April 14, 2021
For Immediate Release
For more information: media@ruthinstitute.org
Catholic Bishops Back Trans-Lobby, Ruth Inst. Requests Clarification
“I’d like to ask the two Catholic bishops who released a statement condemning ‘discrimination’ against ‘transgender individuals,’ what exactly they
mean by ‘discrimination’” said Ruth Institute President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.
The Human Rights Campaign recently released a letter signed by Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, NM, Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, KY, and other religious leaders. The
letter states in part: “That we might not understand an individual’s experience, does not mean we are to discriminate against them, nor
to tolerate any form of discrimination they might endure.”
“Everything turns on the definition of ‘discrimination,’” Morse said. “The letter doesn’t provide even a hint of a definition.
“For instance, when men who say they are women compete against biological women in sports, who is discriminating against whom?” asked Morse. “I’d like
some clarification from Archbishop Wester. If we are to avoid all unjust discrimination, whose side do we take in this dispute? Why not stand in
solidarity with the biological women who have trained for years and are losing access to awards and scholarships when they are routinely defeated
by mediocre male athletes who say they’re women?
“What about the rapists who claim they are really women, and demand to be housed in an all-women’s prison? Tell us, Bishop Stowe, who most needs us
to be ‘stewards of justice and mercy’: The men who say they’re women, or the women inmates who fear being raped?
“I’d like to hear the bishops speak out about the injustice of insurance companies who pay for the removal of healthy tissues but refuse to pay for ‘detransition’ health care. This sounds like discrimination to me. I wonder what
Archbishop Wester and Bishop Stowe think,” Morse mused.
“If we stand with the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church, these thorny issues will not arise,” Morse said. A 2019 Declaration of Truth by Cardinal
Raymond Burke and a number of other Catholic bishops is an authentic statement of Catholic doctrine. The Declaration calls transgenderism “a rebellion against natural and Divine law,” and considers it “a grave sin that a man may
attempt to become a woman by mutilating himself, or even by simply declaring himself to be such, or that a woman may in like manner attempt to
become a man, or to hold that the civil authority has the duty or the right to act as if such things were or may be possible or legitimate.”
“The trans movement is trying to force the public to affirm a lie: That an individual with male XY chromosomes is a woman because he says so,” Morse
said. “Compelling people to treat men who say they are women as if they are actually women is itself a form of coercion and is inconsistent with
human dignity.”
Morse concluded, “We await clarification from Archbishop Wester and Bishop Stowe on these important questions.”
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith
coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love.
Jennifer Roback Morse is the author of The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Why the Church was Right all Along.
To schedule an interview with Dr. Morse, contact media@ruthinstitute.org.
