My first ever personal encounter with persons whose bodies have been surgically and chemically altered to ‘transition’ from male to female was at the 2022 Texas State GOP Convention, the largest political meeting in the entire world. My convention duty was the Platform Committee, one of thirty-one representatives of the Texas Senate Districts.
My worldview of transgenderism as a political issue radically changed as I met and heard from victims of transgender surgeries and medications.
The Platform Committee reviewed and debated proposed ‘planks’ to the GOP Platform that were introduced first in precinct conventions. County Conventions and Senate District Conventions received more proposed ‘planks,’ evaluated, and homogenized the planks that were then forwarded to the State GOP committee, where priorities were assigned.
Hundreds of people testified before the Platform Committee, people whose lives and livelihoods would be directly affected by the actions of the 88th Texas State Legislature. The testimonies that bring me to tears, months later on, were and are, the victims whose lives had been irreversibly altered, never to bear children.
All planks were ultimately debated on the Convention floor and ratified there. Plank 125 addresses Gender Identity in Schools; 129 addresses Fund and Support Western Civilization Instruction, Defund Political Correctness; 156 addresses Gender Identity; 251 supports Military Readiness.
We, the Platform Committee members, did not and do not oppose transgender people. Quite the opposite. We know the heartbreaking facts of the transgender movement and the consequences to the victims by surgeons and counselors who agree with and reinforce gender dysphoria among a growing number of our nation’s youth.
Fact: The NIH National Center for Biotechnology Information reported on 29 April 2020 Suicidality Among Transgender Youth: Elucidating the Role of Interpersonal Risk Factors, “Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.” That was the information available to us three years ago.
Fact: The Mayo Clinic performs transgender surgeries. All surgeries present risks. This clinic reports twelve (12) common risks, including tissue necrosis, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and worsening of a behavioral health problem.
Fact: Victims of transgender surgeries are suing surgeons who surgically altered their bodies and counselors who encouraged the victims to undergo the irreversible surgeries.
Fact: The regrets of victims of surgical transitioning are mounting daily.
Fact: Gender dysphoria is proving deadly to thousands of linked to the puberty-blocking drugs now increasingly given to children who suffer from gender dysphoria or claim to be “transgender.”
My pastor presented a beautiful sermon that addresses gender dysphoria and the love of God toward transgender youth.
Pastor Josh Howerton is younger than most of my children. His wisdom and God’s grace in his life are profound.
This septuagenarian became a believer in Jesus Christ five decades ago. I read and study my Bible daily. Josh’s teaching on the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) opened my understanding tremendously.
Eunuchs sold into slavery were castrated to prevent them from impregnating women. In the book of Esther, Hegai, a eunuch, had charge over the women in the king’s harem. Hegai and other eunuchs were the earliest victims of transgender surgeries; because of their castration, they were commonly seen as no longer men.
Political activists will label me a homophobe (fear of homosexuals) or a transphobe (fear of transgender people). The truth is quite to the contrary. I have absolutely no fear of either. My only fear is a fear of God, who loves me, gave me life, and holds me accountable to love all people.
God will hold accountable surgeons, counselors, teachers, and parents who betray children to undergo life-changing disfigurement. God will hold the rest of us to plead the cause of transgender victims. To be sure, if we do not, God himself will (Proverbs 22:22-23).
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 