By Preston Sprinkle, President of the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender.
I’ve written several blog posts on this topic over the past several weeks. For your convenience, I compiled all the links to the series along with short summaries here in one blog post for easier reference. As I continue to add more posts to this series, I’ll keep updating this post with the new links and summaries.
Part 1—Biological Sex.
The relationship between sex and gender is disputed. The one thing almost everyone agrees upon is the definition of biological sex. Non-intersex humans are sexually dimorphic, and male/female are the two categories used to describe this sexual dimorphism. Read Now
Part 2—Biological Sex and Gender Role
Gender can be defined in many different ways by different people. However, the two most common understandings of gender can be divided into two categories: gender role and gender identity. This post discusses the meaning of gender role and how it relates to biological sex. Read Now
Part 3—Gender Identity
This post continues the discussion on gender by looking more closely at gender identity. It also considers the claim that one’s self-expression is sufficient enough to recognize a non-intersex person’s status as a man or a woman. Whatever you believe about one’s self-expression, we absolutely need to consider, listen to, understand, and value the actual experiences of transgender identified people. Read Now
Part 4—Brain Sex Theory
The Brain-sex theory is one the most important scientific pieces of evidence for the claim that one’s brain might be sexed differently than their body. Preston points out some problems with this theory and how it’s intrinsically connected to gender stereotypes. Read Now
Part 5—Do we have a sexed soul?
There are various views about the body’s relationship to the soul and the very meaning of “soul.” Preston explores the different theories of the soul/body relationship and points out some problems with the claim that one’s soul might be sexed differently than their body. Read Now
Part 6—What About Intersex?
So far, Preston has been talking about non-intersex persons in this series. But what about intersex persons? Preston corrects some misunderstandings on what intersex (or disorders/differences of sex development) is and how these conditions relate to non-intersex persons who identify as transgender. Read Now