Skip to content

Focus on the Family vs. transgender people

Focus on the Family is a right-wing American Christian group that supports many explicitly anti-transgender policies.

Background

Focus on the Family (FOTF) was founded in 1977 by psychologist and author James C. Dobson (1936–2025) in Arcadia, California. It was established to promote traditional “family values” based on evangelical Christian beliefs, emphasizing marriage, parenting, and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. The organization moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1991.

Initially, Focus on the Family gained prominence through Dobson’s radio program, Focus on the Family, which combined advice on family life with Christian teachings. The broadcast became widely syndicated, reaching millions of listeners in the United States and abroad. In addition to radio, FOTF expanded into publishing, film production, and counseling services, offering a range of media and resources on parenting, marriage, and faith.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Focus on the Family became a key player in the religious right and the broader movement of Christian conservatism in American politics. It established affiliated organizations such as the Family Research Council, which later became independent, to engage more directly in policy advocacy.

Dobson stepped down as president in 2003 and left the organization in 2010.

Positions

FOTF is explicitly anti-transgender in its official positions:

  • “We affirm God’s design for the two sexes – male and female – and marriage between one man and one woman as the place God established for sexual love to occur.
  • We disagree with revisionist gay and transgender theologies as contradictory to foundational Christian doctrine and the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic.
  • We oppose the ordination of “transgender” and “transsexual” individuals into the clergy and the celebration of “transgenderism” as one of God’s gifts.
  • The church must continue to proclaim the truth of God’s intentional design for marriage and sexuality: The two sexes, male and female, are created in His image; and marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The modern “transgender” movement is systematically working to dismantle the reality of two sexes – male and female – as the Bible and the world have always known this to be. If the transgender lobby succeeds, there will be striking consequences for individuals, marriage, family, children and society at large.
  • While God’s intent for sexuality and gender is being turned upside down, we must remember that those who struggle with their gender identity have lived lives of great pain, confusion and rejection. And, just as Jesus went out of his way to reach the outcasts of society, we’re called to humbly share His love embodied in the Gospel, to lift them up in prayer and to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about conviction, healing and transformation.
  • We affirm the Christian view that to be human is to be holistically united as body and spirit. Scripture teaches that even in heaven believers will have gloriously redeemed physical bodies. In contrast, transgender revisionists hold to the pagan view that the body is a container that the spirit is poured into. They erroneously conclude that either God has mistakenly put an opposite-sex spirit into the wrong body or that the body is not the real person – that only the spirit is real. As Christians, we believe that God can heal these disconnected, gnostic views and bring restoration and wholeness – where body, soul and spirit are in unity.
  • There has been a growing trend of parents raising their children without designating them male or female. A similar trend encourages parents of children who might not fit into typical social expressions of masculinity or femininity to raise them as the opposite sex. Instead, we encourage parents to lovingly help their children to embrace their bodily sexual reality. Christian parents can raise daughters who grow up to accept and enjoy their femininity, knowing deep down that being a girl is a good gift from God. Likewise, Christian families can raise sons to grow up to be healthy men who embrace their masculinity and see it as a good gift from God.
  • God calls us to proclaim the truth and beauty of His design and the redemption of sexual brokenness in our lives and culture through Jesus Christ. Like everyone else, “transgendered” individuals are desperately in need of God’s truth and deserve to know the love and compassion of Christ as shown through His people.”

“Transgender Resources”

The site’s parenting section includes a section of anti-trans resources for unaccepting parents.

Store

Their store has a section called Life Challenges: Homosexuality & Transgenderism. It offers a number of anti-trans publications, including:

  • Transgender to Transformed: A Story of Transition That Will Truly Set You Free by Laura Perry
  • Trans-Formation: A Former Transgender Responds to LGBTQ by Linda A. Seiler
  • The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman
  • Talking Points: Transgender by Vaughan Roberts
  • SHE Is SHE by Bethany and Ryan Bomberger
  • Secure Daughters, Confident Sons: How Parents Guide Their Children Into Authentic Masculinity and Femininity by Glenn T. Stanton
  • Out of Darkness and Into the Light: Winning the Battle of Gender Identity by Denise Shick
  • Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts if an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
  • Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality: Empowering Your Kids to Understand and Live Out God’s Design by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
  • Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality by Nancy R. Pearcey
  • I’m Glad God Made Me a Girl by Denise Shick
  • Fully Alive: A Biblical Vision of Gender That Frees Men and Women to Live Beyond Stereotypes by Larry Crabb
  • A Transgender’s Faith by Walt Heyer
  • Affirming God’s Image: Addressing the Transgender Question with Science and Scripture by J. Alan Branch
  • Changed: OnceGay and Detransitioner Stories (Expanded with Detransitioner Stories) by CHANGED

References

Draper, Electa (June 23, 2017). GLAAD targets Focus on the Family in list of “inappropriate” conservative commentators. Denver Post https://www.denverpost.com/2012/03/14/glaad-targets-focus-on-the-family-in-list-of-inappropriate-conservative-commentators/

Staff report (February 11, 2016). ‘Religious Liberty’ and the Anti-LGBT Right. Southern Poverty Law Center https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/religious-liberty-and-anti-lgbt-right/

Staff report (January 7, 2009). GLAAD Identifies Worst Anti-Gay Defamation of 2008. GLAAD https://glaad.org/media/release_detail.php?id=4897 [archive]

Selected anti-trans writing by Focus on the Family

Staff report (2018). Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns https://media.focusonthefamily.com/topicinfo/counseling-for-sexual-identity-concerns.pdf?refcd=2281004

Media

Refocus with Jim Daly and “Chloe Cole” (January 29, 2024). Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret. https://podcasts.focusonthefamily.com/show/refocus-with-jim-daly/chloe-cole-gender-reassignment-surgery-regret/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Focus on the Family (focusonthefamily.com)

  • Transgender
  • focusonthefamily.com/results/?query=transgender

Facebook (facebook.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Threads (threads.com)

TikTok (tiktok.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)