Creationist Ken Ham recently responded an article in the Washington Post promoting "gender neutrality,"or the idea of not identifying with any particular sex.
The article, titled "When No Gender Fits: A Quest to Be Seen as Just a Person" by journalist Monica Hesse, is written from the perspective of an 18-year-old woman named Kelsey from Michigan who is uncomfortable identifying as a female, and thus prefers to remain genderless.
"People would say Kelsey was pretty, and it made Kelsey squirm-not because Kelsey felt unattractive but because other people's definitions of pretty, or handsome for that matter, didn't work," writes Hesse. "Dresses and makeup only made Kelsey feel uglier, but boy clothes weren't right either."
"I don't want to be a girl wearing boy's clothes, nor do I want to be a girl who presents as a boy," Kelsey explains in a letter to her mother Nancy. "I just want to be a person who is recognized as a person. That's how I'm most comfortable. I'm just a person wearing people clothes, who likes to look like myself and have others see me how I see me."
At first, Kelsey's mom is not accepting of her daughter's request to be referred to as "they" instead of as "she" or "her."
"Using 'they' just seems like such an impersonal thing," Nancy said. However, she soon chooses to oblige her daughter, and attends a homosexual pride festival with her.
"How do you navigate the world when the world is built on identifying with one group or another group, male or female, and the place that feels most right to you is neither?" Hesse asks.
Creation Museum President Ken Ham posted a blog post on Sunday in response to Hesse's article, asserting that promoting gender neutrality directly violates God's plan for a naturally created order.
"This story highlights the continuing degradation of a culture that used to be based on biblical principles but has now gone adrift in a sea of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6)," he wrote. "Instead of basing our definitions of masculinity and femininity on an absolute authority-the Bible-culture is by and large redefining male and female by what 'feels most right to you.'"
"If you have no absolute authority and being 'genderless' feels right to you, why not go for it? And, of course, if you can arbitrarily change what gender means then the definition of marriage is also open to redefinition," Ham added.
The "Answers in Genesis" founder also emphasized the idea that God created man and woman seperate for a purpose and gifted them with very different roles.
"God has not left us adrift in regard to gender. Genesis reveals that God created Adam and Eve male and female as two distinct persons, both specially made in His image (Genesis 1:26)," Ham explained. "Even though both males and females are completely equal in God's sight (Galatians 3:28), there is a distinction of roles between the two. This distinction was present from the beginning, "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'"
Ham encourages people to embrace their birth gender, as it was intentionally given to them by God.
"Gender is not a social construct that confines us and can be arbitrarily changed based on our feelings-it is a God-ordained created order that has been present from the beginning but has been marred by sin (Genesis 3:16)," he stated. "Instead of trying to change ourselves into the opposite of who God created us to be, we should embrace our God-given gender."
In concluding his article, Ham urged Christians to be a witness to those struggling with gender identity disorder and to share with them God's purpose for a created order.
"Sadly, we are now seeing more and more stories like Kelsey's, but we need to remember to reach out to these individuals with the gospel of Jesus Christ and a message of the true design for men and women," he said.
