Pushback

Creation reflects the hand of God; the Bible says that the heavens declare His glory. And, what He has done in creating man and woman, bringing them together in holy matrimony and ordaining and equipping them to have children and raise families, is a tremendous testimony to God's involvement in the human affairs. Jesus taught on this "created order" in Mark 10:
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.'
7 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
8 and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."

The death knell of this misguided attempt to conflate gender identity with biological sex in the Title IX decision by a federal judge is symptomatic of what has been occurring throughout society.  The separation of sex from gender, moving from biology to feelings, has belied the way that God intended for humanity to operate. 

And, according to Jason Mattera, in an article at the website for the Standing for Freedom Center at Liberty University, there are numerous instances of the collapse of the seemingly invincible transgender agenda which was marching forward through our culture just a few short years ago.  He writes:

When it comes to the staying power of evil, it would be naïve to declare the grotesque push to mutilate and sterilize America’s youth under the guise of “gender-affirming care” completely dead. Evil doesn’t take coffee breaks. But if, five or ten years from now, we’re identifying the moment when the trans movement hit a brick wall, the year 2024 will be the clear frontrunner.

And, there were legacy media outlets that sounded the call.  Mattera states:

Let’s start with the progressive bible itself, the New York Times, which had long accepted and even pushed the “science” underlying transgenderism.

Cue Dr. Hilary Cass, a highly respected pediatrician in England and former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. In 2020, the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) tasked Dr. Cass with conducting a review of its “youth gender treatments and international guidelines of care.” The catalyst for this intervention was mounting allegations that the country’s “youth gender clinic” was recklessly prescribing puberty blockers to children and only conducting “superficial” evaluations with patients.

He goes on to say, regarding the Times:

Here’s how they put it in May:

“Her final report, published last month, concluded that the evidence supporting the use of puberty-blocking drugs and other hormonal medications in adolescents was ‘remarkably weak.’ On her recommendation, the N.H.S. will no longer prescribe puberty blockers outside of clinical trials. Dr. Cass also recommended that testosterone and estrogen, which allow young people to develop the physical characteristics of the opposite sex, be prescribed with ‘extreme caution.’”

And, Cass was the subject of an interview.  Mattera writes:

They gave her a platform to shred America’s trans-industrial complex. During the one-on-one interview, Dr. Cass rebuked the American Academy of Pediatrics for “misleading the public” and said that their position was animated by politics rather than science.

Over at The Washington Post, he states that its "editorial board recently addressed the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of a Tennessee law that bars gender transitions for minors."  As he notes...

...the Post outlined how the initial Dutch studies that sparked the craze to medically “transition” young people were hopelessly flawed:

“Early studies from a Dutch clinic seemed to show promising results, but the research started with only 70 patients (dropping to 55 in a follow-up study) and no control group. Treatment results that look impressive in small groups often vanish when larger groups are studied. That’s why the Food and Drug Administration generally requires large, randomized controlled trials of drugs: to ensure that encouraging initial results aren’t mere statistical noise.”

The blows kept coming. They also slammed the lack of transparency among the trans activist researchers. They pointed to U.S. physician Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who, despite receiving taxpayer funding to study the effects of puberty blockers on minors, refused to release her findings, arguing she feared the data would be “weaponized.”

Mattera shares: 

In short, the Post conceded that “in the absence of clear data — and with the possibility of significant publication bias or researchers massaging their results — parents might not have adequate information” to make sound decisions for their kids.

While he believes that "progressives overplayed their hand." He contends that, "the moment the 'gender unicorn' started popping up in schools, with educators conspiring to trans kids behind their parents’ backs and doctors fast-tracking irreversible procedures onto confused children, the public’s tolerance evaporated.

And, just yesterday - and maybe you heard it on Breakpoint with John Stonestreet on Faith Radio - he shared a commentary about some positive trends out of Disney, saying:

A couple of weeks ago, Hollywood Reporter revealed that the animation giant Pixar’s new original streaming series Win or Lose “will no longer include” a planned transgender storyline. 

The commentary, written by Stonestreet and Shane Morris, went on to say:

According to Hollywood Reporter, Pixar decided to remove the trans subplot in Win or Lose about the same time as major layoffs in that studio and in its parent company. Those cuts followed a steady lineup of box office flops involving LGBTQ themes. In fact, Disney has been bleeding out financially for a while, with one news site describing how “high-budget movie failures, combined with challenges in their streaming and theme park operations” left the Mouse House in a “rocky” spot by the second half of 2024.

They also noted:

Perhaps the most important lesson to take from Disney’s and Pixar’s about-face is to soundly reject the “inevitability narrative.” Cultural degradation is not certain, and Christians do not have to perpetually retreat. Sometimes, pushing back makes a difference, especially for companies forced to feel the bottom line and for politicians forced to feel it at the ballot box. If enough people are willing to stand up and challenge powerful interests promoting perversion, history can appear to switch sides … or at least slow its march in the wrong direction.

Those of us who hold to a Christian perspective should not relax and savor our victories.  We are engaged in a spiritual battle, and the enemy has schemes to distort God's principles and deceive believers. As Jason Mattera at the Standing for Freedom Center notes, "Evil, particularly when it targets children, will always regroup and find new avenues. It does show us, however, that smart mobilization can yield results. The nation’s mood has shifted..."

But, the enemy has taken a shot at fundamental Biblical teachings - God's view of sexuality and the sanctity of marriage. Beneath the ideological cosplay lies empty promises that the world gives that someone can live a better life simply by changing his or her biology.  It's deception that produces despair.  The Church should become more well-positioned to counter the lies of the enemy and to teach people, especially young people, that your gender was not "assigned" at birth and that you were not born in the wrong body.  The fallacy of gender ideology has been exposed; now we can seek to fill the void with the truth of Scripture.