{"id":12608,"date":"2026-05-22T12:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/?post_type=articles&p=12608"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:06:26","slug":"lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/","title":{"rendered":"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, a Missouri federal court \u2013 following a nine-day trial – handed LGBTQ activists a comprehensive loss \u2013 sustaining a Missouri law that protects minors from unnecessary and dangerous \u201cgender transition\u201d procedures.2<\/sup>\u00a0 Christians and citizens of good will, especially parents, should be grateful for this direct and clear ruling.\u00a0 It is a legally and medically correct decision and affirms a sound, common sense policy.\u00a0 Yet, the underlying \u2013 and decisive \u2013 worldview matter received no attention.\u00a0 Public legal theology can fill that gap.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get to the gist.<\/p>\n

The SAFE Law at Issue<\/b><\/p>\n

Missouri enacted Senate Bill 49, entitled the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.\u00a0 As the court described it, the Act<\/p>\n

[R]estricts the ability of medical practitioners to perform gender transition surgeries on minors and to use puberty-blocking drugs or cross sex hormones \u201cfor the purpose of a gender transition for any individual under eighteen years of age.3<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Court\u2019s Findings<\/b><\/p>\n

The court rejected – in their entirety – the Plaintiffs\u2019 claims attacking SAFE.\u00a0 This ruling stemmed from factual as well as legal considerations.\u00a0 The court, after hearing evidence, found:<\/p>\n

The evidence from trial showed that the medical ethics of gender dysphoria treatment<\/i><\/b> for children and adolescents are entirely unsettled<\/i><\/b>….4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the credible evidence shows that a vast majority of children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria outgrow the condition.<\/i><\/b>5<\/sup><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The court then summarized and explicated thousands of pages of testimony over the next 35 or so pages of its written decision.\u00a0 Then the court analyzed the legal standards applying to Plaintiffs\u2019 claim and determined none of them possessed merit.\u00a0 In other words, the SAFE Act did not violate Equal Protection, Due Process, nor manifest sex discrimination, nor establish any other breach claimed by the Plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

This result comprises a rock-solid rejection of what amounts to the LGBTQ push for modern day alchemy applied to vulnerable children.\u00a0 This ruling should be praised for its sanity and legal soundness.\u00a0 The Supreme Court, assessing Tennessee\u2019s similar law, likewise rejected attacks upon it.6<\/sup>\u00a0 Yet, from a worldview perspective, a an analytic gap remains, even after the Court\u2019s ruling, and that gap must be kept in the thinking Christian\u2019s mind, if not the judiciary\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Gender Transition\u2019s Missing Analysis:\u00a0 A Lesson from Combating Slavery<\/b><\/p>\n

Chattel slavery comprises a shameful part of US history.\u00a0 The public debates that engaged that issue are telling.\u00a0 On the one hand, pro-slavery statesmen like John Calhoun and Stephen Douglas contended that popular sovereignty \u2013 the vote of the people \u2013 determines the legitimacy of the institution.\u00a0 \u201cLet the people decide\u201d became their highest moral standard for the slavers.\u00a0 The rather obvious problem is that \u201cthe people\u201d can get it wrong.\u00a0 As a recent election showed, the populus overwhelmingly approved the killing of the innocent unborn in droves.7<\/sup><\/p>\n

Those opposing slavery like Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, and Francis Scott Key focused on another pre-political<\/i> matter:\u00a0 Is a slave human?\u00a0 If so, how can a slave properly be considered \u201cproperty\u201d?8<\/sup> In other words, does slavery possess a righteous moral status? If not, then no popular vote could change that status.\u00a0 In pressing this question, these statesmen focused on metaphysics \u2013 the actual nature of things, not purely political operations or arbitrary political categories.<\/p>\n

This matters here, because at some point, \u201cthe people\u201d could do the wrong thing and legislatively approve administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children in the name of medicine and compassion. In fact, this is already the case.9<\/sup>\u00a0 If popular sovereignty is the highest standard, then how can that action be addressed, let alone reversed?<\/p>\n

What is needed is a bold return to \u201cfirst things\u201d rooted in real reality.\u00a0 This means realizing that a law exists above the positive law.\u00a0 This higher law instantiates creational norms \u2013 matters that are true at all times, in all places, and for all peoples.10<\/sup>\u00a0 One of these norms establishes that God created humans as immutably male and female.11<\/sup>\u00a0 The \u201celephant in the room\u201d is the fictitious premise that asserts boys CAN become girls.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s ruling in analyzing the statute focused on the transition procedures\u2019 timing<\/i>:\u00a0 According to the SAFE Act this \u201ctreatment\u201d may not be applied to minors.\u00a0 The SAFE Act assumed that a boy aged 17 + 364 days would be protected from these scarring procedures, but that one day later, that same boy could \u201cbecome\u201d a girl if he so chose.\u00a0 The SAFE Act, while admirable, simply shifted the time of using the scalpels and chemicals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGender transition\u201d treatment remains available under the Act to those reaching the age of majority.\u00a0 But that \u201ctiming issue\u201d likewise fails to account for metaphysical reality; it simply kicks the alchemy can down the street.\u00a0 Yet, it still embraces a fable:\u00a0 that men can become women.<\/p>\n

Humans are sexed creatures from the cellular level outward (DNA) \u2013 that cannot be changed.\u00a0 Every human possesses a respiratory system, a circulatory system, a nervous system, and a digestive system.\u00a0 However, no human possesses a reproductive<\/i> system.\u00a0 Critically, humans only possess HALF of a reproductive system \u2013 men possess a male component, and women possess the corresponding female component.\u00a0 Together<\/i>, they become sexually one, as Jesus taught, forming one reproductive system.12<\/sup><\/p>\n

Humans are sexually hard-wired by design.\u00a0 They cannot be interchanged and still function, let alone flourish, as humanity.\u00a0 This is why same-sex relationships are both inherently sterile and inherently futureless.\u00a0 In the nature of the case, same-sex coupling requires the commodification of other humans (or their parts) to \u201cfulfill familial desires:\u201d Wombs, sperm, ova, surrogates, etc.\u00a0 Procreation becomes manufacturing \u2013 all because the culture has bought the myth that men can become women and vice versa.\u00a0 They cannot.<\/p>\n

No amount of costumes, cosmetics, chemicals, or carving alters that reality.\u00a0 Instead, \u201ctransition treatment\u201d results in pharmacologically dependent and irreversibly sterile people with mangled and mutilated bodies.\u00a0 The transition never actually occurs because it cannot occur.\u00a0 We should stop pretending otherwise.\u00a0 Claiming a man can become a woman is like trying to draw a \u201csquare circle\u201d or seeing a \u201cmarried bachelor.\u201d\u00a0 Alchemy should play no role in law and policy.<\/p>\n

Law and policy should stand on immutable reality.\u00a0 The Trans-agenda instead asks the law to function in metaphysics rather than ethics.\u00a0 Law, however, is inherently an ethical enterprise, not a metaphysical one.\u00a0 The law differentiates based on metaphysics; it should not attempt to \u201cdo metaphysics\u201d via law.\u00a0 That\u2019s a bad idea and bad ideas have victims.\u00a0 Just consider the scores of wrecked lives who now regret their faux \u201ctransition.\u201d13<\/sup><\/p>\n

We would do well to consider Lincoln\u2019s point regarding slavery and then apply it to gender ideology:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Judge [Stephen] Douglas says that whoever, or whatever community, wants sales, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong.\u201d<\/i><\/b>14<\/i><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Put more bluntly,<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may turn over everything in the Democratic [party]\u00a0 policy from beginning to end, whether in the shape it takes on the statute book, in the shape it takes in the Dred Scott<\/i> decision, in the shape it takes in conversation or the shape it takes in short maxim-like arguments \u2013 it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

That is the real issue…. [T]he eternal struggle between these two principles \u2013 right and wrong<\/i><\/b> \u2013 throughout the world.\u201d15<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the same way, just as men cannot be property, they cannot become women.\u00a0 The political struggle with \u201cgender transition affirmation\u201d cannot be well-revolved until the culture jettisons this pernicious lie and instead embraces the truth that mankind \u2013 men and women alike \u2013 have been and remain \u2013 \u201cfearfully and wonderfully made.\u201d16<\/sup>\u00a0 The law must increasingly recognize, promote, and protect that reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false},"publisher":[28],"class_list":["post-12608","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","publisher-center-public-legal-theology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview - Trinity Law School<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, a Missouri federal court \u2013 following a nine-day trial – handed LGBTQ activists a comprehensive loss \u2013 sustaining a Missouri law that protects minors from unnecessary and dangerous \u201cgender transition\u201d procedures.2\u00a0 Christians and citizens of good will, especially parents, should be grateful for this direct and clear ruling.\u00a0 It is a legally and medically […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Trinity Law School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T16:06:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/\",\"name\":\"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview - Trinity Law School\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-22T19:50:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-27T16:06:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Articles\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/\",\"name\":\"Trinity Law School\",\"description\":\"Make Justice Your Mission\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Trinity Law School\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/doetd2kiw\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1702062041\/trinity_law\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19.png?_i=AA\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/doetd2kiw\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1702062041\/trinity_law\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19.png?_i=AA\",\"width\":360,\"height\":156,\"caption\":\"Trinity Law School\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview - Trinity Law School","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview","og_description":"Recently, a Missouri federal court \u2013 following a nine-day trial – handed LGBTQ activists a comprehensive loss \u2013 sustaining a Missouri law that protects minors from unnecessary and dangerous \u201cgender transition\u201d procedures.2\u00a0 Christians and citizens of good will, especially parents, should be grateful for this direct and clear ruling.\u00a0 It is a legally and medically […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/","og_site_name":"Trinity Law School","article_modified_time":"2026-05-27T16:06:26+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/","name":"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview - Trinity Law School","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-05-22T19:50:56+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-27T16:06:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/lgbt-ball-in-the-courts-gaining-a-big-w-but-whiffing-on-worldview\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Articles","item":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/articles\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"(LGB)T-Ball in the Courts: Gaining a Big \u201cW\u201d but Whiffing on Worldview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/","name":"Trinity Law School","description":"Make Justice Your Mission","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#organization","name":"Trinity Law School","url":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/doetd2kiw\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1702062041\/trinity_law\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19.png?_i=AA","contentUrl":"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/doetd2kiw\/images\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1702062041\/trinity_law\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19\/tls-horiz-2x_436815f19.png?_i=AA","width":360,"height":156,"caption":"Trinity Law School"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/12608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tiu.edu\/law\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publisher?post=12608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}