The following comes from an Apr. 8 story on CharismaNews.com.
A California high school teacher shocked students and faculty when he announced he would be returning from spring break as a woman.
Gary Sconce, a 56-year-old married father, has taught science and multimedia at Yosemite High School for 24 years. He recently told the entire student body that when he returned from spring break, he would go by Karen Adell Scot.
Sconce, who says he has known about his gender preference from an early age, detailed his experience of being a “false, phony male” who used military service and martial arts to mask his feminine side in a March 19 letter home to parents.
“I covered the female inside with hyper-masculine behavior, trying to provide [sic] I was not the woman inside I actually was,” Sconce wrote, according to the New York Daily News. “I will be legally changing my name and after finishing my course of teaching at Yosemite for a while longer, then will retire as a mature woman.”
The award-winning teacher came out to his family as transgender last April. He has been undergoing hormone replacement therapy since then.
Sconce’s transformation has caused a stir in the small town of Oakhurst, Calif., just outside Yosemite National Park. Community member Kathi Bales wrote a letter that was published in a weekly newspaper, telling Sconce to quit his job and urging the community to reject him.
“I see this as an assault on the minds and morals of our children,” Bales wrote. “It blurs the lines of what is right and wrong.”
….Administrators sent a letter to the school’s parents notifying them that California law mandates the school not discriminate against Sconce because of his gender identity, NBC News reports.
“The district recognizes that Mr. Sconce’s transition may raise questions among students, parents, guardians and community members,” Yosemite Unified School District Superintendent James Sargent wrote. “Counseling staff will be available to discuss any issue with students.”
To read the entire story, click here.
I have to note that many feminine women have served in the military and excelled at martial arts.
Very true, C&H. Very true.
C & H, would you kindly clarify the point you are making. Are you pointing out that those feminine women did not need to display hyper-masculine behavior in order to fit into the military culture, and therefore Mr. Sconce did not either?
I guess so. I was just pointing out a fact.
So far, no females have qualified as Marine Grunts.
A Marine Colonel I recently met who is running for Congress regretably told me that THEY would just lower the standards. Now if only we could convince our enemies to lower their standards as well!
God have mercy May on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
C&H,
Had you paid attention to the Word of God, you would know that just because you can do something, does not mean that is is right to do so!
God have mercy May on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Oh Kenneth ~ Coming from a family where the 3 most important institutions are considered the Catholic Church, the Marine Corps and Law Enforcement I am well aware that women have “so far:” failed the Infantry Officers Course. A number of men fail too. However, hundreds of women graduate from The Basic School which teaches weapons and combat leadership.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Are you saying the just because women CAN serve in the US military or excel at Judo, it’s not right for us to do so? If that’s your point please show me where it’s to be found in the Word of God.
The counseling staff should be available to discuss issues with the teacher NOT the students!
Absolutely. Public school counselors–to tell the students they are wrong if they object to their male teacher dressing as a female. How confusing is that! There are still only two biological genders. Emotional identification does not change one’s gender. Hopefully parents will not subject their children to such counseling.
N.,
Says who, you?
God have mercy May on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Sure do Kenneth.
By the way, that lipstick color is awful.
I was going to say the same thing!
Come on, don’t take personal shots. There are plenty of women who overdo make up, to make up for a lack inside. It’s sad, but sadder here. (Speaking as a woman, not someone wishing they were…)
To each their own on makeup. I don’t wear any at work and only lightly and understated when I go out. However, I think the only to time I’ve seen anyone with that bright of shade on have been WW II reenactors portreying WAC’s.
a soul is in trouble and you take “pot shots”……shame on you N. and Nancy…..and all satan’s minions.
God does not make junk. This is what happens when people assume they know more than God.
And Satan’s march continues unabated. Males turning into females. Females turning into men. Sodomites “marrying”. Babies butchered by the millions. Democrats are having a field day. The emperors fiddle while Rome burns.
And lions and tigers and bears . . . .
peter, since, once again, you’ve brought up that famous line from “The Wizard of Oz”, I thought it might interest some of CCD’s readers to gain some insight into who L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz, was. https://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-occult-roots-of-the-wizard-of-oz/ After reading it, I’ve drawn the conclusion that your, “And lions and tigers and bears . . . .” comment is closer to the mark than even you may realize!
Wow, Tracy……your wonderful. So well read! and ready to teach! May the Holy Spirit continue to work through you.
“peter” was there when they mocked Jesus.
I only pray for the best for her!
Surgery cannot change “HIS” DNA.
TEM, I can’t help but wonder what you would define as “best”!
TEM, what would you define as being “best” for the students of Yosemite High School?
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
This “teacher”, should take his “paraphilia” act on the road, just up the freeway to San Fran…I’m sure the many freaky night clubs and bathhouses would love for him to bring his “gender reassignment” show to them…Finnochios’s would clamor for him…right up their demonic alley…
When was the last time you were in San Francisco?
Finnochio’s closed 15 years ago. And the bath houses were shut down by the City in 1984.
I hope that folks on this list one day get to meet and get to know a few trangender folks. The personal courage, integrity, and dignity that it takes to come out as trans is unbelievable. Not a few of them have served in the military, and it makes sense to me that if you have the courage to live life authentically, you probably have the courage to face death on a battlefield for a higher purpose. Or maybe it’s the other way around: Having found the courage to face death, personal challenges no longer cause fear. Either way, I think I’d be crushed by such a challenge.
Hitler had personal courage and served in the military. Has no bearing on God’s judgment of him (or this sodomite).
This “sodomite” is filled with darkness…as the evildoers of Gomorrah were steeped in this putrescence…well said juergens
YFC, I was once in love with one! So please check me off of your list!
” it makes sense to me that if you have the courage to live life authentically, you probably have the courage to face death on a battlefield for a higher purpose. ”
YFC,
The Holy Father just reminded us that Satan is real and to be on guard from his temptations. Don’t be crushed. Just stop offending God. The homosexual agenda is filled with lies, pain and temptations. The devil also tempted Christ to follow your brand of advice and live life authentically for a higher purpose. Jesus did not listen to those temptations and you should not be fortifying the temptations and disorders of others. Take your own words and have the courage to avoid eternal death by picking up your own cross on the battlefield of life for a higher purpose other than promoting things that are offensive to God.
Catherine, I think it goes too far to say that the Church considers this sin, especially when folks are living by their conscience.
“especially when folks are living by their conscience”
YFC,
Your conscience is being charitably informed daily on CCD and that has never stopped you from living a life that could ultimately cost you your eternal life. Your posts demonstrate this. Your conscience informs you that you have the right to distort the teachings of the Catholic Church on a Catholic website. You are right when you say that only God can judge the soul of this individual who was so tormented that he chose to pretend that he is now a woman through the aid of a disoriented society that now encourages self-mutilation if the conscience feels that it is the right thing to do. This particular case involves a serious mental disorder and while the emperor might choose to now wear red lipstick and have a surgical procedure to self mutilate the emperor is still a man created by God in his image and likeness….even though you and some of the crowd readily cheers that the emperor now has a new set of clothes.
Accessory to Another’s Sin
I. By counsel
II. By command
III. By consent
IV. By provocation
V. By praise or flattery
VI. By concealment
VII. By partaking
VIII. By silence
IX. By defense of the ill done
YFC, nowhere in Catherine’s thought provoking April 16, 2014, 3:19 pm post did she use the word “sin”. Catherine spoke about the need to avoid the temptations of the devil and advice through the words of Pope Francis and the example of Jesus, how to do this. Furthermore, she admonished you against “fortifying the temptations and disorders of others”.
And thank you Catherine for reminding our brother YFC that his “conscience is being charitably informed daily on CCD and that has never stopped him from living a life that could ultimately cost him his eternal life.” I pray that YFC eventually “hears” the Lord speaking through you and many others on CCD so that he will obey the Word.
Tracy and Sandra D,
Thank you both for your loving and clarifying posts!
Wishing will not make it so. He remains a man. If he chooses to mutilate himself, he will remain merely a mutilated man, he will not magically be transformed into a woman Full stop.
Since the article states that he identifies himself as “transgender” this would mean that he still has his exterior sexual anatomy. Of course, as others have pointed out, even if he continues to mutilate this with cancer causing hormones or one day with surgery, it will never change his DNA. (I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if our tax dollars are currently funding a grant to one day make that a possibility.) :(
The article states that he IS a “married father”. It further states that he “came out to his family as transgender last April”. His wife and children are innocent victims in all of this too. My heart and prayers definitely goes out to them.
“All the lonely children”….where are there fathers? Dear Lord, where have all the “earthly” fathers gone? Our children, NEED, there earthly fathers if we are ever to have them grow up without these devastating generational wounds. Help us, dear Lord. Help us all….especially our innocent children.
YFC: First Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians, Chapter 6:
[8] But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren. [9] Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, [10] Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.
I’m not worried by people who take scriptures out of context, dear Ron
YFC. Your true ‘colors’ have come out. Not only your rainbow colored glasses you refuse to take off but you have adapted the protestant mindset of private interpretation.
So all women will go to hell unless they act butch? That’s what that statement says.
Anonymous, I suppose your scorn filled question and ridiculous conclusion was your attempt to mock the truth in scripture where it includes the “effeminate” as being barred from the Kingdom of God.
The word “effeminate” is used to describe “unmanly” men. It is never used to describe a “feminine” woman.
Effeminate — Having qualities associated more with women than men; unmanly.
Ron had to dig for a translation of that passage that conveniently used ‘effeminate’. It appears differently in virtually every translation, because it’s a Greek word (Malakia) that is highly open to interpreter’s bias. It can also be interpreted as ‘cowardice’.
That oft-quoted passage doesn’t mean a whole lot, anyway. Paul undeniably had rigid ideas about gender, but he’s editorializing there, and not expressing any kind of divine understanding. It’s “scripture” in that it’s in the biblical canon, but it;s not gospel truth.
Hugh James: Oh what Rash Judgment. I did not dig for a convenient translation. I quoted directly from the Douay-Rheims Bible: https://www.drbo.org/
Hugh James, whether or not “Ron had to dig for a translation of that passage that conveniently used ‘effeminate'” as you assert, Anonymous certainly fell for it!
Either way, it doesn’t mean what you think it means.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakia
The Greek word does mean effeminate, but more like “soft,” in regard to ideals of bravery in battle… like a coach telling you that you throw like a girl. “Cowardice” is a better translation.
The “liers with mankind” (arsenokoitai) that follows is such an obscure word that any translation is reaching. It appears to have been coined by Paul, and there’s isn’t a definitive interpretation of its meaning.
Wicked man! Paul ‘editorializing’ !? Have you no shame? It’s obvious Mr. James, that you are completely and utterly heretical. “he’s editorializing there, and not expressing any kind of divine understanding” Wow! Such audacious cheek! Please spare your nonsense about respect etc. You don’t even respect the truth and inerrancy of the Bible! Jesus commands us to love one another, yes. Respect is not love. We are called to love our fellow man, even when we can’t respect them. In a better age, people like you would have your head in the stocks.
Dana, I don’t believe biblical inerrancy extends to cover the prejudices of translators’ word choices. If the meaning of an article of faith hinges on a couple of instances of a translator’s interpretation of an ambiguous word, that merits scrutiny.
It’s fairly obvious that this passage is not about transgendered people. If a better translation is “cowardice”, that is editorializing. It’s a rhetorical flourish that means basically nothing.
Were the days of burning heretics at the stake “a better age”? lol.
Dana, watch yourself please. You’re a bit over the edge on that one at 4:46 PM
Of course St. Paul has rigid ideas about gender – his change of locales has likely not altered his understanding of truth, but rather confirmed it. Those supposedly rigid ideas are the reality of life minus the sophistry and modern science that is misleading many today as they believe that truth is too rigid.
Thanks for your sensible reply James. I’m sure (if for no other reason than timid little anonymous swooning at my post) that I would be far more comfortable in a time when people spoke more freely and yes! it was a better age when people had a genuine fear of the consequences of their actions and knew that the ultimate price might be eternal damnation. I’m not longing for the good old days because each age has its limitations and excesses, but as I’ve mentioned before on this site, I DO remember a time when people could speak their minds without fear of repercussion and persecution. Young people have no idea what true freedom of speech is as they censor themselves from the start by limiting their very thoughts so they fit into the tiny boxes handily provided for them by insipid, mediocre educational institutions and politically correct social constructs. ugh. Constructs! ptoeey.
Hugh James, in response to your April 21, 2014 at 1:30 pm response to me. maybe you should have first re-read Anonymous’ silly comment on April 18, 2014 at 4:56 pm where he said; “So all women will go to hell unless they act butch? That’s what that statement says.” My April 19, 2014 at 10:14 am response to him pointed out that the word “effeminate” always refers to men and never women. So even after your expanded definition of “effeminate”, my argument stands. “Effeminate” is a term used with reference to a man.
Anonymous, please do tell us how you believe Dana has gone a bit over the edge? Since you seem to be our moral referee as of late, it would be benevolent of you to inform all of us what the rules are which you apparently have invented for a chosen few of us to play by. :(
Those who seek “gender-reassignment” are listening to the call of the “evil-one”…the voice they hear is from the devil…pure and simple…
Duncan, I agree.
I know what I am about to say will go against popular belief, but Sconce is likely not homosexual, as the majority of cross dressers are in fact heterosexuals. Most cross dressers keep their cross-dressing behaviors secret from their families and professional contacts.
Mr. Sconce makes a much better looking man as nature intended. What is he trying to prove — that he can and is his own god. Ah! the story of the Garden of Eden all over again. That slippery, slimy snake, who is at odds with the Woman and her Son just keeps on popping up, but in the end we know that the Woman and her Son crushes it. “I will put enmity between thee and the Woman between thy seed and her seed”, say the Lord..
As Catholicism teaches to treat all with dignity, the children will have an opportunity to learn what that means. There is no reason to believe that there is anything bad that she will do to any of the children and she will likely continue to teach as she has for the many years that she has. Her physical appearance has nothing to do with the quality of the education she can provide. As the article states, she is an award winning teacher.
The comments in this article, as usual, show a significant lack of dignity for this teacher. Based on the logic of most of the comments, I bet people here would only be happy of this teacher was forced to be homeless and have no career.
I assure this position is sin in the eyes of God.
Anonymous (I’m assuming the one who authoritatively communicates the Church position). Thank you.
This thread is depressing. For one thing, what purpose does it serve? It’s not an identifiably Catholic story in any way. Just seems intentionally placed for transphobic comment fodder.
Honestly, if you ever want to see an example of the people who regard themselves as all that is good and moral embodying evil, here you have it.
Oh, goody…another fake expression of outrage for those of us faithful to Church teaching…transphobic. Do tell! Is that a blanket term for fearing Transylvania , transplants and general transformations? We’re all agog for keeping up with the latest terminologies. I do suffer from phobias phobia, however, and live in fear of homo-mania, transgender-fixation,people who utterly lack a sense of humor, sex fanatics, and sanctimonious hypocrites that embody evil but attribute it to everyone but themselves. Naturally, that ‘s just a partial list as the zeitgeist keeps expanding exponentially with each new depravity that asserts itself. Phobias keep multiplying like new detergents on our grocery shelves, alas. Thank God these ‘new’ sins still fall neatly under the same restrictions in the Ten Commandments. As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.
Thanks Dana, I think we share an aversion to “sanctimonious hypocrites that embody evil but attribute it to everyone but themselves.” I can’t think of a more perfect wording for using religion as a justification for bigotry.
Oh. And look no further than Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transphobia
It’s not all about teaching the children about treating others with respect. That is something we are called to do. Solid Catholics have always taught their children to be respectful. It’s called manners. This issue is about confusing the poor children, especially during formative years. Not every issue is age appropriate to school age children. Stability and consistency are necessary for a solid moral and mental foundation. Changing one’s gender presentation is not quite opting between pants or a skirt, or a two story house versus an apartment, or going on vacation or staying home. If one is a deep thinking person, and many are even at a tender age despite the oft promoted stereotypes, the concept of ‘changing’ in this manner can be very difficult to digest mentally.
As for this being an identifiable Catholic story, I would say this piece would concern practicing Catholics who have a care for childhood development in addition to those who wish to be kept apprised of the continued encroachment of ‘gender’ issues as a whole in society. Catholics aren’t required to keep their head in the ground like ostriches, but have the right to know what is going on around them.
Thank you CCD!
Lol. Children can learn, they can also handle complicated subjects. For example, we teach children about death, childbirth, and God. Al quite complicated subjects.
And the behavior and comments on this blog show zero manners, it’s open animosity and devoid of any respect.
You are absolutely correct in that children CAN learn, Anonymous. That is the issue. But while death, childbirth, and God are natural and wholesome subjects, gender twisting is not. It’s psychologically confusing and difficult to come to grips with at the very least – even to the person involved.
That is why we do not subject children to it. Especially adolescents.
There is a difference between being respecting human dignity and manners. Where do I begin! Holding a door open for someone is manners. Holding a heart out for others might be part of respecting their dignity.
And admonishing sinners – will help them get to Heaven.
Burdening children with such complex, mental issues is not respecting their right to childhood, YFC. So having a heart with regard to our youth and not unleashing the barrage of the you’re-kidding-me is something society used to do. No more, however, as it seems the current trend seems to allow burdening our children with whatever we ‘choose’. Without any care whatsoever about what it will do to them, to the children, so long as our own wants are satisfied.
Ann, once again you said it so well, “Burdening children with such complex, mental issues is not respecting their right to childhood.”
AM & Tracy, on this point I mostly agree with you. A parent who is transitioning has a special obligation to put the physical and psychological health of their children above their own. A teacher is a bit of a different story, but clearly the psychological needs of students is also very important.
Thank you, YFC, for understanding that the psychological needs of students are an issue here. But whereas a teacher may seem to be a bit of a different story – granted, they are not the parent – teachers are HUGE role models to children.
Happy Easter :)
High school is not that young. Not many years ago, 16-18 was considered mostly adult. We have artificially extended childhood into peoples 20’s.
The human brain doesn’t fully finish development until about age 23/25, Anonymous. That’s science, not a society imposed age 18 model that now, thanks to the evisceration of organized religion, morality, and family in this country, leaves entire generations open for special interest harvesting (and the same sex agenda is that in spades).
So yes, in past generations an 18 year old was expected and able to behave in an adult-like fashion, but that was due to the SAFEGUARDS of family and society, not because 18 year old kids make such great decisions with their solidly formed brains.
Do some reading, my friend. And connect all the dots, not just the liberation dots that deny human frailty and the reality that children are our future. Outside of the spiritual, that is why society should be focused on protecting, defending, and rearing children to be strong, not so easily led by conflicting feelings.
Perfect Ann….you hit the nail on the head. Our culture that we have in the world today is hurting our children. We are BURDENING OUR INNOCENT children! Taking away their innocence. Depriving them of a healthy mom and dad. Divorce, 2Moms, 2Dads, abuse, cross dressing teachers, sex ed for 8 years, violence, etc. This man needs to go elsewhere, not back to his class or school. No one needs to know what he did–it’s between him, God and the confessional. I wish that his poor wife and children didn’t have to witness it either.
Nobody seems to care for the kids, SandraD. Just changing things to a supposed Utopia of do-what-you-will, be-whatever-you-want. That is until they get the Utopia, but it isn’t quite that great.
Mr. Sconce is a man in need of authentic Catholic counseling which would help him embrace his true God given worth as a man. No justice is given him, or the numerous others like him, by encouraging his cross-dressing fetish. No justice is given to his students by telling them that they need to embrace his cross-dressing fetish. A man with a cross-dressing fetish is a wounded man.
Yes Tracy…..such a wounded man. He needs prayers and a new job elsewhere.
“No justice is given him, or the numerous others like him, by encouraging his cross-dressing fetish. No justice is given to his students by telling them that they need to embrace his cross-dressing fetish.”
Tracy,
Beautifully said! Thank you for these truth filled words. Christ’s Truths heal the wounded if we humble ourselves and open our hearts to receive them. Sadly we are seeing that these Truths are not easily received if they are not being clearly taught or if they are being intentionally denied by those in authority who are charged with guarding the authentic Truths of the Catholic Church.
A person with a cross dressing fetish is very different than a transgender person. One is a sexual proclivity, the other is a gender identity. Almost all those who use the dress of others for sexual purposes actually do not identify as the opposite gender in the rest of their lives. A transgender person, on the other hand, does not dress in what we might consider opposite sex clothing for sexual pleasure, but rather as part of the gender they associate themselves with.
This excellent blog called “Healing From Crossdressing” lists resources which should help clear up any misconceptions which arise from Anonymous’ post. Seems that Anonymous’ beliefs are not a foregone conclusion.
https://healingcd.wordpress.com/important-helpful-links/
Oh. Yes. Think of the poor children.
They’re adolescents, for one thing, and adolescents (even sheltered ones) know a lot more about sex than you’d probably care to admit. At least a few of them might be transgendered themselves, so having an adult in an archetypal role is a good thing. Whether the archetype is appealing to them or not, it’s still a genuine one. And for students who aren’t, well, they live in a world where they will encounter people different from themselves, so it’s an opportunity to see someone different as a multidimensional being.
If you read the NBC story link, the teacher was publicly outed, and has spent 56 years in the closet, so it wasn’t exactly an thoughtless choice. It’s pretty inspiring and that she chose to embrace it, rather than be crushed by it. Obviously, she’s encountered a lot of hostility and chaos over it. Quite brave.
It’s interesting that the subtext here is that somehow, fostering a deep seated sense of shame and repressing outward signs of this teachers inner being, even if it’s the source of great unhappiness, is preferable, because it conforms superficially with a social ideal.
Sadly they know a lot of what is warped about ‘sex.’ That surely didn’t come about via respecting the sensibilities of children – and adolescents still qualify. So since the kids are in-the-know let’s just open the flood gate and let it all out, Hugh. Shock and awe as it were.
Ann, not really sure what your point is here. Kids today can easily, instantly find all the internet porn they can possibly digest, even if the home environment is restrictive, all it takes is one unmoderated connection somewhere. The floodgates have been open their whole lives.
The idea that a real transgendered person in a respectable role as educator is somehow more corrupting than what they’ll find if their curiosity leads them to a Google query, just doesn’t hold up.
And gender identity is manifest by adolescence, so in a public high school, there are probably more students that are transgendered than one staff, so it’s probably good for them to have an adult role model (and role models don’t have to be mentors, just real life examples).
I really don’t think it serves anyone to create the artificial appearance that certain types of people don’t exist, by outward repression or exclusion, simply to cultivate repression in children.
Would you prefer transgendered kids hide who they are until it predicates a divorce in middle age?
Hugh, you know precisely what my point is which is why you so adamantly refute it. That said, your perspective on parenting is warped.
“…Kids today can easily, instantly find all the internet porn they can possibly digest, even if the home environment is restrictive, all it takes is one unmoderated connection somewhere. The floodgates have been open their whole lives.”
Such a defeatist attitude is thoroughly disgusting with regard to the responsibility of parents to rear and guide children. Especially when that parent is a believing, God fearing Catholic who should know better. And too often does know better.
What you seem to be saying is, don’t let the kids be frightened or intrigued by porn on the internet, but rather expose them to the ‘trusted’ figure in society who indulges in it to show them that it’s okay. That’s corruption, Hugh. Have you no concept of the innocence of children?
Have you no idea that parents who care for the children – do not leave them open access to the internet to surf according to ‘curiosity?’ My word, man. As to your comment about divorce in the Middle Ages, have you not heard of self control, sacrifice, accepting and carrying one’s cross, resisting temptation, avoiding the occasion of sin? The single life? Nobody is forcing anyone to marry.
Talk about ‘effeminate’ meaning soft and cowardly. A man who cannot even take up the onus to protect children from porn because – well – it’s everywhere. Bleck.
Ann, I think you missed the point entirely.
You can moderate children’s exposure to the outside world, but to some extent, it’s an exercise in futility and self deception… especially by their mid-teens. No matter how restrictive a home environment might be, you can’t prevent them from encountering the world they live in, and to think you can prevent teens from accessing the unabridged internet (at some point) is folly. You can attempt to imbue them with heavy biases, but if you frame it in terms of your (or their) being in direct opposition to the world at large, it’s a coin toss whether they’ll see rejecting your value system as liberation. In my personal experience, kids I knew with the most orthodox/restrictive home environments (Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons more than Catholics, perhaps) were also the most likely to reject the belief system completely.
Probably a mistake to use internet porn as an example, as it freaked you out, and is irrelevant. The point was there’s a huge difference between a transgendered person as a human being in a commonplace role, and being seen as a caricatured sexual oddity. Even just a couple of decades ago, the most visible role that openly trans people had in society was as sex workers, which is the product of the kind of social repression you appear to prefer.
Also: you totally ignore that there are lots of kids themselves that are transgendered. I take it by “self control, sacrifice, accepting and carrying one’s cross, resisting temptation, avoiding the occasion of sin” you mean staying in the closet about it. How is that any different from what the teacher here did for 56 years?
I haven’t missed your point, Hugh James, but rather I do not agree with it. Not at all. Perhaps it is because you approach things as a ‘belief system’, that we break company. Also because you assume that supposedly this man would have been better off dressing up as a woman for 56 years – that is conjecture on your part, not fact, not science, just supposing. The psychological issues that attend gender issues cannot all be attributed to the externals of how others perceive one.
But what is better? That is the question as Catholics tend to rely upon God’s law and nature to determine that which is better even if at times we do not agree and/or see the wisdom in it. Massive social experimentation is not a guarantee of giving our children what they need or what is best.
As for the ‘lots’ of transgender kids, I think you are kidding yourself, or rather projecting wishful thinking. But personally there is much to be said for keeping one’s private life private. Call that the closet if you’d like, but this new ideal of advertising the most personal intimacies opens a person up to increased pidgeon holing and personal space invasion.
What happens when the supposed transgender isn’t really transgender or the lesbian really bisexual or really not bisexual at all. Those things happen, too, Hugh James. Especially when you are talking about young adults navigating life.
Hugh James, the “publicly outed” comment refers to the fact that Sconce would have preferred to have showed up to class as a woman named “Scott” devoid of the preliminary warning to the students by the school administration.
I wonder why you chose to leave this out?: “Last year, though, after extensive counseling, Scot said she HAD TO TELL the truth to her family, including a wife of 35 years and a grown son and daughter. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria,….”
I feel for his family. Sad to say, I have first hand knowledge into the confusion they are surely experiencing right now. His mental health therapist has not only done a disservice to Mr. Sconce , but to his family as well. I can attest that straight cross-dressing men typically do not have a single “effeminate” bone in their bodies. Sconce may think that he “feels” better as a woman, but he has now made the choice, (no doubt with the help of his therapist) to “learn” how to act like one. His ridiculous looking makeup and clothing, does not surprise me one little bit. It only reminds me of a chapter in my life I have mostly chosen to forget about. Fortunately for me, my boyfriend confessed his unfortunate fetish to me before we had a chance to marry. Last I heard he was married for the second time and has several children.
Tracy, I think you’re right. The reference to being outed was one about the school announcing it. I was thinking it meant someone posted about it on Facebook or something, so the secret was out, and she embraced it.
Heterosexual, closeted people like Mr. Sconce was are different from the transgendered people who visibly and openly cross gender roles, and usually are always a part of the gay community from early on. It’s more like a hidden secret identity and sexual fetish (from what little I understand)… but maybe not… it could just be that it’s so deeply guarded that there’s less social sophistication to it, and it’s a secondary role to the primary heterosexual male identity? It tends not to be as convincing or passable. I tend to think that if there’s a pathology there, it’s in the repression, not the expression.
But I don’t understand it. To me it seems easier to challenge gender conventions and view them as spectral, rather than a rigid duality, but that’s my subjective take.
I feel bad for his family too, but there’s an issue there that’s similar to ex-gay therapy: if you you’re living a lie, however convincing, and involve other people in it, that’s profoundly unfair to them, and prone to collapse…
The article clearly stated that Sconce’s therapist wrote a letter to his school administration informing them that he would be returning to school as a “she”. The school administration then took it upon themselves to inform the student body of this before he/she returned to school. This is what they refer to as him having been “publicly outed”.
Let’s all think of more things that can mess up the kids in the schools!!!
Catholic parents you have a huge responsibility.
Read your “Bible” and the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition”, and then teach your children accordingly.
Your eternal salvation, and the eternal salvation of your children may depend on it.
There are no excuses for the literate.
Transgenderism damages children. Case in point: my neighbor, born a female and changed to male, FORCED her youngest teenage daughter to call her “Dad.” The daughter was a mess. She ended up in foster care, rescued by a Christian family. Imagine this: her mother had her breasts sliced off and takes hormones.
This should be illegal!!!!
My dad grew up in the foster care system. The most damaging aspects of his troubled childhood were all at the hands of “Christian” families that “rescued” him.
Anonymous, Robert wrote that “Transgenderism damages children.” The sad story about your father, (nor the numerous other sad stories of children raised in our flawed fostercare system), does not change nor diminish the truth of that statement.
Tracy, what damages children is restrictive social teachings that have created this mess. Without the shame that our society places on lgbt people, fewer would feel forced to engage in dishonest relationships so as to avoid society’s scorn. If people would merely accept that some people are transgendered or gay or gender nonconforming, and not try to harm them or make their very real experiences illegal (as was suggested above, lol), then fewer families would have to go through this kind of challenge. Transgenderism does not harm children in any way. Complicated family relationships that are the product of societal expectations may harm children.
No one should try to harm another human being.
What adults do in the privacy of their own home (which does not have children) is their own choice and their own business. They choose Heaven or Hell themselves.
People with perverted morals should not try to push their beliefs on others, and certainly not on impressionable children.
The common good does not promote mortal sins or evil.
What harms children is the realization that society scorns their parents when one of them happens to be transgender. Kids know when their parents are looked at as outcasts, as abnormal, as something to be ashamed of.
If society didn’t treat transgender people with such scorn, the kids would be OK. This is well documented. On the other hand, there is no documentation that parental transgender parents are, per se, harmful to kids.
CCC: ” 364 The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”:
it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator.
For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. ”
God does not make junk. People make junk.