In Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden told young people with gender dysphoria that he will “always have (their) back.” Though he didn’t specify what exactly that means, presumably it had something to do with extending Title IX protections to include allowing men full access to women’s facilities and sports; extending mandatory insurance coverage for “gender reassignment” surgeries; and restricting any counseling, treatments, or public advocacy that does anything less than fully affirm one’s gender dysphoria.
What makes it likely that the President’s late-speech shoutout referred to these sorts of extreme positions on the issue is that it was quickly followed by a call to pass the so-called “Equality Act,” something that remains (at least for now) dead in the Senate. The Equality Act would be a kind of legislative nuclear option, rendering about 250 so-called “anti-LGBTQ” bills under consideration across America pointless, leading to serious restrictions on religious liberty, especially for religious schools.
Over the last few years, following a strategy that proved effective for pro-life protections, states like Texas have been laying creative groundwork to hold adults accountable for experimenting on young people struggling with gender identity. Having these laws in place is incredibly important, given the astronomical rise in the number of young people identifying as transgender, and how quickly transgender ideology went from being unthinkable to unquestionable in so many aspects of society.
For instance, the field of so-called gender-affirming “medicine” is the only example of medical treatment that attempts to orient the body to the mind, as opposed to correcting the mind to align with biological reality. That was a $316 million industry in 2018. By 2026, it is projected to be a $1.5 billion industry.
Children, in particular, are the subjects of this social experimentation, which is only one example of how reality has been reimagined along the lines of sexual autonomy. If the early days of the sexual revolution were about being free from the confines of sexual morality, these latter days are about being free from the confines of sexual reality.
That these created realities were part of a biological, social, and religious package deal went largely unquestioned until recently. However, technological innovations such as the pill, IVF, and surrogacy; legal innovations such as no-fault divorce; and cultural innovations such as ubiquitous pornography and “hook-up” apps, have all made it increasingly easy to reimagine the world along the line of advancing our sexual happiness. Children are forced to go along.
Pursuing social and legal equality without reference to reality has proven even more disastrous. It’s one thing to say that men and women are equal before God and the law; it’s quite another to say that they are the same or, like we are saying today, that any and all differences are either an illusion or unjust. So now, we talk without a hint of parody that men can bear children and that “not all women menstruate” and that love can make a second mom into a dad. None of this is true, but young people are expected to play along, to adapt and adopt these lies, pretending all is well, even if they’re not.
Of all of the lies of the sexual revolution, that’s the most devastating. It was repeated at each new stage of the sexual revolution, in some form or another, in order to justify whatever way we were going to reimagine life in the world: “the kids will be fine.”
But, of course, the kids haven’t been fine. Not even close. In her book, Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement, Katy Faust documents all the ways the kids aren’t fine, and all the ways their wellbeing is sacrificed on the altar of adult happiness. On Tuesday, March 15, I will be talking with Katy Faust about all the ways that the kids aren’t fine. We’ll talk about how Christians can and must defend children from the myths, misnomers, and lies of the sexual revolution. This isn’t a theoretical topic. In fact, I’m absolutely convinced that standing for the inherent dignity and rights of children against the innovations of our age is our version of “running into the plague and caring for victims” while everyone else is running away. It’s what we’re called to at this cultural moment.
Katy’s presentation will be part of the new Lighthouse Voices Speaker Series, a partnership between the Colson Center and Focus on the Family. We aim to help Christians think clearly and biblically, especially about the most critical, confusing, and important issues at the intersection of family and culture.
If you’re in the Holland, Michigan, area, you can join the conversation in person. If not, you can sign up for the livestream of this important discussion at www.colsoncenter.org/events
Publication date: March 3, 2022
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Vladimir Vladimirov
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.