The Gender Binary is Good Because It is God's Design

We have been looking at the goodness of the fact that God has made two genders. By "goodness," we are indicating that it lines up with what is right and, therefore, leads to human flourishing. Today, we will finish talking about the goodness of gender by looking at how it fits God's design for humanity. 

Relating to God's Design for Humanity

God created the binary of male and female and said that his design was “very good” (Gen 1:31). God’s design also indicates that one of the main purposes for this binary is to provide complementary roles in which men and women work together to accomplish what God has given humanity to do. The binary is good because it enables men and women to marry, produce offspring, and employ complementary giftings as they exercise dominion over the creation (whether they are married or not). 

God created humanity to embody and image his benevolent rule of the created order (see Genesis 1). Yet, his design was for a man and a woman to represent him together. Thus, the design that the wise creator implanted in the world was two complementary sexes and corresponding genders which, together, display his character and rule over creation. God could have designed many different forms of gender. He could have designed just one. Instead, he created two that are equally human and complementary to one another (that is their roles are distinct and work together to accomplish God's purposes).  

We will look more at the flourishing that the binary produces in the next posts when we look at the beauty of God designing two genders. 

Affirming the Gender Binary is a Good Gift for Kids

Many proponents of transgender ideology continue to argue that children should not be raised as the gender that corresponds to their sex. In the transgender view, gender is not something decided for a person, but something a person decides for himself. In this view, then, we are forcing something on children by treating them as a boy or girl. But is that the case? Or is training a child to live as a boy or girl a recognition of reality (truth) that proves to be a gracious gift that God has given us (good)?

“In a culture where transgender identities are not only affirmed but celebrated, everyone will be compelled to construct their own gender identity, unaided by a common understanding of sex differences and why they matter.”[1] This “self-making” principle of transgenderism will prove oppressive to children. It will not help them find their place in the world. To illustrate this, imagine a person born into a world where transgenderism and the requirement to self-identify were taken at full face value. The ultrasound technician and the doctor could not tell the parents anything about their child’s gender (though, ironically, the child could only come into existence because a man and woman were involved at some point). The parents could not “impose” any gender on their child either. When identity is only a self-determined psychological category, the only way forward is to let the child decide. This “places a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the child (‘Only you can decide who you are . . . not even your own body can give any help here’).”[2] In practice, however, it might be that others are quite willing to shape the child’s view of themselves by pushing a transgender identity on them. Is it good to decide for a child, or even to let the child decide, to go on a sex-reassignment quest? [3]

Despite our culture's messaging, we cannot be anything we want to be. Such a notion is not true. It is not freeing to believe something that is contrary to reality. Rather, embracing reality and living in accord with it provides true freedom. It's like a train. A train is not freer by jumping off the tracks. It is free when it operates according to its design. The same is true of children (and all of us). Recognizing that the gender binary is true is a good gift for parents to give to their son or daughter. To muddy the waters of what is obvious is not good. It is confusing at best and damaging at worst. Children gain stability and freedom when we affirm the goodness of their boyness or girlness.


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[1] Ryan T. Anderson “Neither Androgyny nor Stereotypes: Sex Differences and the Difference They Make.” Texas Review of Law & Politics 24, no. 1 (Fall 2019): 262.

[2] Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 377-378.

[3] A major hospital in Sweden has announced it will stop giving puberty-blocking drugs to minors (see https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/05/major-swedish-hospital-stops-prescribing-puberty-blockers-hormone-treatments-for-children/). In addition, a UK court ruled that children under 16 likely cannot give informed consent to such treatments (see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-55144148). That is an understatement, but at least it was the right decision.

The Gender Binary is Good for Relating to Others

In this series, I am looking at the truth, goodness, and beauty of God's design of men and women (the gender binary). I began looking at the goodness of the binary. In the last post, we saw that it is good for a person to seek to bring feelings in line with who they are made to be (biologically). In other words, recognizing that one cannot change his or her God-given gender or sex is a good way to relate to one's self. Today, I will look at how it is also good for how one relates to others in society. 

Relating to Others 

Transgenderism is based on a worldview of radical individualism. The individual determines personal reality when it comes to his or her sex and gender. Such thinking represents a hyper-individualism that is anti-social to the extreme. It is anti-social because gender is a core reality that affects human interactions. It is one of the main things that allow people to know how to properly relate to one another. 

According to the logic of transgenderism, “you can choose to change your gender identity as often as you change your clothes.”1  Not every person who identifies as transgender changes their identity frequently, but the logic requires that it is possible. If that is the case, then how can anyone know how to relate to others? There is no social stability. Furthermore, one would always have to be afraid of “getting it wrong” and offending the transgender person because the outward appearance offers no evidence of the person's sex or gender. 

What makes this so anti-social is that it is all based on a person’s feelings and ignores the reality that is visible to others. If physical gender markers mean nothing and self-identification means everything, then the terrain of personal interaction is always subject to capriciousness. Capriciousness does not make for thriving human relationships. 

Contrast this with the stability of the gender binary. A person’s physical appearance matches his or her sex and gender. Relationships are not based on one person forcing an invisible narrative on all those around him or her.2 Instead, relationships are defined by what is evident to all and unchanging. The gender binary recognizes individual uniqueness (not every man or woman has the exact same way of expressing themselves), but it does not give way to radical individualism. This provides clarity and stability, which leads to relational harmony. That is good for relationships. 

1. Allan Metcalf, "What's your pgp?" Lingua Franca (A blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education, September 2, 2014 http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2014/09/02/whats-your-pgp/.

2. This is not to deny that the person might be experience very complicated feelings. It is not my intent to minimize this experience by stating the facts. I do believe that compassion requires truth-telling though.