Headlines - Gender Identity

This Sunday is the final week of our headlines series. Having looked at Brexit, mental health and the sexualisation of society we're going to finish by looking at the issue of gender identity, and in particular how we respond to people who are transgender or intersex. I realise that for many of us those terms are confusing, but even if they seem unimportant or irrelevant to us they are huge issues in our wider society, and it is vital we know what God has to say about them and how we as a church should respond.

If you want to think about the issues in advance I recommend looking at a couple of things recently in the media.

The first was a BBC documentary called "Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? which deals powerfully with what parents should do if their child identifies as being transgender.

The second would be to read the story of the model Hanna Gaby Odiele who revealed this week that she is intersex (was born with a mix of male and female sex characteristics).

If either of those stories came up when talking with friends this week, or if you directly identify with the people in either of them, how would you respond? Hopefully Sunday will give us the tools to do that in a way which is full of truth and full of grace.

See you Sunday :)

Simon.