From a Theological Viewpoint
Consider a testicularly-feminized
"female," who would be male but for one anomalous gene among the
100,000 or so which comprise humans. Does this body house a male, or a female,
spirit? Such persons possess Y chromosomes and testes, yet they consider
themselves female; they marry as females, adopt children--and are sealed as
females in the temple. What are the eternal implications? Some persons with
"adrenogenital" syndrome have been raised male, and some female.
They, too, can marry and participate in the sacred ordinances. Have we
articulated a theology to embrace this reality?
Some commentators have suggested
that such "accidents" do not occur among Mormons, an erroneous
statement presumably designed to resolve a perceived paradox. In fact, in a
church of four million there are undoubtedly hundreds of such cases. Conservative
estimates of the incidence among the general populace of chromosomal
abnormalities per live births are for XXY, 1/800 male births; for XYY, 1/700
males; for XXX, 1/1000 females; for XO, 1/3,000 females (over 90% of which are
naturally--spontaneously--aborted). Reliable figures for the incidence of the
gene-caused syndromes (testicular feminization, adrenogenital syndrome, and
related examples) are virtually impossible to obtain, but it is defensible to
conclude that the major intersex conditions collectively account for at least
one in each 25,000 persons, with minor anomalies being considerably more
frequent.
There are other significant
questions inherent in this challenging corner of human experience. As Mormons,
we tend to emphasize that the body is the servant of the mind, or at least that
it should be; that the body should reflect the wishes and higher aspirations of
the mind; that the mind, in turn, can be equated with the spirit. In recent
years, medical science has acknowledged for the first time the real problems of
persons whose bodies are identifiably one sex--with or without the physical or
hormonal miscues identified above--but whose minds are that of the opposite
sex. In these cases, the mind/body guidelines have often been reversed. The
ecclesiastical counsel frequently given to such persons is that the body, not
the mind, is the manifestation of God's will, and that by some means they
should subject their minds to the morphology of their bodies. Is this an appropriate
expression of the mind/spirit/body trichotomy? How does this relate to cases
where gonadal tissue and body morphology of both sexes are expressed? Do our
answers deal with the range of expression in such cases as adrenogenital
syndrome?
"Authoritative"
statements on this subject from the presiding authorities of the Church are too
few and too oblique to permit or to justify analytical review. One can, if one
is so inclined, string together a few public utterances which, though not
specific, may be made to reflect a certain impatience with the problem. But
this would be an injustice, for specific private communications and handling of
individual cases reveal a much more cautious and sensitive approach.
It is surpassingly difficult for
those of us with no gender problems to empathize with those who possess them;
nevertheless, a genuine Christ-like commitment demands that we learn to do so.
A sensitive and informed counseling program will require the thoughtful fusion
of an inspired theology with an increasing wealth of biological
understanding,--which is, after all, only revelation through another channel. (Duane
E. Jeffrey, "Intersexes in Humans: An Introductory Exploration," Dialogue:
A Journal of Mormon Thought, volume 12 no. 3 [Fall 1979]:112-13)
