During my decade-plus years in the gay lifestyle, I met numerous transgender people while hustling on the streets of Hollywood. They used to hang out at the Gold Cup and were a great curiosity to me because they were obviously more broken than I was, which I hadn’t thought possible.
Many years later, when interviewing over a dozen former transgenders for a documentary film, TranZformed: Finding Peace with Your God-Given Gender, I was surprised to learn that all of them had been sexually abused as children. Many had developed a distorted view of their gender identity, imparted by their abusers, family members or others during their developmental years.
Many also suffered from the absence of a sense of being—not sure who or what they were—because it was never imparted to them by loved ones and authority figures. In fact, just the opposite had happened.
Others suffered from separation anxiety caused by separation from their mothers during the first days or months of life, when infants believe themselves to be the same person as their mother. When she suddenly disappears or is not present, the child believes that it has also disappeared into “non-being.”
Still others were surrounded by very broken parents or other family members who communicated to them that they were worthless or unwanted as their biological gender, but desired and valued as the opposite gender.
During their teen years, gay and trans clubs would welcome them in so that their clientele would have underage minors to sexually abuse.
Experiencing great rejection from almost everyone, they headed in the direction of people who accepted and valued them, even if for all the wrong reasons.
I remember during my years as a prostitute that I would go with the men who pursued me because they at least wanted and approved of me. They would feed me drugs and alcohol to break down my resistance—replacing my emotional pain with parties that were brimming with interesting people who were as broken and jaded as I was.
Although science has shown that 80% of all children and teens who claim to have transgender feelings lose them before they are 18 years old, our culture has given itself over to a deceived and depraved mind—approving and promoting perversion as a good thing (Rom. 1:24-32).
Our culture supports hormone blockers for confused children, which will most likely cause sterility as well as other negative outcomes. After supporting such interventions for many years, Dr. Paul McHugh, (the founder of the sex-change center at Johns Hopkins University), now calls them “child abuse.”
Additionally, Johns Hopkins University professor and psychiatrist Jon Meyer, M.D., says, “My personal feeling is that surgery is not a proper treatment for a psychiatric disorder, and it is clear to me that these patients have severe psychological problems that do not go away following surgery.”
In fact, the high rate of suicidal ideation (40-plus %) actually rises once patients realize that the hormones and surgery did not turn them into the opposite sex. Nor did it eliminate the drive toward high-risk behavior that typifies that population.
It is important to note that “Gender Identity Disorder”—now called “Gender Dysphoria”—is not only emotional and psychological, but spiritual as well. I write more about this in my article, “The Truth About the Transgender Movement.”
One of the most touching stories that I heard while interviewing people for my film was Kathy Grace Duncan, who was in search of a loving father and an escape from an abusive one. Once she discovered that her heavenly Father loved her and wanted to heal her, she ran into His arms with great abandon and renounced her impulse to live and identify as the opposite sex.
And so, there is hope for the person who feels that they were born in the wrong body. His name is Jesus Christ. When someone accepts Him as Lord and Savior, and pursues Him for healing, then the impossible (permanent transformation) becomes possible. He is truly the Savior of us all. {eoa}
Dr. David Kyle Foster is the author of Transformed Into His Image and Love Hunger, and is the founder and director of Mastering Life Ministries. Read more of his take on sexual sin and brokenness in his newest book, The Sexual Healing Reference Edition and listen to his twice-weekly podcast at: charismapodcastnetwork.com/show/purepassion.
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