Identity
To the Parent of a Teen Identifying as Transgender
An open letter to Latter-day Saint parents of teens who have recently announced a transgender identity.
Hypatia
September 29, 2021
An open letter to Latter-day Saint parents of teens who have recently announced a transgender identity.
“Sexual soloing” is a normal developmental challenge for many people. Yet contrary to popular declarations, there are a great many empirical reasons to question its widespread embrace as “healthy,” especially in the context of pornographic arousal.
It seems at times that American discourse is so engrossed in the intersectional categories of people (e.g., “that gay BYU student”), that we hardly see the unique person underneath the label anymore.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s remarks at BYU revealed an already-existing conflict over how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its critics conceive of identity. As prophets affirm repeatedly, our true identity existed long before any of our present experiences, and is remembered, more than discovered.
You’ve probably only ever heard one answer for why so many LGBT+ identifying brothers and sisters are walking away. But the full truth is rarely so popular—or so simple.
In the wake of Elder Holland’s BYU talk, I can’t help but wonder—what would LGBT+ Advocacy “bathed in the light of the gospel” look like?
Most discussions of domestic violence take for granted this is primarily a male-on-female issue—reflective of the larger feminist narrative dominant today. Far less attention has gone to the evidence suggesting female violence is a much greater problem than has been acknowledged.
Many feminists disagree strongly that the “right to abort” is crucial to women’s well-being. It’s time to listen more carefully to what we have to say.
Motherhood is not merely a function of “those who give birth” but rather an eternal path characteristic of all womanhood.
If we seek to be more honest, a good first step would be to improve our relationship to the people we are being dishonest with.
It’s unethical to enact laws that take for granted that the evident purposes of one’s sex-specific embodiment are incidental to human happiness.
Even after the killer in Atlanta’s heinous shooting recently spoke of his sexual addiction as a contributing influence. Some have taken this as an opportunity to minimize and even ridicule the idea of such a problem. The millions of men and women grappling with the same deserve better.