As noted recently by Sam Hailes on the Premier Christianity blog, issues relating to transgenderism have been hitting the news with considerable frequency:-

Transport for London recently announced they’d no longer use the phrase “ladies and gentlemen” when making public announcements. TFL said the phrase was “outdated” and “belonging to yesterday”.

Last month a Canadian transsexual refused to give their baby a gender. Kori Doty complained the baby had not been issued a birth certificate because officials say a gender of either male or female must be registered.

It was also reported today that ten volunteers at a National Trust property have been moved from their jobs after refusing to wear rainbow badges which celebrate an LGBTQ campaign.  [It should be noted that this was reversed after protest from a number of those affected].

N.T. (Tom) Wright has written to The Time to express his concern:-

“Sir, The articles by Clare Foges (“Gender-fluid world is muddling young minds”, July 27) and Hugo Rifkind (“Social media is making gender meaningless”, Aug 1), and the letters about children wanting to be pandas (July 29), dogs or mermaids (Aug 1), show that the confusion about gender identity is a modern and now internet-fuelled, form of the ancient philosophy of Gnosticism. 

“The Gnostic, one who “knows”, has discovered the secret of “who I really am”, behind the deceptive outward appearance (in Rifkind’s apt phrase, the “ungainly, boring, fleshly one”). 

“This involves denying the goodness, or even the ultimate reality, of the natural world. Nature, however, tends to strike back, with the likely victims in this case being vulnerable and impressionable youngsters who, as confused adults, will pay the price for their elders’ fashionable fantasies.”

The Rt Rev Prof Tom Wright

St Mary’s  College, St Andrews