CV NEWS FEED // The bishop of Arlington, Virginia, Michael Burbidge, recently expressed his disappointment in the White House’s decision to proclaim March 31, this year’s Easter Sunday, as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
“I was so extremely disappointed that our local officials and our president would use the most important religious observance on the Christian calendar to proclaim a message that is political… and it’s a source of division,” said Bishop Burbidge during the April 4 episode of his weekly podcast, “Walk Humbly.”
The Bishop said that the White House’s decision was unnecessary and offensive to many people.
“I know they’re going to say, ‘Well, it goes back to March 31, 2009,’” Bishop Burbidge continued, noting the date of the first “International Transgender Day of Visibility,” held by the organization Trans Student Educational Resources.
But because the White House waited to talk about the day until it happened to fall on Easter, the Bishop said that he “[tended] to think it was calculated, and that is really, really sad.”
“As Christians, we’re celebrating the most solemn day, the joyful day in our lives, and obviously, this tried to take away from that celebration, but you know… it didn’t,” Bishop Burbidge continued:
We weren’t distracted, and that’s why I did not get into a media public debate about it. I wanted our focus to be on Easter and not to lose that attention. That’s what I think sometimes our opposition would want, but we would not let that happen.
He also emphasized the importance of speaking “the truth in charity,” especially the truth that “God created us male and female.”
“And to those who struggle with gender dysphoria,” Bishop Burbidge said, “we offer our love, we offer our compassion, our desire to walk with you, to assist you, to counsel you, but we cannot agree that anyone is someone other than who God created that person to be.”
He added that the Transgender Visibility Day may harm people who have detransitioned.
People who have detransitioned have realized that the “mutilation of the bodies God gave them does not bring about their true identity, it does not bring about the peace, the joy that they so desired,” Bishop Burbidge said. “And so those people have to be kept in mind also.”
“We should celebrate all of life. I wish the President would get that, that we don’t need a specific day to celebrate a person in a certain minority, a certain category like that, the ‘Transgender Visibility Day,’” the Bishop continued. “That’s not everyone. We should be celebrating all of human life.”
“And I wish the President would join us in special occasions throughout the year where we do exactly that, where we stand up for life, march peacefully for life, celebrate life,” Bishop Burbidge said. “But this day just divides people and it hurts people.”
He added that Catholics should strive to witness to the truth and lead by example with compassion and respect.
“So finally, if people don’t agree with us, we still treat them respectfully,” the Bishop said, adding that it is crucial to recognize “the dignity that belongs to every person as a child of God, the one who created them.”
