Thread by @JOesterblad

At this point, I am utterly incapable of being personally hurt by anything the Vatican says about LGBTQ people. But I was still able to be intellectually disappointed by this doc.

1/

https://twitter.com/PillarCatholic/status/1777305172001128956

It's long past time to have a real and honest conversation about how and whether the Church can think about gender in the modern world. I could, and would like to, engage with people who have a good faith belief that either *being* trans or *living as* trans are sins.

But that's impossible when the Vatican continually engages with a strawman and avoids the real argument. It's hard to take someone else seriously who consistently refuses to do you the same favor.

It's not that no LGBTQ person was convinced by this document—I think many correctly recognize that most of us never will be. But I would posit that there'd be benefits to a doc that trans folks can understand, even if they ultimately disagree with it or find it hard to respect.

This document was not that. It was incomprehensible. In the literal sense. It ignores the baseline questions.

• Given the variety across human societies and history, what *is* gender? What can it mean to say that it's given by God?

• What does God "say" with intersex people? Is that a theodicy question, like "why are some children born with terminal illnesses?", or a question about the goodness of diversity in God's creation, like "why are some children born with intellectual disabilities?"

• Is the sinfulness of body modification measured by intent or in more objective terms?
• Short of body modification, what does it mean to deny sexual difference/one's gender? Is there some objective measure of femininity that I need to stay on the right side of? How?

It honestly makes me question the honesty and rigor of all other documents put out by the Dicastery, especially those about topics that I understand less well and have been more willing to take their word on. If this is the Catholic intellectual heritage...

In conclusion, I would never apply a "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule to the Vatican about queer people because, again, impossible. But I would at least suggest that those with nothing informed or intelligent to say should stay silent.