The modern movement of transgender activism has not only advanced personal claims of gender self-definition but has also given rise to powerful community organizations. These organizations are often structured around the philosophical underpinnings of gender identity and the theoretical scaffolding of queer theory. From a conservative Catholic perspective, these developments present a profound challenge to the Christian understanding of the human person as created male and female (cf Gen. 1:27) and called to a teleological fulfillment in Christ. The cultural and intellectual figures Carl Trueman, Jordan Peterson, and James Lindsay provide key analytical tools for understanding how these organizations gain influence and how their ideas conflict with a Catholic vision of the person.
The New Babel of Gender: Catholic Perspectives on Trans Activism and Queer Theory
Gender Identity as the Core of Activist Communities
Transgender community organizations typically ground their advocacy in the concept of gender identity—an internal, subjective sense of self that is said to determine one’s true gender regardless of biological sex. For Catholic theology, which affirms the unity of body and soul, this separation of identity from the created body is untenable. Trueman, in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, argues that the modern West has progressively replaced a teleological understanding of nature with an expressive individualism that views the self as self-creating (Trueman 39–45). Transgender organizations translate this anthropology into social practice by offering mutual aid, legal resources, and educational programs that normalize gender self-determination as an unassailable human right.
Peterson, from a psychological perspective, warns that such organizations often weaponize concepts of compassion and inclusion to enforce compelled speech and institutional compliance. He famously resisted Canadian legislation mandating the use of preferred pronouns, contending that such laws erode the freedom to speak the truth about biological reality (Peterson 78). In effect, transgender advocacy groups cultivate community solidarity not merely by providing services, but by reshaping the linguistic and moral environment to make dissent socially costly.
Queer Theory and the Intellectual Engine
The theoretical foundation for many transgender organizations is queer theory, an academic movement influenced by thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Judith Butler. Queer theory seeks to destabilize categories of sex and gender, treating them as socially constructed fictions meant to preserve power structures. James Lindsay’s critiques of postmodern and “critical” theories highlight how these intellectual currents migrate from the academy into activist circles, where they become organizing principles for radical social change (Lindsay 112–18). In his work on “grievance studies,” Lindsay shows how activist scholarship often operates less as dispassionate inquiry than as an engine for political transformation.
From a Catholic standpoint, queer theory’s rejection of stable, created essences represents a direct repudiation of the doctrine of creation. If human nature is infinitely malleable and the body is merely a canvas for self-expression, then the givenness of the male-female complementarity loses all normative force. Community organizations shaped by queer theory thus become laboratories for what Trueman calls the “psychological self,” where authenticity is defined against nature and tradition.
Catholic Response: Truth, Charity, and Social Witness
The Church’s response must be twofold: intellectual and pastoral. Intellectually, Catholic philosophers and theologians must reaffirm the unity of body and soul and the objective moral order grounded in natural law. Saint John Paul II’s Theology of the Body offers a robust account of sexual difference as a gift that reveals divine love. Pastoral charity, however, compels the Church to accompany persons experiencing gender dysphoria with compassion and truth, offering the hope of Christ without capitulating to false anthropology.
Trueman’s analysis of the expressive self, Peterson’s defense of free speech and ordered liberty, and Lindsay’s exposure of critical theory as political activism all provide valuable resources. Together, they illuminate the philosophical and cultural mechanisms by which transgender organizations grow and sustain themselves. A Catholic response must therefore engage both the personal and structural dimensions of this movement: caring for individuals while resisting the ideological capture of educational, legal, and medical institutions.
Populist Nationalism and the Transgender Debate: Steve Bannon’s Perspective
Another voice shaping the contemporary conservative response is Steve Bannon, former White House strategist and influential populist commentator. Bannon consistently frames transgender activism as part of a larger cultural revolution that, in his view, seeks to destabilize the family and traditional social hierarchies. In interviews and on his “War Room” podcast, Bannon argues that radical gender ideology functions as a “vanguard issue” for what he calls the globalist left, meant to erode the moral and civic foundations of Western civilization.
From a Catholic vantage point, Bannon’s emphasis on civilizational struggle overlaps with the Church’s concern for the integrity of the family and the natural law, though Catholic social teaching insists on a careful distinction between legitimate political prudence and combative rhetoric. Bannon’s analysis reinforces the thesis advanced by Carl Trueman that the modern self no longer regards nature as normative but instead treats identity as infinitely malleable. Like Jordan Peterson, he warns that coercive laws and policies on pronoun use, medical transitions, and school curricula function as tools of ideological conformity rather than neutral protections of rights.
While Bannon’s language of “warfare” differs in tone from papal encyclicals such as Evangelium Vitae, his alarm about the revolutionary ambitions of gender ideology underscores a point relevant to Catholic moral theology: that anthropological errors at the level of sexual identity can have cascading effects on politics, education, and the economy. His populist framing—seeing transgender activism as part of a broader anti-family and anti-faith movement—therefore complements Trueman’s cultural history and James Lindsay’s critique of critical theory by drawing attention to the geopolitical and civic stakes of the debate.
Conclusion
Transgender community organizations do not emerge in an intellectual vacuum. They are the fruit of a long cultural shift from a Christian, teleological vision of the person to a postmodern framework of self-creation and deconstruction. By critically examining gender identity and queer theory through the lenses of Trueman, Peterson, and Lindsay, conservative Catholics can better understand the stakes of the present debate. The challenge is not merely political or psychological, but theological: will society acknowledge the Creator’s design, or will it continue down the path of self-deification? The task before Catholics is to bear witness to the Truth about the human person with both clarity and charity.
Works Cited
Lindsay, James. Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody. PublicAffairs, 2020.
Bannon, Steve. War Room Podcast. Various episodes, 2022–2025.
OpenAI. ChatGPT, 2025, chat.openai.com. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Random House Canada, 2018.
Trueman, Carl R. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Crossway, 2020.
The Holy Bible. Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, Ignatius Press, 2006.
John Paul II. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Pauline Books & Media, 2006.
*Kindly respect Timothy’s research and dedication to this piece, thank you.