White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced questions about Pope Francis’ recent declaration condemning gender theory, in which he reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s stance that altering one’s immutable gender plays God and denies sexual difference.
When asked, Jean-Pierre declined to comment directly on the document but affirmed President Biden’s support for transgender rights and protections for the LGBTQ+ community.
She said Biden’s role is not to litigate internal church policy but that he has always clearly supported transgender individuals.
“We are pleased to see that the document… furthered the Vatican’s call to ensure that LGBTQ+ are protected from violence and imprisonment around the world. However, the president will continue to be an advocate for the rights, safety and dignity of the LGBTQ+ community, including transgender people here in the U.S.,” Jean-Pierre said.
“What about the more specific comments about gender theory and transgender individuals?” one reporter asked.
“I’m going to be really careful. The president’s role to litigate internal Church policy, that’s not his role, so I’m gonna be super careful there,” Jean-Pierre said. “But I can speak to the president’s stance, and he’s always been very clear on the importance of protecting or having protections for the transgender community and the broader LGBTQ+ community, and that’s been very clear since day one of his administration.”
The Pope’s declaration, released after five years of development, addresses issues like abortion, trafficking, and dignity in the modern world from the lens of scripture.
It states desires for self-determined gender apart from the truth of humanity as a gift amounts to competing with God, and denies the greatest difference between living beings – sexual difference.
“Regarding gender theory, whose scientific coherence is the subject of considerable debate among experts, the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God,” the “Dignitas Infinita” document reads. “This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel.”
The document adds, “Another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference. This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference but is also the most beautiful and most powerful of them. In the male-female couple, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us: the arrival of new human beings in the world.”
