Now That Men Can Become Pregnant. . .

Now that gender has been disassociated from biology and is a matter of personal self-identification, a man can become pregnant. (That is, someone born with female organs but who self-identifies as a man has to be considered as a man. If “he” hasn’t had sex-reassignment surgery and has sex with a biological man–I suppose we would have to call “him” gay–then “he” could have a baby.)

Carl Trueman studies a military manual instructing officers how to handle transgender issues, including a male soldier who gets pregnant.

So the body is thought to have nothing to do with gender, with sex, with parenting, with personal identity. Now Gnosticism has become our new civil religion.

From Carl Trueman, The Travails of Lieutenant Marty | Carl R. Trueman | First Things:

Transgenderism is not about who uses which loo. That question is the trivial point of a very long and sharp spear, useful for belittling the concerns of those who believe that there is a profound connection between biology and gender. Transgenderism is set to change everything—our understanding of sex, of identity, of relationships, of the significance of the body. And it does this because it demands a revised metaphysics of personhood, a project with profound and comprehensive social and political implications. School bathroom policy is a good example: It has already prioritized government rights over those of parents. There’s the rub.

Another example is provided by a document buried deep on The Department of Defense’s website, Transgender Service in the U.S. Military: An Implementation Handbook. . . .

It indicates just how contorted the military’s rules and regulations have become in order to deny the reality that men and women are biologically different in a way that determines their suitability for certain tasks.

For example, take the hypothetical case of Lieutenant Marty (pp. 50-51):

Lieutenant Marty changed his gender marker in the Service personnel data system from female to male after completing an approved transition plan. Lieutenant Marty has not had sex reassignment surgery as part of the transition plan and is working with his MMP on a plan to start a family. Lieutenant Marty approached his commanding officer a few weeks ago and mentioned he was pregnant.

The document gives advice to Marty and to the Commanding Officer. The strangest instruction is surely this:

Even though Lieutenant Marty has maintained female anatomy, he must be screened for pregnancy prior to deployment. If Lieutenant Marty became pregnant on deployment he will be transferred in accordance with Service policy.

Notice that: Even though Lieutenant Marty has maintained female anatomy, he should be screened for pregnancy before being deployed. Perhaps it is a typo, but as it stands—in an official government document—it is simply bizarre: “O.K., (s)he is still really a woman, but (s)he might actually be pregnant as (s)he claims.” Setting that aside, here’s the thing: If we are ultimately to make no distinction between genders, then the Kantian imperatives of our contemporary political culture mean that we must ultimately start screening all soldiers (male and female) for pregnancy, for to require only those with female anatomy to undergo such would seem to me to be a sign of cissexism, transphobia, etc., etc., etc.