Transgender, non-binary people and their “utopia of the neutral” will make people infertile, Pope Francis claims.
Advances in “biomedical technology” apparently “risk dismantling the source of energy that fuels the alliance between men and women and renders them fertile,” he said when speaking to the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is the Vatican’s bioethics advisory board.
He stands against anyone attempting to get rid of gender-associated behaviors.
“Rather than contrast negative interpretations of sexual differences … they want to cancel these differences out altogether, proposing techniques and practices that render them irrelevant for human development and relations.”
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In response, LGBT Catholic groups such as New Ways Ministry claim the pope needs to become more educated on gender.
"In his comments about gender identity, Francis has shown that he does not really understand the biology or the psychology of gender identity," Executive Director of NWM Francis DeBernardo told NBC News. "He and others in the Vatican really need to educate themselves about new scientific developments in the area of gender before making any statements about technologies that help people transition."
Dignity USA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burks agreed.
"I think Pope Francis doesn't understand how his comments increase the vulnerability of transgender people to many forms of discrimination," Duddy-Burke said. "We know from history that people are going to live their truth with or without technological solutions, and for those who are able to take advantage of technologies to confirm their true identities should be embraced as a blessing."
Last year the Pope made it clear he did not support lessons about gender in schools, calling it a “war against marriage.”
"This is against nature. It is one thing when someone has this tendency ... and it is another matter to teach this in school," he said. "To change the mentality — I call this ideological colonization.”
DeBernardo also spoke out about these claims at the time, simply stating: "Nobody chooses a gender identity. They discover it."
