On “National Girls & Women’s Sports Day” (February 5, 2025) President Trump signed an executive order entitled, “No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order.” The goal was to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sporting events. Late in 2024, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said, “Look, men are men and women are women.” He was talking about policies related to bathroom usage in the U.S. Capitol. Here is my question: What definition are we using for “men” and “women?” They make it sound so simple. But is it?
I was working with a group of pastors recently and one of them headed down this path. In response to a similar question that I had posed, he flippantly said, “You want to know if you are a man? Drop your pants and I’ll show you.” He was clearly using anatomy to define a man. But we now know (based on the availability of genetic testing) that there are people who are XX (female) from a chromosome perspective but have male genitalia. We know that some people who appear physically female have the SRY gene, the gene that determines many male characteristics. We know some people are actually XXY (instead of XX or XY). And we know that the number of people that deal with this is actually much higher than you might expect. So can you “drop your pants” and tell if you are a man? It’s not that simple.
In the last Olympics two women boxers were revealed to have “failed” a genetic test administered by the Russian Boxing Federation (a notoriously partisan ruling body). They were instantly labeled “men” by many people. While we do not know the exact reason they were said to have failed the genetic test, many people assume they tested as having XY chromosomes, even though they were both identified as female at birth, have female genitalia, and have lived all their lives as women. When I was discussing this with a friend he quickly said, “I don’t care how they were identified at birth or what ‘hardware’ they have, if they are XY they are a man.” So does everyone need to take a genetic test before we can decide if you are a man or a woman? Again, it’s not that simple.
In yet another recent discussion someone said to me, “I don’t want my daughter competing against men. Men are bigger, stronger, and faster than women. If we let men compete in women’s sports someone is going to get hurt.” So do we let athletic capability tell us who is a man and who is a woman? I don’t think most people would suggest that. I used to be pretty fast and strong. I am 66 now and there are a LOT of women who could outrun me and out lift me without even exerting themselves. So of course athletic ability is not a way of identifying a man. But I think many people would suggest testosterone levels (which affect strength, etc.) are crucial to understanding who is a man. Testicles produce testosterone. Ovaries also produce testosterone (but in much lower levels). Levels vary from person to person, and that presents yet another “problem.” Some people whose anatomy and chromosomes would suggest they are female actually have higher testosterone levels than expected. So can you administer a hormonal test to decide if someone is male or female? Once again, it isn’t that simple.
In recent years brain structure research has revealed differences between the sexes. And sometimes we find a person’s brain structure does not match other anatomical features. So can brain structure tell us who is male or female? You guessed it. It’s not that simple.
Throw all the physiological stuff away, and there are still people who look in the mirror and are upset by what they see. They see what society would label “a man” and yet every fiber in their being screams, “that’s not me!” I don’t understand this. In seeking to understand I recently asked a trans person this question: “When I look in the mirror I expect to see my 40 year old self looking back at me, but I see an old man. Is that what it is like?” Their response? “Multiply that by 1 million and you might be getting close.” There is nothing simple about that at all.
We haven’t even delved into the spiritual yet. As Christians we believe we are both body and soul/spirit. My mom and dad are both dead. Their bodies remain here on earth in the cemetery at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, IL. Their souls are with Jesus. All the stuff above relates to those bodies, which are lifeless now and will be resurrected on the Last Day. But I believe their souls are still, in some way, male and female. He is still Dad and she is still Mom. If that is true, then would it be possible, in a fallen creation that is less than God intended, for a male soul to end up in a body whose chromosomes or anatomy or hormones or brain structure is different than God intended? It seems like that might be possible based on things like Paul’s statements about the “futility” of creation in Romans 8. Or Jesus referring to people who are different sexually “from birth” in Matthew 19. But again, it’s not that simple.
My point in all this? Be careful. When a political leader says, “A man is a man,” there are thousands and thousands of people who intimately (and often painfully) know that it just isn’t that simple. When someone says, “we have to keep men out of women’s sports,” remember that the message to some is that they now have no place for athletic pursuits, and all the benefits that come from being part of a team and engaging in rigorous athletic competition. These are real people with real joys and struggles, and nothing about their life, when it comes to sex and gender, is simple. When we try to say that it is, we diminish their real experiences and imply that they have no value.
Do you want to know another thing that isn’t simple? Finding ways to be loving and gracious with people who are very different than us. People whose struggles we do not understand. Who experience aspects of life very differently than we do. That is not simple at all.
But it is totally worth it.