Posted: 01/11/2017 at 8:48am
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National Geographic cover features transgender child
December 28, 2016
By Diana Chandler
Two
different covers of the Jan. 2017 issue of National Geographic feature
several children and young adults said to be classified under a range of
descriptors related to the two genders. National Geographic photo
A 9-year-old boy who considers
himself female is featured on the cover of the January 2017 National
Geographic. The entire issue is dedicated to subjective gender identity
primarily through the eyes of children while excluding biblical
authority.
But the idea of transgenderism or gender fluidity is itself a fallacy
void not only of Scripture but also of science, Christian commentators
told Baptist Press.
Glenn Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the
Family, and apologist Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis (AiG), said
the idea of gender fluidity is based in part on a person’s flawed
mental state. One Million Moms (1MM), an advocacy group aimed at
protecting children from exploitation, has started a petition against
the National Geographic issue.
National Geographic’s special “Gender Revolution” issue pictures the
transgender child on the cover of the subscription copy available online
since Dec. 19. The newsstand copy, available Dec. 27, has the same
inside content as the subscription edition, but features a group of
seven youth on its cover who identify with such descriptors as “intersex
nonbinary,” “transgender female, “androgynous” and “bi-gender.”
“It’s just simply absolutely false and pure ideology that gender is
fluid,” Stanton said. “Across human culture and history there are males
and females. … There is no science whatsoever that has determined a 3rd
or 4th or 5th gender.”
Nearly all pre-adolescent kids who are “gender dysphoric” or confused
about their gender revert back to their biological sex by puberty,
Stanton said, citing the statistic of 75 percent to 98 percent, based on
studies. Clinicians recommend that parents do not facilitate the
transition of pre-adolescent children to the other gender, said Stanton,
who has written and spoken extensively on gender identity.
Ham said he’s not surprised National Geographic does not explore God’s Word in the magazine.
“They’re really not out to discuss all the different views and to put
in what the biblical view is,” Ham told BP, “because they really want
to impose a particular view on the culture, and the particular view they
want to impose is you can be anything you want, and … nobody can tell
you that it’s definitely male and female…. What they’re really saying is
we’re going to tell you you can be anything you want to be.”
1MM condemns National Geographic’s use of children in promoting a belief in gender fluidity.
“Advocates for sexual confusion have quickly moved from using adults
to promote their agenda to exploiting children as the face of their
cause,” 1MM said in a Dec. 21 press release. “Susan Goldberg, the
National Geographic editor, should be ashamed of herself for using a
young child in such an abusive manner. The overwhelming majority of
doctors and psychiatrists label what this child is going through as
‘gender dysphoria’ and National Geographic is praising it as
‘beautiful.'”
National Geographic has received numerous comments about the issue, Goldberg said on the magazine’s website.
“Since we shared photos of the cover of our special issue on gender
on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, tens of thousands of people have
weighed in with opinions, from expressions of pride and gratitude to
utter fury,” Goldberg said. “More than a few have vowed to cancel their
subscriptions.”
Goldberg describes the biological boy on the cover as having “lived
as an openly transgender girl since age 5” and having “captured the
complexity of the conversation around gender. … Today, we’re not only
talking about gender roles for boys and girls — we’re talking about our
evolving understanding of people on the gender spectrum.” The magazine
promotes its special issue as looking at the “cultural, social,
biological and personal aspects of gender,” and includes interviews with
children in 80 homes on four continents, according to a Dec. 15 press
release.
Ham said the growing acceptance of gender fluidity is a symptom of a
culture that has taken the Bible out of public schools and promoted the
theory of evolution, and also the result of the church being lax in
teaching the truth of creation.
“The devil knows if you can get the education system,” you can lead
astray generations of children who are by nature susceptible and
impressionable.
“I believe what we’re seeing is as a whole, the culture has abandoned
God’s Word. God is turning this culture over to judgment and
unfortunately there are tremendous consequences,” Ham said. “Romans
1makes it very, very clear that a sign God is turning a culture over to
judgment is this increasing rejection of your fundamental sexual nature
and not even just a rejection of it, but basically a celebration of
[that rejection] because Romans 1 says they approve of these things.”
1MM’s online petition is at http://www.onemillionmoms.com/current-campaigns/national-geo graphic-attacks-most-vulnerable/.
National Geographic television
will air a two-hour documentary Feb. 6, 2017, at 8 p.m. Central Time,
titled “Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric,” the magazine
said. — Baptist Press Source: Godreports
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