I've seen a lot of discussion in this thread about gay issues, transgender issues, general religion-bashing, even race issues. But while these are all real conversations, from what I read in the article, it's not what the pope was talking about. Reality Check: Some people are born men. Some people are born women. Some (extremely rare) people are born with physical characteristics somewhere in between the two. These are the three physical states a person can be in with respect to gender: Male, Female, or in-between. My guess is the pope would agree that this is legitimate. Now, there's what a person feels they are. Some people have mental conditions which make them feel that they're in the wrong body; conditions which are measurable through techniques such as brain scanning. Men who feel they're women, women who feel they're men, etc. This can exist. But whatever the pope's feelings on this issue, this isn't what he was talking about: that's not gender theory, that's a known medical condition. Next, there's what a person feels attracted to. Some men like other men, some women like other women, some people like both or neither. This exists. The pope probably wishes it didn't; it would make his job much easier. But this isn't what he was talking about either: that's not gender theory. Gender theory states that a person's gender is what a person believes it to be. This is the thinking that allows people to identify as fruit, attack helicopters, and animals without any medical diagnosis to back up their claims. This is lunacy. This is what the pope was calling a global war on marriage. And yes, if the majority of people start to think they can identify as attack helicopters, i think that would screw with marriage as an institution.