Should the U.S. Bishops Be Focused on ‘Gender Ideology’?

“Gender ideology has corroded religious liberty in recent years,” says a new report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The document lists “gender ideology” as one of five areas of critical concern for the future of religious liberty in the United States. 

This is the second “Annual Report on the State of Religious Liberty in the United States,” released by the Committee for Religious Liberty under the leadership of Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The committee defines religious liberty as “immunity from coercion in religious matters.”

The document expresses concern about a range of legal issues, including proposed laws and existing policies. In most cases, the bishops’ primary worry is that federal nondiscrimination requirements will be expanded to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. This possibility would create a framework in which Catholic employers, schools, service providers, and individuals may have to honor individuals’ gender identity in order to receive federal funding or avoid litigation. 

For example, Catholics teaching in public schools may be required to call students by their preferred pronouns; Catholic women’s shelters could be required to accept transgender women; and Catholic charities may be required to provide gender affirming care for unaccompanied immigrant children. The final requirements for religious institutions will depend on the wording of new laws, as well as on the courts’ determinations on how the law should be applied.

The report states that requiring Catholic institutions to abide by nondiscrimination principles threatens these institutions’ very existence if they choose not to follow the new laws:

“Catholic charities serve everyone in need—no one is turned away because of their self-determined  sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other characteristic. The final rule, given its uncertain protections for religious exercise, could drive Catholic charities and other religious organizations out of service to their communities, not because they want to be able to discriminate, but because they do not want to be forced to violate their beliefs.”

This statement implies that, given the choice between stopping its charitable work and providing respectful care for LGBTQ+ people, Catholic social services would close their doors. This assumption ignores the commendable work of many Catholic ministries who have worked among the LGBTQ+ community with compassionate sensitivity from the early days of the AIDS epidemic to the present day. Such work has not been a “violation” of their Catholic beliefs, but an extension of them.

Most of the rules discussed in the report already mention exceptions based on religious freedom. The committee’s concern is that these exceptions are, indeed, exceptional. For example, it complains that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Grants Rule “provides no outright exemption for religious entities, but instead creates a process by which religious organizations may seek, but not necessarily receive, an exemption.” Such rules set gender inclusivity as the norm, putting the onus on those who would like an exemption ask for one. Such policies do not necessarily violate religious freedom; they merely set the rights of vulnerable gender minorities as the default setting of government programs.

The report looks forward to 2025, reading the shifting political winds as boding well for the bishops’ views on gender issues. “Arguments for things like “gender affirming care” increasingly face scrutiny,” the document states. It also mentioned 2024 presidential campaign ads attacking pro-LGBTQ+ policies as having “revealed what appears to be an increase in willingness to publicly confront the claims of gender ideology.”

Given the dramatic policy changes currently underway in Washington, many aspects of this 2025 report could soon be obsolete. “As the new administration considers changes to regulations,” the committee states, “the USCCB will continue to advocate for religious freedom.” 

In the year ahead, the bishops would do well to focus less on gender and more on other aspects of religious freedom it identified, especially providing immigration services and preventing anti-semitism. 

—Ariell Watson Simon, New Ways Ministry, January 31, 2025