Trosper Family 2016

Friday, April 10, 2015

What Would I Do? Current Day Question #1

Bruce Jenner, an Olympic Athlete, a reality tv star is having an interview with Diane Sawyer airing on April 21, 2015 on the show 20/20.  It is being rumored that he is going to announce that he is transitioning from a man to a woman.  I believe that is truly what the interview is about, and I have thought this news was a long time in coming as I have watched his appearance change over the years.

There will be a lot of people laughing behind their hands, and some outright guffawing and making jokes about Bruce leading up to, and during the interview. So I find this is a good time to ask the question "What would I do?".  Or maybe the question to all of us should be "What SHOULD we do?"

Why would a famous, good looking, athletic man CHOOSE to become a woman?  I'm not going to even imagine any logical answer that declares that he "feels"he  has a choice.  We don't even have to consider the religious vs LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) rights or wrongs, because I don't believe HE feels he has a choice.  Let's discuss some terms I have researched here:

  • A cross-dresser is someone who wears clothes and accessories particularly associated with the opposite gender.
  • A transvestite is also a cross-dresser.  Trans = Cross, Vestite = Dresser
  • A transgender is someone whose gender assignment (body parts) do not match their expression.  
  • A transsexual is someone who has actually changed or started to change their sexual identity to match their gender identity.  
  • Someone who is intersexed has a mixture of male and female anatomy.  This could be as a hermaphrodite which has an anatomical structure that is part male and part female,or it could be as someone who has the definite body structure of one gender but the chromosomal make up of the other gender.  
  • A eunuch is most frequently thought of as a man who has been castrated.  I find it interesting however to read in Matthew 19:12  For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Another question that might come up is; Does this mean that Bruce Jenner, or other transgenders are gay? Gender identity is a brain occurrence not a sexual occurrence. It is often said "Gender is between the ears and sex is between the legs."  Transgenders usually begin to realize they are different around age 5.  They recognize they don't fit with those from their own gender, but identify more with those of the opposite gender.  Certainly sexual interest doesn't start at that young an age.

 I don't know if Bruce Jenner or anyone else should try to be a gender opposite of the body parts they have, but I do know that it is none of my business.  I think we know that Jesus Christ would not mock, laugh at, tell jokes about, or guffaw at someone who is in obvious pain.  It isn't up to us to determine if Bruce Jenner wants to be the way he is by choice (though I can't imagine why he would want any notoriety like this if there wasn't some inner voice telling him to risk everything for this internal need).  Is the internal need a physical one, could there have been a mix up in his inner workings?  Is it because he had an emotional childhood that for some reason caused him to need to be a woman?

Many people say, "This has to be a choice, God wouldn't do something like this."  God has allowed us to suffer all kinds of trials and challenges.  I'm sure he is so saddened by someone who is born with all kinds of problems at birth.  Some babies that I know were born with heart defects, I have known a baby that was born with the brain outside the head, some are born with Down Syndrome. I don't know why babies are born less than perfect but I do know that God doesn't cause it, he just allows things to occur naturally.  I find it interesting that the scripture in Matthew says some eunuchs were so born from their mother's womb.  This seems to tell me that God knows that these things are possible.

I am not a Dr. or a theologist.  This is just my blog giving my opinion.  I have done some study and have learned that we all start out as females in the uterus. In months 2-3 there is a hormone wash that determines our gender and our anatomy.  It can be disrupted and can create problems. How can it be disrupted?  Probably a multitude of ways, the mother may be on medication that interrupts the hormone flow, there could be an accident or trauma that causes it.  Again, not being a Dr I can't even imagine the number of things that can happen in the miraculous 9 months of gestation.  The point is, most of us can't imagine it, and therefore we shouldn't judge.......and we certainly shouldn't mock, joke, or point fingers.

When you are watching the program take a look at it from a different perspective, "There but for the grace of God go I".  Would you laugh at or mock someone who was born with no limbs?  Would you laugh or mock someone who had an emotionally scathed childhood?   Would you laugh or mock someone with a mental condition?  Would you laugh, mock, or throw stones if Jesus was in the room with you saying "He who is without sin cast the first stone."

Well I guess it is pretty apparent what I will do, so What will YOU do?

2 comments:

LeanneD said...

Very well written Leslie.

JulieLeyden said...

I enjoyed reading your thoughts and my perspective is very similar to yours. Having a Transgendered person in my family. I know of the pain it has caused for the person and family. I don't believe anyone would cause that pain for themselves as well as for the people they love unless something so deeply within them was insistent as to who they are supposed to be.