Boy or Girl
Being a boy or a girl is simple, right? There are worries and glitches, but overall your body is clearly male or female, and you manage to get through your teen years without any major problems with your gender identity.

For some people, it’s not as clear-cut as this. In this chapter of Teen Sex By the Book, we discovered that gender is not a black-and-white concept and that it can sometimes present in shades of grey and, with them, comes uncertainty and misunderstanding.
Remember that you need to look at these issues through your understanding of God’s word at creation: ‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1:27). And understand how, like most other things, this perfect pattern of male and female was messed up when man and woman rejected God and decided to rule their own lives. Sin messed up our minds and our bodies. Gender confusion is just one aspect of this and we have ended up with all sorts of problems.
There are a few websites where you can get more information on the issues of biological sex, gender identity and sexual orientation:
- Biological Sex
This site is a little dated but has excellent information from the John Hopkins Children’s Center:
http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/intersex/index.html
A simple page from a larger sex education site:
http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/sexual_differentiation.html - Gender identity
The largest accepted association for transgender health is ‘The world professional association for transgender health’ (WPATH). The site has excellent resources.
http://www.wpath.org/ - Sexual orientation
The two web sites given in the book are excellent resources:
http://www1.libertychristianministries.org.au/
www.samesexattraction.org
Other general sites for information on gender:
- SIECUS is an American Sex Education institution. Their resources on gender issues can be found at: http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=605&grandparentID=477&parentID=591
- Advocates for Youth is an award-winning American site with good, valid information. Their page of resources on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (GLBTQ) Youth is at: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications/424?task=view
- Reach out.com: http://au.reachout.com/find/issues/sexuality-coming-out