The Vatican Is Very Helpful, As Usual

by Shaker Jenny

[Trigger warning for transphobia.]

Okay, so the Vatican has issued a position paper regarding 'sex change operations'. Yay, this has got to be good (or we'll have to redefine what 'good' is, I suppose).

The article states: "The key point is that the (transsexual) surgical operation is so superficial and external that it does not change the personality. If the person was male, he remains male. If she was female, she remains female…"

I find myself in the unusual position of sort of agreeing with the main point here: A trans woman was a woman and a trans man was a man prior to SRS and having the body changed to align with that reality doesn't change that underlying fact. Not surprisingly, the Vatican and I differ on the actual interpretation!

They proclaim that trans identities are invalid and a result of "mental instability" or "psychic disorder". They also claim "recent medical evidence suggested that in a majority of cases the procedure increases the likelihood of depression and psychic disturbance." This is very much at odds with the accepted medical Standards of Care, recommendations of the AMA, and the vast preponderance of personal accounts from transsexual identifying people in my acquaintance (myself included). At the very least I say: Citation Needed!

It is my experience that any remaining post-operative 'depression and psychic disturbance' is a result of having to deal with retrofuck misogynistic patriarchal power structures trying to invalidate my identity.

Anyway…

They also conclude that:

• Existing priests that have a "'sex change' can continue to exercise their ministry privately if it does not cause scandal."—'cause they're totes still dudes, of course. Naturally, they reserve the right to expel said individual following a tribunal ('cause we didn't get enough of those during the Inquisition).

• People who have undergone a sex-change operation cannot enter into a valid marriage, either because they would be marrying someone of the same sex in the eyes of the church or because their mental state casts doubt on their ability to make and uphold their marriage vows. (Existing marriage are okay "unless a church tribunal determines that a transsexual disposition predated the wedding ceremony".)

These are their logical conclusions drawn from a flawed initial assumption: That trans women are originally men and trans men are originally women, and the fact that 'sex change' doesn't change an individual's gender.

Sigh.

Forgive me for being unaccountably 'depressed and psychically disturbed'.