The Gender Project

The Gender Project: Countering Gender Ideology

NEWS: CWF has launched The Person and Identity Project

The Catholic Women’s Forum has launched a new initiative, the Person and Identity Project, to provide resources to assist parents, schools, parishes, and dioceses in countering gender ideology with Christian anthropology. Visit the new website to access CWF’s Gender Resources: https://personandidentity.com/

What is gender ideology?

Gender ideology rejects God as the Creator and rejects sexual difference (“male” and female”). It claims individuals have the right to choose “gender identity” (regardless of biological reality), to “transition” socially, medically, and surgically, and to demand others “affirm” their choices.

What does the Catholic Church say?

Pope Francis has spoken out strongly against gender ideology, while insisting that each individual must be treated with dignity and respect. In AmorisLaetitia (56), Pope Francis warned of “an ideology of gender” imposed through national “educational programmes and “legislative enactments” in order to “promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female.” The result is the “eliminate[ion of] the anthropological basis of the family.” Pope Francis writes that  “biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated,” and therefore the young “need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created.”

Similarly, in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI criticized ideologies that deny the “pre-ordained duality of man and woman,” and thus deny “the family” as “a reality established by creation.” Pope Benedict also highlighted the atheism underlying the denial of created reality: “When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being.”

What is the Gender Project?

The Catholic Women’s Forum works strategically with dioceses, parishes, and individuals to train Catholic clergy, educators, catechists, and others to counteract gender ideology, communicate authentic Christian anthropology, and offer pastoral support. Full-day Workshops include cultural, medical, and pastoral guidance.

To get involved, or to learn more, contact CWF Director Mary Hasson at mhasson@eppc.org.

Looking for resources on Gender Ideology and Transgender questions? Click here.

The Gender Revolution 

Gender ideology has triggered a Gender Revolution. The cultural signs are all around us: Transgender bathrooms. Made-up pronouns. Boys in dresses. Hormones, mastectomies, and even genital surgeries for teenagers. Religious believers are increasingly silenced, shamed, or ostracized for insisting on the truth of the human person, created male and female. This is the “Gender Revolution.”

The Devastating Impact:

Faith: Gender ideology contradicts Christian anthropology. It calls itself “science” and rejects sexual difference as religious “bias.” It confuses Catholics by portraying Catholicism as “incompatible” with “science.”

Identity Confusion: Half of U.S. Millennials reject the “gender binary” of male or female (Fusion poll, 2015) and 20% of Millennials now identify as LGBTQ (Harris Poll, 2017).

Education: Public schools, which educate nearly 90% of Catholic children, normalize “trans” and “gender-non-conforming” identities through gender identity policies, anti-bullying programs, curriculum materials, clubs, and school culture. School district policies increasingly give transgender students the right to choose bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight sleeping arrangements on the basis of their gender identity, regardless of biological sex. Families and students who seek privacy (e.g., bathrooms based on biological sex) or who insist that human persons are male and female–whether they base their beliefs on biology or faith–risk being labeled “bigots” or “transphobes” and face the prospect of compelled speech or punishment if they “misgender” someone by failing to use their preferred pronoun.

Business: U.S. companies, pressured by the gender lobby, promote gender ideology financially, politically, and in advertising. 82% of Fortune 500 companies have “gender identity” protections or benefits in 2017, up from 3% in 2002.

Medical Experimentation: Business is booming in U.S. “gender clinics” for children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria. Children are encouraged to begin “social transitions” and to take puberty-blocking hormones. Adolescents as young as 16 are encouraged to undergo life-altering surgeries (mastectomy) and to begin cross-sex hormones, triggering irreversible bodily changes, including infertility.

Law: In 2017, gender activists will spend up to $200 million to promote gender ideology, restrict religious freedom and free speech, and change laws to promote “transgender rights.”

What can we do?

Pray. Learn. Speak the truth. Train Catholic leaders and parents.

Click here for a list of resources on gender ideology.

To learn more about our workshops for Catholic leaders and parents, please contact CWF Director Mary Hasson at mhasson@eppc.org. To support the Gender Project with a gift to the Catholic Women’s Forum, click here. We are grateful for your continued prayers and support.