Gender Identity In The Sacred Canopy By Peter Berger

Cosmicgender, graygender, and demigender are terms rarely encountered in Western culture. However, they are used by some people to define their gender, a trait that affects most, if not all, aspects of a person’s life. Often in Western culture, sex and gender are treated as one and the same, and this is further affirmed by many Christian denominations, but the constraints of this system have caused some to prefer a view of gender as a spectrum with more variety than the typical male/female binary. Because of this, the view in America of gender identity is changing drastically.

Sex and gender, though often used interchangeably, are actually two very different concepts. According to the official definition used by the American Psychological

This theory consists of three parts: externalization, objectivation, and internalization. Externalization is the process by which ideas are created and put out into society. More specifically, it is the actual formulation and expression of the idea. The gender spectrum came about because people felt that they didn’t quite fit into the binary model and created new terms for their personal experience of gender. The second phase of the “life” of an idea, or objectivation, is brought about when the idea can exist independently of its creator. For instance, the gender binary is objectivated in that most forms only have male and female choices for gender. Clothing, bathrooms, and even colors are divided along the lines of the idea of two genders. So deeply is this idea ingrained in societal practices that it has been accepted by many to be the only way. This acceptance is classified as internalization. Often, internalization is an unconscious process. Once an idea is encountered, it must be confronted in some way by the human psyche. Once the psyche has found a way to deal with the new idea, it either accepts or rejects it. Should the idea be accepted, it is internalized and causes a change in thought processes, whether great or barely noticeable. Even if the idea is rejected, some opinion of it is still internalized. Berger’s theory demonstrates the inherent precariousness of culture. This

In the Southeastern United States, the main religion is Christianity, many denominations of which view gender as a strictly binary system, with anything outside of this seen as immoral. The National Catholic Bioethics Center described gender reassignment surgery as an attempt to “capitulate to the emotional disorder through surgical means rather than addressing [gender nonconformity] as what it truly is, a psychological disorder.” The center also stated that the wishes of a person seeking such surgery should be no more respected than “a person’s wishes to become a cyborg by cutting off his limbs and replacing them with prosthetics.” The Southern Baptist Convention states that they “affirm God’s good design that gender identity is determined by biological sex and not by one’s self-perception… which is often influenced by fallen human nature in ways contrary to God’s design,” and that they “oppose all cultural efforts to validate claims to transgender identity.” The official position of the General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God states that “male and female genders are carefully defined and unconfused.” They go on to state that “the fellowship supports the dignity of individual persons affirming their biological sex and discouraging any and all attempts to physically change, alter, or disagree with their predominant biological sex- including, but not limited to, elective sex-reassignment, transvestite,