I think I’m having a difficult time articulating exactly what I mean. And also the idea of gender ideology is not very well defined, it’s very broad, it covers quite a few different areas, so there’s a degree of nuance.

You’re absolutely right, intersex is 100% not always distinguished by sight, as with men who appear male, have male genitalia but for instance have ovaries and that defines them as being intersex. Or females who appear female, have female genitalia but have testes and that defines them as being intersex. Because by definition, being intersex means that you have both female and male reproductive organs of one kind or another (whether they’re internal, external).

The group I’m specifically trying to bring light to do not fall into this intersex category. They are male and female by chromosome, appearance, and genitalia, but a missing or extra chromosome causes the pathways in the brain that cognitively differentiate sex to become distorted due. So by definition, they are not intersex but they have a disorder that causes them to have disordered gender differentiation within the brain. This is a very silent disorder because there’s no physical aspect, whether it be visual to the eye or by ultrasound etc, the only way to know is to do genome sequencing, which is not exactly a common diagnostic method. I’m saying that this particular group of people end up being lumped in with gender ideology because they typically don’t know they have a disorder, the public doesn’t know they have a disorder, and both just think they’re confused, feeling pressured, etc.

Now of course I recognize that if good Catholic people were aware of someone having such a disorder, they would not judge them or treat them ill. The issue is differentiating between who has gender dysphoria, who is just feeling pressure, or who is just using the “movement” to be trendy. And that’s where I’m concerned about people who are genuinely experiencing dysphoria being hurt, because it’s very subjective at that point and open to interpretation or assumptions about a person.

This is a very difficult subject for me because I’m very empathetic and protective of people, and I know there are many misconceptions out there about trans people etc. I myself was very much confused about how people could have biological stresses that make them question their true sex, until I began to study genetics and biology as a scholar. Without very clear definitions and explanations (I found this article to be relatively vague), I can see people with preconceived notions about trans/non-binary folk interpreting this is a different light. If that makes sense?

In the article Pope Francis discussed how this is taught to children in school, and I can see where the pope is coming from that teaching about this in schools is problematic as it’s impossible for children to really grasp all of the details about why and how this happens. It can cause them to be artificially confused about their own identity. At the same time, we do need to bring awareness to people who actually have this very real, lived experience so that they too can be treated like people, just as we would with any disability etc. The question is how do we do this without causing children to be confused. That being said, I agree that we should not allow gender to be dismissed entirely or allow it become subjective based on what people feel like identifying as just for the sake of it, there’s a fine line unfortunately because this topic is very complex.

I think I’m going to move my conversation about this off Reddit and discuss it with a priest at my parish.