They generally condemn gender theology; oppose education and legislation that promotes “person identity”; portray gender identity as a permissive sexual moral problem; and assert that it encourages children to “choose their gender” in a manner that might be termed frivolous. Obviously these rejections tear at the sensitive fabric of a person’s self-image with all of the attendant adverse physical and psychological impacts.

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1In these remarks Pope Francis portrayed gender identity as a moral problem; called gender theory “wicked’ and “a great enemy of marriage today”; and referred to “ideological colonization” – suggesting that the “West” required the teaching of “gender choice” in exchange for global funding support