I held a debate with my 8th grade students in the Refutation and Confirmation Classical Composition class. I thought it would be a good way to practice their refutation and confirmation skills learned thus far.
It didn’t go well. Eighth graders may know how to talk and argue but don’t know how to debate.
So I had to show them how it should be done with an argument I wrote including all the heads of purpose from the Apthonius model:
Whoever says “There are more than two genders” must be insane and while we should love the insane—as the esteemed student Raymond mentioned Our Lord commanded that we love our neighbor as ourselves—that doesn’t mean we should follow them into their insanity.
Firstly, what do these people even mean by gender? It’s not clear. Ambiguity is often used as a cover for a lack of an argument, but that won’t work here. Words have meanings and using meaningless words is conversely meaningless.
By gender, do they mean simply personality? If that were the case, then yes there are more than two personalities—there are as many personalities as there are people. But this isn’t likely because we already have a word for personality and it doesn’t add to the meaning by associating it strictly with masculinity or femininity.
Do they mean sex? But that is impossible because biology is quite clear on this fact: there are only two sexes in a sexual species, and homo sapiens sapiens (our species) is a sexual species.
It is likely that they mean one thing by the word “gender” in one situation and another thing in another. Changing definitions like this may fit the fluid concept of gender in these people’s minds but it’s horribly illogical.
Secondly, as the esteemed student James pointed out, the Holy Bible clearly states that God made man (referring to our species)—”male and female He made them.” (Gen. 5:2) Woe be it to him who contradicts God’s word. The esteemed student Mary pointed out that the Bible also states that we should “judge not lest we be judged.” But that means merely that we cannot know a person’s heart. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t assess psychological realities.
The esteemed student Greta mentioned that people are whatever they feel they are. But my children have felt like they are a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Farrarri, and St. Michael the Archangel at different times in their life. That doesn’t mean they are actually those things. Pretending is fun but it’s not helpful to demand society treat your fiction as the truth.
Stating there are more than two genders may be nice and accommodating and non-confrontational. But it is not true no matter how you look at it. Let’s stop perpetuating the insanity.