Emerging Gender Identities

June 1, 2020
Christian psychologists Yarhouse (Understanding Gender Dysphoria) and Sadusky team up in this thorough guide for parents and other adults who work with gender-diverse Christian youth to help them understand the current landscape of gender diversity among young people from a cultural, clinical, and theological perspective. The authors provide some basic definitions and a short history of clinical involvement in—and some of the current controversies around treatment for—gender nonconformity. They affirm that atypical gender expression has a long, varied history and should not be understood as pathological, and resist both fully innate and fully social models of gender identity, arguing instead that gender arises from a combination of internal self-knowledge and externally available language and social knowledge. In the book’s second half, they offer specifically Christian guidance for those assisting youth in discerning what their own path forward in relation to gender may be. The authors anticipate a spectrum of possible Christian approaches to gender identity that range from rejection of gender nonconformity to radical welcome and celebration of gender diversity. This inviting text provides a useful framework for Christians to use in approaching what can be difficult conversations around gender identity.