{"id":26257,"date":"2020-03-05T20:08:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T04:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=26257"},"modified":"2020-03-05T20:08:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T04:08:55","slug":"altered-carbon-translates-transgenderism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/altered-carbon-translates-transgenderism\/","title":{"rendered":"“Altered Carbon” Translates Transgenderism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Altered Carbon <\/em><\/strong>is my new favorite sci-fi Netflix show. The main character is a freedom fighter who is trying to find his long lost love across both time and space while utilizing his prodigious martial arts skills against both bounty hunters and dark governmental forces. It takes place over 300 years in the future where a person’s memories and consciousness can be transferred into a disk-shaped device called a\u00a0cortical stack<\/em>, which is implanted in the vertebrae at the back of the neck. Physical human or synthetic bodies are called “sleeves” and stacks can be transferred into new physical bodies (along with customized upgrades!) after death, but a person can still be killed if their stack is destroyed. The original intent was to allow space travelers access to extended life-spans necessary to explore distant stars that were light-years away. While this theoretically means anyone can live forever, only the wealthiest, known as “Meths” in reference to\u00a0Methuselah<\/a> (the biblical character), have the means to do so through clones and remote storage of their “backed up” consciousness in satellites. Those who do not have the monetary resources are left to have their stacks discarded into the ocean or transferred to any available less desirable sleeve. All sleeves have value, especially children’s sleeves based on limited supply and high demand.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I was reminded of this sci-fi show this week after reading from Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body<\/em>. It appears that transgender activist evangelists religiously believe that gender identity is one’s “cortical stack” and that sex or biology is merely one’s current compared to one’s desired “sleeve” (using Altered Carbon<\/em><\/strong> themes). That is, gender is fixed, while biology is fluid. With compassion towards those suffering from gender dysphoria and their families, our reading this week awakens us to the predatory threat of evangelical zealous transgender activists wielding their political power base towards vulnerable children and young adolescents with zero tolerance for question or criticism of transgenderism (from parents or anyone else, including adult members of the LGBTQI community).[2]<\/a> Michael Bird is a unique reviewer in that he is a lecturer in a Christian theological college as well as the father of an autistic son. He has passionate concerns for those caught up in gender dysphoria as well as being alert towards the “mad-scientist anthropological experiment” being foisted upon children and adolescents (especially as rates of gender dysphoria in autistic children are allegedly markedly higher). Unlike our other assigned readings and those who espouse their views of them, this reviewer approaches this critique of transgenderism as someone who is avidly willing to learn how to pastor and prepare others to pastor those suffering within the milieu of transgenderism. I respect him and others all the more who are not playing at mere academic gamesmanship but rather have academic minds and hearts open to learning how to serve those who are suffering. His summary questions to the editors revolved around: (1) What about when transitioning seems to go well? (2) How to find a middle path between gender as social construct and gender as shaped by biology., and (3) What types of transphobia should we be vigilant against?[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

I have never read anything vaguely academic-related to LGBQTI. I am so unfamiliar with terminology; I must check each time to be sure I have the letters in the correct order. However, I felt this was so needful; I purchased a copy of Transgender Children and Young People<\/em> for our church and those who work with our local church’s children and youth. I was most touched by “I’m Not A Hideously Bigoted Parent Who Doesn’t ‘Get it.'” This father’s story of his relationship with his daughter captivated me. Briefly, he is raising his voice, his clandestine GenderCriticalDad<\/em> blog, to do battle with the false “simplistic dogma that gender dysphoria is when the gender of your brain (your cortical stack) <\/em>does not match the sex of your body (your sleeve) <\/em>and the cure is transition (simply change your sleeve)<\/em>.”[4]<\/a> His blog has become his therapeutic creative outlet to combat his terror towards, “What has made my wonderful daughter decide on a course of self-mutilation and lifelong drug dependency?”[5]<\/a> I found his Ignore, Redirect, Reward coping mantra brilliant and pragmatic. While not trying to be cute or trite, his approach reminded me of our dealing with our first child, our daughter, who was the quintessential strong-willed child.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, unlike Altered Carbon<\/em><\/strong>‘s implied technologically packaged process, there is nothing simple or straightforward about the sexual\/biological transition to, or especially<\/em>, to reverse the transformation should one change one’s mind, one’s gender. These are life-long medical disciplined practices predicated on decisions made at probably one’s most vulnerable and impressionable crossroads of life.<\/p>\n

Commuting home one evening this week, with this reading in mind, I listened to a BBC interview of a man who transitioned from gay to cross-dresser to trans-female and then elected to return to his gender of origin as a man. He experienced a lifetime of hormone treatments, surgeries, and various associated social and sexual interactions. Amazingly, eventually, God speaking directly to him within the context of his Christian faith to return to his created gender was not met with contempt or ridicule by the interviewer. She did point out, however, that many in the transgender community feel his story should not be heard because it detracts from their (dogmatic \u2013 emphasis mine)<\/em> message and their power base. He simply responded with, “Hey, I have no judgment towards anyone else; this is just my story, my experience, and my life.” I leave us with GenderCriticalDad<\/em>‘s final takeaway, “..make their decision to transition because that’s the best option available to them at the time<\/em>\u2026The trans people I have met don’t want to dictate to anyone what they should think or say.”[6]<\/a> So as followers of Jesus, we show love and grace to serve those who are struggling or currently living somewhere within the transgender universe. However, we must be vigilant and brave to speak up towards those who would utilize our children and youth for their own “mad scientist transgender experiment.”[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series)<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Michael Bird, \u201cA Must-Read Feminist, Queer, Disability & Psychoanalytic Critique of Transgenderism\u201d Patheos<\/em> May 11, 2019,https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2019\/05\/a-must-read-feminist-queer-disability-psychoanalytic-critique-of-transgenderism\/?fbclid=IwAR2A9wr-o0CLQf-RwKde_Q5Az4023j64gugzEuj7I4RNPIMol_z0ZmGOkMg<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>Ibid<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Heather Brunskell-Evans and Michele Moore, Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body <\/em>(Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018) 71.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Evans and Moore, Transgender Children and Young People<\/em>, 67.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Evans and Moore, Transgender Children and Young People<\/em>, 79.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Michael Bird, \u201cA Must-Read Feminist, Queer, Disability & Psychoanalytic Critique of Transgenderism\u201d Patheos<\/em> May 11, 2019,https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2019\/05\/a-must-read-feminist-queer-disability-psychoanalytic-critique-of-transgenderism\/?fbclid=IwAR2A9wr-o0CLQf-RwKde_Q5Az4023j64gugzEuj7I4RNPIMol_z0ZmGOkMg<\/a><\/p>\n

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