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
Fr. Peter Grover, OMV is a religious priest with the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. Presently he is the director of St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in Boston. He also teaches classical languages and biblical studies at St. John Seminary, the Theological Institute of Boston, and Pope St. John XXIII Seminary. He is an avid fly-fisherman and enjoys wreaking havoc in the kitchen.
Nicole Berlucchi is a writer and speaker. You can find her on her personal website: 
Mr. Francis Etheredge is married with eight children, plus three in heaven.