Gender Identity

A fellow Catholic follower asked 

I struggle with not accepting people as they believe themselves to be. Did God create them with more than a definition of male or female? Did He create them with a soul? Did He create them with a mind and free will? Am I to judge His design and what struggles every human may suffer? If a person is born without legs, that was God's design... is giving that person prosthetic legs or a wheelchair denying God? Is a person that gets cancer different? God made them that way and we shouldn't interfere? Is a male being produced without a Penis or Testosterone different? God made the people who have figured out prosthetic legs, cancer treatments, and sex changes. Was He wrong there? Should they be denied? 
I am often reminded of this story https://www. michaelhartzell.com/blog/the- story-about-a-jeep-a-boat-and- a-helicopter... not that it is from the Bible, but it reminds me of my acceptance of some things that humans have provided for creating an improved living condition, while I also struggle with other solutions like vaccines, masking, sex changes, etc. Did God not create the people that created those things as well? Or the people who feel they don't fit in their own bodies? 
 
I feel blessed that I fit in my body and all my kids and siblings have been happy in their bodies so I can't comprehend what it must be like to feel like I don't fit. It is not an easy choice for a person to come out of the closet or move forward with a sex change. I can't imagine a bigger, harder life decision, so who am I to judge those that are so out of fitting they are willing to make that decision. 
 
I am willing to call them what they want to be called for God designed them that way.
 
But I do still struggle with the line of creation. God created pedophiles, mass murderers, multiple personalities, etc OR did culture create them??? Nature vs Nurture? I know kids raised by homosexual adults that have all been heterosexual children, and obviously vice versa, so it isn't hereditary.
 
I just think it is something beyond human comprehension... like the Trinity. I just try to get by with the platinum rule and pray for the souls of everyone. God Bless us all in this land we've been banished to live in. 

My response:

Some of the premises you state, I disagree with.  God created us male and female and yes, we are more than that.  In some ways, it makes us more the same and sometimes more distinct.  If a person is born without legs, that is not God's design.

In the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect.  And then sin entered.  Sin distorts God's creation.  Sin was not part of God's creation.  God's creation is perfect.  We have distorted it.  It can be said that God allows for the possibility of evil, of sin, but only because God has allowed for the possibility of us to love.  Without the possibility to hate (sin/evil), we would be unable to love.

The person born without legs is without legs from the effects of sin.  Not God's sin.  Our sin.  God is not to blame.  And yes, while He is God and can do all things, we have the consequences of sin, just like we have the consequences of hate.  If our sins had no consequences, why would we ever stop sinning?

One could argue that this is God's will.  And God does have a will, much like us, though His is perfect.  We have a passive will, when we allow things to happen without changing or trying to change things, and an active will when we actively do things.  (This I got from Fr Mike Schmitz.)  To allow the consequences of sins to affect us, God is passive and allows them to affect us.  When Cain killed Able, God did not act.  He was passive in allowing the consequences of sin to affect Able.

We do not celebrate the ways sin has distorted God's design.  We do not celebrate the alcoholic that is predisposed to alcoholism.  Those predisposed towards anger and violence, we do not celebrate when they hit their wives and children.  We call them to live out God's original design, even though sin has made it difficult for them.  Instead, we try our best to help them live God's original design, not by shunning them, but by support to live God's design, not embracing their distortion due to sin.

Giving prosthetic legs to someone without legs is a way to support someone to live God's original design of walking.  Making alcohol hard to access and giving someone anger management classes along with being ready to change our ways to reduce opportunities for alcohol or anger.  If someone legitimately thinks they are a cat, a dog, or a bird, then, they need therapy to understand God's original design.

If God created someone male and they think they are female (or simply want to be female), then the loving response is to help them see that they are male.  Helping them to go further with the distortion within them that comes from sin, is an embrace of the distortion of sin and thus sin itself.

On a secular note, plenty of research has shown that those that have "transitioned" to another gender, experience the same, or worse, depression/sadness years later than before they transitioned.  It is like they were unhappy with their existence and wanted to re-write it in order to find happiness.  Happiness is not found in running from who you are, but by embracing who you are in the full sense of God's perfect design, though we live in this sin-distorted world for now, but ultimately can only reach God's perfect design when we go to Heaven, though we should always strive for it to the best of our ability before that time.

God created the Devil.  But God did not create evil or force the Devil to do evil.  God created the Devil to be good, but the Devil chose hate instead of love.  Same goes for pedophiles, mass murderers, etc.  They were created to be good.  They were created for love, but they chose hate.  The whole nature vs nurture only goes so far.  Everyone has free will to love or to hate.  You cannot have the ability to choose love without the ability to choose hate.  And sadly, we are affected by others sin.  Able died when Cain killed him.  Adam and Eve's sin began all sin, which continues to affect us all.

I remember questioning if I was in the correct body as a kid.  Going through puberty has a way of making you think you are an alien about to be reunited with the family.  It does not make me an alien.  Just someone that needs help to realize what I really am.

God Bless