Genderqueer, what is it?

Photo credit: Sartorialist

From Wiki (Because it is a convenient and concise definition):

Genderqueer (GQ; alternatively non-binary) is a catch-all category for gender identities other than man and woman, thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity.^[1] Genderqueer people may identify as one or more of the following:

• having an overlap of, or blurred lines between, gender identity and sexual and romantic orientation.
• two or more genders (bigender, trigender, pangender);
• without a gender (nongendered, genderless, agender; neutrois);
• moving between genders or with a fluctuating gender identity (genderfluid);
• third gender or other-gendered; includes those who do not place a name to their gender; - Source

If you've been out of school for awhile, don't read a lot, do not follow news, and consider yourself 'normal', these terms, which have been constructed to define a growing philosophy of sexuality, will be foreign to many of my readers.  Gender fluid and sexual fluidity are important non-binary conditions as well.  These terms are important in understanding movements to 'queer the Church'.

What does the Vatican say about genderqueer?

Nothing.

Although there is no official document addressing the issue, Pope Benedict XVI did comment on the problem in his Christmas address to the Roman Curia in 2012:

After giving a brief overview of the past year’s events, Pope Benedict XVI said that the crisis is shaking the institution of the family to its foundations, particularly in the West. When we reject lasting bonds, the Pope added, ”the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost.”

Benedict XVI criticised  gender theory, citing a study by the Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim and Simone de Beauvoir’s famous phrase: “one is not born a woman, one becomes so” (on ne naît pas femme, on le devient). “These words,” the Pope explained, “lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term “gender” as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious.” 

 According to this new theory of sexuality “people dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity… They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.” If the duality between man and woman ceases to exist, the Pope explained, then “neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. - Source

Be aware of what your kids are being taught and who or what teaching is forming their conscience.

Top photo: Andrea Pompilio Menswear Fall/Winter 2014

Two women?  Or a man and a woman?