July 2020 – Perhaps this article should actually be titled, “A COVID-19 Perspective on Transgenderism.” You might ask, what in the world does one have to do with the other? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But I offer you this: What this virus outbreak has shown us is that life can change in a moment, your world can be turned upside down, and the things you thought were important are really not important at all.
Transgenderism is, at its most fundamental level, a lifestyle in which you see the entire world through the lens of self. … You heap to yourself those who will affirm and celebrate your feelings and push away those who will speak the truth
to you.
Fun at first
A transgender identity is fun at first, but over time you will find you become a slave to it. If you have already been living that lifestyle, at least for a short time, recall for a moment the first time you were reminded that your new image is fake.
If you are like me, you quickly brushed this off, assured in the knowledge you possess within your own heart that this new identity is the real you and that one day the dysphoria will go away and it will be real. Heed Jeremiah’s warning in the Bible: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV)
Your heart is deceiving you. Yes, your feelings are real, but your feelings do not determine who you are. We must align our thoughts and feelings with reality, not attempt to alter reality to align with our feelings and desires.
As the months roll by, you will find yourself being faced with this reality over and over again. It is sort of like building a mask for yourself out of paper-mâché, one piece at a time. Every affirmation or confirmation of your new identity adds a piece to the mask, but every time you are reminded of reality, it removes a piece. When a piece of the mask is removed, it causes anxiety and fear and even greater disorientation.
This disconfirmation of your “new reality” may come in several forms including someone calling you by your birth name, using your old pronouns, frustration with fake genital products, having to bind every day, and much more. I know from experience you believe this will all go away as your body “transforms” into the opposite gender, but the truth is, that never happens. This becomes a never-ending battle to try and keep up the image.
Free at last?
Even doctors and scientists are now admitting that hormones and surgeries will never transform you into the opposite gender.
Dr. Barry Starr of Stanford University, an expert geneticist, said, “No amount of surgery, hormone injections, or anything else will change someone’s DNA from a man’s to a woman’s (or vice versa).”
Dr. Paul McHugh, university distinguished service professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explains: “Transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men. All (including Bruce Jenner) become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’ In that lies their problematic future.”
So, try as you might, if you are attempting to live as the gender opposite of how you were created (and therefore, born as), you will find yourself feeling like you are living in a clothes dryer –spinning around and around but never going anywhere. And, like you would experience were you in a dryer, you would get continually banged up in the process.
Gender confirmation surgeries, as they are now calling them, are simply plastic surgery. It is a cheap imitation of the real thing. They changed the terminology because the term sex-change makes plain the obvious truth that you were born one sex, and you are now attempting to become the other.
Family in disarray
Living as transgender, you are attempting to construct a life for yourself that is not ever going to be real, is never going to satisfy, and is never going to resolve the problem in the first place. You will end up swimming in a sea of your own lies, in constant inner turmoil, and pushing away anyone who knows the truth.
Even if your family is affirming, you will eventually distance yourself from them. Why? Because you will try to escape any confirmation of the truth. This includes those who know the truth, even if they never tell you. Just being around them is a reminder of who you are.
[For] a family member of someone who is identifying as transgender, this is one of the many reasons affirmation of a transgender identity is the opposite of the loving response.
Instead, look at the world around you. Look to the needs of others. This virus has shined a spotlight on how unimportant the temporal things of this world are. What matters is family, friends, and ultimately, God. …
Is blowing your life savings on plastic surgery to make yourself feel better really what you want when the world around us is falling apart? And the reality is, the surgery … might squelch the dysphoria for a while, but eventually you will be reminded that it is only a cosmetic alteration: like a mask you will tire of wearing.
Take this advice from Jesus instead:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26, KJV).
If you truly want your life to matter, for it to count for something, you will never find it in pursuing the desires of your flesh. You will find life in giving it away for the sake of others. 
Faith in Jesus
Put your faith and trust in Jesus, He can help you face the pain in your life … and He can heal you. It may take time, and it is not an easy journey. But if you will trust Him with your whole heart, He will lead you through it.
For more information on how to give your life to Jesus and be saved, visit Laura Perry’s website, transgendertotransformed.com/jesus, where this article was first posted.
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Challenges for transgenders, families
Laura Perry is affiliated with First Stone Ministries. She lived for nearly 10 years as a transgender “man.” In her book Transgender to Transformed, she recounts her emotional turbulence as a child and teen, as distorted perceptions about herself and God led her into a dark and confusing lifestyle.
Transgender to Transformed can help the LGBTQ captive find freedom and encourage those praying for a prodigal who has become supportive or involved in the LGBTQ lifestyle.
Perry is featured in the American Family Studios documentary In His Image, to be released this fall. Read her mother’s insights into Laura’s long journey to victory here.
Transgender to Transformed is available at afastore.net.
Anne Reed
