Andy Murray – definitely cute, but not trans
Scottish clergyman’s distinct lack of Christian charity
The Reverend David A Robertson was recently invested as the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, a small church in Scotland which carries a very big voice. With a membership of 13,000, it has long been renowned for their strict Presbyterian views, Sabbatarianism and ‘dour’ outlook on life. To say it is a controversial denomination would be an understatement.
Not least controversial among its members is Reverend Robertson, who while trying to claim that he reaches out to all, has at times made statements against the LGBT community, atheists and secularists, which can hardly be described as full of Christian charity. In his latest article in his blog, The Wee Flea, (a small, irritating, disease-spreading parasite – how very apt) however, I am sure many of my followers shall agree he goes way too far.
In his article, End of Term Report, Rev Robertson – sounding more like American evangelist Pat Robertson – states;
“And the thought also struck me – if Andy Murray begins to realise in a couple of years that he is not going to win any more mens tournaments, why can’t he just do a Bruce, say he feels like a woman, call himself Andrina and enter the women’s Wimbledon and get the prize money that way?”
Well, I can think of several reasons why he would not undergo gender reassignment, not least of which is the fact that Scotland’s wonderful Andy Murray (tennis playing star for those not in the know, dears) is not transgender. If he were, I have no doubt that he would have done something about that many years ago. I would also guess that his relationship with his long-term girlfriend Kim Sears and their recent marriage would never have happened. Indeed, if Andy were transgender, I reckon Kim would be somewhat disillusioned (and given that he’s such a pretty boy, so would I).
The reasoning behind Davy Baby’s thinking is that he cannot and will not accept that being transgender is natural and normal. Rev Robertson lives in a black and white world where if someone is born with a vulva, they female, and if someone is born with a penis, they are male. He refuses to accept that gender and sexuality have more to do with psychology than they do any biological factors, and that both are decided in the womb. As far as he is concerned, his God made us to be male and female, and that is the end of it.
And of course his argument immediately falls flat on its face when one considers babies who are born intersex, with both male and female genitalia. If that is the work of his God, then there goes the conservative Christian black and white view of the world straight out of the window. Hmmm. Male and female created He them, perhap?
So the question is, faced with an intersex baby, would David Robertson have that child operated upon to define one gender (and thereby supposedly undoing his God’s work), or would he leave the child until they were old enough to decide themselves if they are male or female?
If he did the former, he would be defining that child’s gender for them; not the child, and not his God. If he did the latter, then he must admit that gender is a psychological construct, not a biological one. And if that is the case, then the same goes for not only intersex people, not only transgender people, but every person on the face of the planet. Bottom line; there is no such thing as a female vulva or a male penis; bodies come in all shapes and sizes.
Regular readers of my articles will know that Malta recently became the first country in the world to make gender reassignment on intersex babies illegal. If a tiny country which has been steeped deep in the Christian faith for two millennia can take a such a huge leap forward, it makes one wonder what is wrong with the rest of “Christendom”.
And the point of his blog? I’m not sure but it appears to be about public lavatories;
“If we can’t have gender specific toilets why should we have gender specific sports tournaments. That’s the madness of the modern world.”
Except of course, it is not most trans people who are asking for gender-neutral toilets. Firstly, gender-neutral toilets are dangerous; they actually marginalise and identify trans people as trans, and thus make them far more likely to be targeted and attacked by bigots. Secondly, gender-neutral toilets actually deny the gender of the trans person. The inference is that transgender is neither male nor female, but somewhere in-between. Strange as it may seem, the vast majority of human beings still want to use gender-specific toilets; men want to use the gents, and women want to use the ladies, and whether the individual in question is transgender should make absolutely no difference to that.
In fact, the only people who appear to be calling for gender-neutral toilets are those who think they are doing the right thing, but are not, those who are uncomfortable with transgender people using the same facilities as them, or those who do not and will not accept that transgender people are the men or women they identify as at all – the latter including people like Reverend David A Robertson.
Notice also the reference to Caitlyn Jenner in the above paragraph, and Rev Robertson’s insistence on calling her by her redundant birth name. I am not surprised at this, as in a recent podcast for the Solas Centre for Public Christianity, Reverend Robertson and his co-host cruelly derided Caitlyn Jenner, continually referred to her as “he” and “him”, used his birth name, called him “the pit of our culture in society”, “gut-wrenchingly nauseating”, and “It is part of the attempt to dehumanise humanity, to take away from us not just sexuality, but to take away from us gender.” The link to the podcast also carries an old photo of Bruce Jenner with a banner superimposed on it with “Call me Caitlyn” across it, and the words “Right, Bruce in the corner.
I would not normally give this squalid little man the publicity he so desperately craves but I feel that his latest ignorant and transphobic outbursts, which border on hate speech, cannot in this instance be ignored. I know that friends of mine here, including Christians and those of other faiths, shall be utterly disgusted at his words and shall assert that he does not speak for them, nor the Christian faith in general.
As for Andy Murray, I have no doubt he would not lower himself to reply to Robertson’s comments. But if he were pressed to do so, given that his head coach, Amélie Mauresmo is openly lesbian (and soon to be a mum), and Andy in 2013 stated that there would be “no problem” with an openly gay tennis player, methinks he would be first to condemn the Moderator’s poisonous words – and to voice his support for Caitlyn Jenner.
The Wee Flea, End of Term Report, can be read here:
https://theweeflea.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/end-of-term-report-some-reflections-for-summer/
Quantum of Solas No. 32 can be found here. The part about Caitlyn Jenner starts at 5:35:
Xandra 
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