On a sweltering June day in Central California, high schoolers gathered for the California State High School Track and Field Championships. There was laughter, selfies, hugs – just kids being kids. And that joy made a group of adults very angry.

Their problem?

One of the athletes was a 16-year-old trans girl. Her fellow competitors – biological females – welcomed her, embraced her, cheered her on. But a group of “concerned” adults claimed they were there to “protect those girls.” One non-parent protester even had to be pepper sprayed – a consequence I’d bet he secretly craved. A local city councilwoman got her Fox News moment, complete with exaggerated concern and full makeup.

All this sanctimony over a youth track event no one will remember in five years.

Trans issues are a highly financed culture war issue

Yes, the issue of trans girls in sports is worth real discussion. There are valid questions about fairness, biology, and equity. But we can’t have an honest conversation in America because the issue has been weaponized by the right as part of their ongoing culture war. This isn’t about protecting girls; it’s about gaining political power.

How do we know? Let’s follow the money.

In the 2024 election cycle, Republicans spent approximately $215 million targeting the transgender community – $29 million of that in the presidential race alone. Donald Trump never missed a chance to beat the drum: “Trans women are coming for your daughters in locker rooms.” Of course, you’d have to scroll dozens of pages into Google to find more than a handful of isolated incidents that remotely support this fear-mongering.

One of the most widely aired campaign ads of the year – run over 55,000 times – warned: “Kamala is for they/them.” It was backed by Elon Musk and dark-money Super PACs like Make America Great Again Inc. And it worked.

This is a culture war, plain and simple. And I have 215 million receipts to prove it.

A biblical perspective?

But what grieves me most isn’t the manipulation – it’s that many of those who fall for this rhetoric claim to follow Jesus. Yet they behave more like the religious leaders Jesus rebuked than the Christ they profess.

In the first century, Jesus called those religious people “whitewashed tombs” and “sons of Satan.” They were the good church folks of their day – equivalent to youth sports coaches, PTA volunteers, and church potluck and backpack drive organizers today. They hated that Jesus was gaining popularity and challenging the status quo they believed would Make Israel Great Again.

So they tried to trap Jesus with a question about divorce, a hot-button issue of the time. He exposed their hypocrisy – how they cherry-picked scripture to protect their own power while burdening others. Even his own disciples, steeped in that worldview, balked at Jesus’ radical standard of justice and equality.

That’s when Jesus said something revolutionary:

“Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given… For there are eunuchs who were born that way…” (Matthew 19:11–12)

Many Christians today say “born eunuchs” refers to people with physical anomalies. But theologians like Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng, an Episcopal priest and queer theologian, argue that eunuchs were seen as early queer figures—people who disrupted gender and sexual norms.

There was no word for “gay” in Jesus’ time. But eunuchs were widely understood as those who didn’t fit traditional heterosexual expectations. Some were likely intersex. Others, by ancient cultural association, were men who didn’t desire women or conform to masculinity.

So why would Jesus say this teaching was hard to accept if he were merely describing medical conditions?

I believe Jesus was saying something far deeper:

“You, defenders of so-called biblical morality – like Mr. Pepper Spray and Ms. Fox Makeup – are standing in opposition to God when you condemn queer people for not fitting your narrow categories of sex and gender.”

This is the only moment in the four Gospels where Jesus even comes close to referencing same-gender attraction or queerness – and he does so positively, not as condemnation.

So I ask my fellow Christians, especially those who proudly wear the “pro-life” badge: How does trying to ruin a joyful day for a trans teen and her friends align with What Would Jesus Do?

Some children are simply born into bodies that don’t match the biology observed at birth. And they’re just trying to live in peace – sharing giggles, hugs, and selfies -until an adult tells them their joy is wrong.

Telling them that is not just unkind. It’s sinful.

It’s a hard teaching, I know. But Jesus himself said it’s only for those with open hearts.

And in case you missed it, Jesus had one more word for the good, moral people who used religious law to oppress the vulnerable:

“Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” (Matthew 11:24)

Perhaps it’s time we had ears to hear.