Vatican condemns gender-affirming surgery, ‘gender theory’
The Vatican on Monday condemned gender-affirming surgeries and “gender theory.” The Associated Press reported the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released the 20-page declaration that took five years to prepare.
Pope Francis, according to the AP, approved it on March 25. The document, according to the AP, says a man and a woman are biologically different and should not try to “make oneself God.” “It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” it reads.
The AP notes the document also makes a distinction between gender-affirming surgeries and “gender abnormalities” in children that exist when they are born or as they grow up.
The document stresses they can be “resolved” by health care providers. The Vatican’s tone towards LGBTQ and intersex issues has softened since Francis assumed the papacy in 2013.
