Etheredge, Francis, “‘Woman’ and ‘Women in Sport,’ Profiles in Catholicism (February 14, 2025). Click here to read the article.

Etheredge, Francis, “Jammed Locks or Real Keys,” Catholic Medical Quarterly (Nov 2024). Click here to read the article. 

Etheredge, Francis, “We must fight gender ideology to preserve the concept of truth,” LifeSite News (October 25, 2024). Click here to read the review.

Bill Taylor, “A Review” (March 14, 2025). Profiles in Catholicism. Click here to read the review.

Dr. Moira McQueen (March 17, 2025). The Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, CCBI News: Kidney Transplants; Xenotransplantation; Transgender Issues. Click here to read the review.

Francis Etheredge’s Transgenderism: A Question of Identity is a valiant and timely work, addressing one of the most unsettling and socially defining subjects of our time. With the characteristic depth, clarity, and compassionate concern that mark his writing, Etheredge confronts the confusion surrounding identity in a world increasingly adrift from the truths of biology, psychology, and morality. After decades-long broad societal endorsement of a misdefined understanding of human sexuality, it is unsurprising that even the fundamental categories of “man” and “woman” are now contested.

Recognizing that human beings are never psychologically static—either growing in virtue or sliding into further disorder—it becomes evident that transgenderism, i.e., gender confusion, is the next progression from disordered attraction on the dystopian slippery slope. In an age caught between the poles of codependent affirmation and reactionary condemnation, Etheredge invites us to pause, to pray, and to deeply reflect on the fundamental question of what it means to be human—loved, created, and conceived as male and female in the image and likeness of God.

Drawing on Scripture, the Catholic philosophical tradition, and the lived experiences of those questioning their gender identity, this book offers a sensitive, intellectually serious response. With his love rooted in fidelity to the Church and his intellect and will strengthened by years of dialogue, scholarship, and personal experience, Etheredge neither shirks from hard truths nor neglects the profound need for mercy and understanding.

Being such a man, this book is not a chastisement but rather a pilgrimage into the truth of personhood—an invitation to reengage the foundational questions: Who am I? and What is the purpose of my life? In doing so, Etheredge reminds us that our identity and reason for existence are not merely self-asserted projects but are both a gift given and a truth received from our Divine Creator. As our soul—i.e., our personhood—is the form and animator of our body, it is, together with the body, necessarily fixed as male or female at conception. 

To claim an identity at odds with one’s body may feel liberating in a disoriented age—but however sincerely held, it cannot make the unreal real. Just as one cannot become a carrot by painting the skin orange, dyeing the hair green, sitting in the soil, and calling oneself a carrot, neither can one become the opposite gender by change of appearance, choice of thought and imagination, or social assertion. The power of our intellectual capacity for abstract thinking and creativity, which is lacking in brute animals, must be ordered to objective truth—not divorced from it.

For readers seeking a thoughtful, prayerful, and tenderhearted guide through the complex terrain of transgender ideology, this work is a light in the cultural fog. Offering more than answers, it presents a path toward authentic self-understanding, communion with truth, and a deeper reverence for the dignity of the human person from God’s perspective.

Transgenderism: A Question of Identity is not merely a book—it is a witness, a work of integrity, and, ultimately, an uncompromising call to rediscover the beauty and understanding of how relationships are an integral part of our humanity.

— L K Miller, author, 10 Steps to Lasting Healing: True Psychology—for Catholics, and founder, Theology of the Soul Psychology Institute, www.theologyofthesoul.org

“In this book, Francis Etheredge offers more than an ethical and theological critique of transgenderism. He probes the deeper roots of gender ideology, which are spiritual as well as cultural. Transgenderism is a threat to human identity, and it is linked to other problems such as sexual immorality, marital failure, abortion and antinatalism. Drawing upon personal experiences, Etheridge writes with poetic insight and passion. It is fitting that such a book should end with the spiritual autobiography of the poet, James Sale.” – Robert Fastiggi, Ph.D. Professor of Dogmatic Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, Michigan

“In this complex and highly nuanced work, Francis Etheredge frames the various issues surrounding transgenderism in light of the search for identity. He lays out the various forces at work in this search and proposes solutions sensitive to the issues at hand, yet firm in the need to correspond to an objective rather than a subjective understanding of reality. He rightly insists that we can restore our relationships with each other only if we first reestablish our relationship with God and the Truth from which all else flows.” – Rev. Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R., The Robert F. Leavitt Distinguished Service Chair in Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary & University

“In this compelling work confronting the recent rise of transgender theory, Francis Etheredge asks the ultimate question of existence, who am I? With patience, understanding, and skill, he weaves a compendium of authorities to find the answer. He considers the whole person as God’s unique creation, a union of body and soul, formed at the moment of conception. He deepens the conversation with his own experience and colors our journey with not only prose, poetry, and prayer, but extensively footnoted research and serious reflection, resulting in a deep sense of goodness, beauty, and rightness. The uses of suffering and the palliative effect of pilgrimage consider ways to develop identity in relationship to others in a healthy, whole, and holy sense. Transgender surgeries, youth suicide, euthanasia, and abortion are honestly faced as our world denies human identity as a union of body and soul, cancelling and censoring those who protest. The vital role of marriage and family as part of God’s plan for human flourishing gives us a blueprint, for in the end, the most important relationship is with our Lord, Christ Jesus. Once this bond is effected, identity is no longer a question and the child’s sex from conception is celebrated. Travel with Francis Etheredge through these pages and consider the depths and heights of God’s love for each one of us: a journey I highly recommend!” – Christine Sunderland, Anglo-Catholic Novelist, Advent 2024.

“Sensitive yet incisive, worldwide studies, brilliantly covering questions you may not have even asked!” – Dr. Ronda Chervin, Professor Emerita of Philosophy and author of numerous Catholic books