The Transgender Movement: What Catholics NEED to Know

By Michelle Laque Johnson

You’ve seen the headlines: Girls from teens to a 5-year-old, assaulted in a school bathroom by a boy who identifies as female. Female inmates, who were forced to share a cell with a man identifying as female, now pregnant. Young female athletes denied scholarships and their chance for Olympic glory because they were “bested” by a man identifying as female.

“When I go around and speak…people…say: ‘What happened? How did this happen so fast?’ …[H]ow [did] we move from [a so-called transgender] moment to [transgender] movement?’”

The speaker is Mary Rice Hasson, JD, host of EWTN’s important new mini-series: “The Transgender Movement: What Catholics Need to Know,” which premieres 5:30 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, Oct. 24-28, with an encore at 2:30 a.m. the following day. A lot of networks say they air must-see TV. If you want to understand not only how this happened but what you can do about it, you absolutely MUST SEE this series – and share the information with everyone you know, both in person and on social media.

Hasson knows whereof she speaks! She is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and one of three co-founders of the Center’s important Person and Identity Project. She realized what was happening almost 10 years ago. Clearly not one to stand on the sidelines, Hasson immediately began working with the Vatican to sponsor a symposium, provide resources, and credential experts “who would have a firm grip on what was happening and how to communicate the truth of the Church’s teaching” on gender issues.

Watch EWTN’s series to get an understanding of all that is happening, and then go to www.personandidentity.com for a plethora of incredible resources. This website, which supplies medical, public policy, and legal resources, links to networks you can join, and a lot more. The resource is for parents (https://personandidentity.com/parents/), schools (https://personandidentity.com/schools/), churches (https://personandidentity.com/churches/), the medical community (https://personandidentity.com/medical/), and other interested persons who want to understand what is happening and, most importantly, how to deal with it.

Episode 1 provides a cultural overview of the Transgender Movement and it is an eye opener. Hasson’s guest is Dr. Ryan Anderson, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the author of “When Harry Became Sally.” He had a front row seat to what was happening as he dealt for years with LGBT organizations and their fight for “marriage equality.”

“The ‘T’ was always like the silent partner,” he said. “For 20 years, we had a debate about what they called marriage equality. When they got [Supreme Court Justice] Anthony Kennedy first to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, then to strike down state marriage laws in 2015… those organizations didn’t declare victory and shut down.”

That’s because it wasn’t just about getting a piece of paper from the government, Anderson said. It was about “cultural normalization and acceptance of same-sex marriage.” So that’s when you began hearing about Catholic Adoption Agencies forced to shut down if they wouldn’t allow same sex couples to adopt; the evangelical baker who forced to shut down because he wouldn’t bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, etc.

In fact, it was back in 2016 when the Obama Administration started imposing many of the transgender mandates, and the word “sex” in Title IX was formally redefined to mean ‘gender identity’ in May, 2016.

And now? Now you hear, “Catholic President Biden saying, ‘Transgender rights are the human rights issue of our generation,” Anderson says. “This is not a grassroots phenomenon. This is very much grass tops; not even grass tops, this is very much like the activist organizations imposing this top down."

If you’re confused about the meaning of gender identity, Anderson says it’s “the concept that the body does not determine one’s identity, and that your identity with respect to gender is somehow determined by something else.” The definition of that “something else” has evolved. Anderson says “the…contemporary version is that gender is a spectrum; you could identify as gender fluid, gender ambidextrous, so it’s not longer just transgender, which suggests we’re retaining the binary…[so] you identify as the other sex. Now we’re doing away with the…entire concept of male and female.”

All of this is only a sample of what is presented in Episode 1 – which also talks about how the young are being targeted – and there are four more episodes to follow. Interestingly, it’s not just Catholics and other Christians who are concerned about this.

Says Hasson: “This issue has fractured the typical right/left divisions, and instead you’re having people come together around reality.”

In 2018, Anderson said he invited the first lesbian reinstated to the U.S. military after ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was lifted to speak at the Heritage Foundation. Her opening line was something like: “’I can’t believe I’m about to say this but thank you to the Heritage Foundation for providing me with what no center-left group would, which is a platform.’ And she made the point that her being a lesbian never harmed another person, never interfered with the normal biological development of a minor, never took away privacy rights or equality rights or safety of any other person. But what’s going on with the transgender phenomenon, when you let a man into a women’s private facility, when you block the puberty of a child, when you let a man compete against actual women?”

Said Hasson: “I’m tremendously grateful to EWTN for making this possible because this information is so needed; people are hungry for guidance on where they can go and how to help their families.”

Find out what you NEED to know and help others do the same when EWTN premieres: The Transgender Movement: What Catholics Need to Know,” beginning 5:30 p.m. ET, Monday, Oct. 24.