A Christian church in Texas has launched a grant program to transport transgender children out of state to receive gender-altering procedures.
The Galileo Church in Fort Worth states that its No. 1 mission priority is “justice for LGBTQ+ humans, and support the people who love them,” according to the church website.
Detransitioners, as they’re known, are raising the alarm about how so-called “gender-affirming care harms children mentally, emotionally, and physically.” Detransitioners are people who regret their attempts to try to “transition” to live as the opposite sex.
They say the procedures cause irreversible damage to children’s bodies when they’re too young to make permanent life-changing decisions. And even just exposing children to the idea of transgenderism causes harmful confusion, an expert told The Epoch Times.
Galileo Church sees it as a human rights issue.
A nonprofit organization founded by the church now provides $1,000 travel grants to North Texas families “seeking out-of-state health care for trans and gender-diverse minors,” according to its website.
The church is affiliated with the protestant denomination known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), described as a mix of restorationist, liberal, progressive, and pluralist. The church aims to cultivate “real relationships, no [expletive] ever,” its website says.
That legislation was signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, in June. It outlaws “procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria and on the use of public money or public assistance to provide those procedures and treatments.”
The church established the transportation program “because Jesus calls us to be good neighbors to vulnerable people,” Galileo Church’s Rev. Katie Hays told The Epoch Times in an email.
Many other Christian churches affiliated with other Christian denominations do not affirm homosexuality and transgenderism.
But some churches embrace homosexuality and transgenderism.
And “NTTN trusts parents, in cooperation with their family physicians, to make health care decisions for minors in their care,” the Galileo Church pastor wrote.
Protection or ‘State-Sponsored Cruelty’
SB 14 was a priority for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, during the 2023 session of the Texas Legislature.It bans what conservatives consider harmful procedures for minors who identify as transgender. It blocks children from receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, mastectomies, and genital surgeries in the state.
The law also requires the state to revoke the medical licenses of physicians providing hormones or surgeries to minors seeking to “transition” to try to live like the other sex.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Texas and other LGBT legal advocacy groups sued to block the law. They say it stops parents and health professionals from “necessary and life-saving medical care for Texas’s transgender youth.”
The Texas Supreme Court allowed the law to go into effect Sept. 1, even as the case moves through the legal system.
The position of NTTN is that health care is a human right and “withholding necessary care for trans kids is state-sponsored cruelty,” according to its website.
The program mimics the actions of abortion-access activists.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court sent decisions on abortion back to states in 2022, many organizations and employers have offered travel money to women who are seeking an abortion and live in states that have restricted the procedure.
Christians Divided
The church belongs to the same denomination as the First Christian Church of Katy in Katy, Texas. That church made headlines in September 2022 by hosting a sold-out family drag bingo event to raise money to benefit its “Transparent Closet.”The Katy church’s boutique provides clothes for “trans and exploring teens, youth and young adults,” according to the church’s website.
Hundreds of Christians and conservatives protested outside the event. Counter-protesters gathered, as well.
The opposing sides clashed physically after Antifa members, dressed in black, pepper sprayed members of a Proud Boys group.
Texas is expected to appeal the ruling.
Meanwhile, other Texas churches with politically “progressive” views have attracted attention for hosting drag events.
The Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, part of the United Church of Christ denomination, held a drag show on Sept. 17 that included an appearance by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
The drag group is composed of men who dress in nuns’ habits and wear clown-style makeup. Participants describe their act as part street performance, part protest, and part fundraising operation for charity. They have said they use religious imagery to satirize Christian perspectives on sex, gender, and morality.
Life-Changing Decision
Protesters against transgender surgeries for children say the procedures harm them irreversibly before they’re mature enough to make a permanently life-changing decision. Protesters against exposing them to drag say that can contribute to confusion.They’re right, physician and psychologist Leonard Sax told The Epoch Times.
Even just exposing children to entertainment with alternative gender identities and sexual orientations is effective at convincing them to accept those as normal, Dr. Sax said.
If children are taught that being transgender is normal, they will be more likely to identify as transgender, he said. And children who struggle with gender identity are far more likely to be anxious and depressed, he said.
“Given that research, which is very copious, it follows that we should strive to help kids feel confident about their gender identity [based on their biology] instead of undermining it and problematizing it,” Dr. Sax said.
