“If I wanted to cut off my arm and leg and declare I feel that I am a pirate today, I can do that,” Pacholczyk said.

The Question of Transgender — that was the title of the event hosted by BisonCatholic. It attempted to explain the view of the Catholic church on transgender identity and the issues they view that stem from it. Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk was the speaker at the event and has spoken at many similar events across the United States. He has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is also a priest of the Catholic faith.

The talk featured many different video clips and analogies. One of the main points was that one should not be able to “choose” what gender they want to be. Father Pacholczyk postulated that being able to choose what gender you want is not a good thing because it could destabilize society.

Another major point of the talk was the case study of Caityln Jenner. Father Pacholczyk showed a film of Jenner competing in the Olympics. Pacholczyk said that she is a big figure in the media due to her winning the gold medal at the Olympics. Pacholczyk wanted to focus specifically on the wording that he used in the interview he had on the video clip. He claimed that people can’t “craft” their own reality and claim that they aren’t the sex they were assigned at birth.

Ann Burnett is a professor of women and gender Studies here at North Dakota State. She said that Father Pacholczyk’s point of someone “choosing” what gender they are is untrue. “People do not choose what gender they are; it is an innate feeling that they can not change even if they want to.” She also rebutted his pirate point by saying that many people are born with chromosomes that aren’t clearly linked to a certain sex.  Pirates, she said, are not a gender but that people can have chromosomes that are not definite.

Burnett also went on to mention that laws around gender-neutral bathrooms are in place to protect transgender people. She said that the bathrooms are tight spaces where if people wanted to harm someone who is transgender they could because it would be easy to corner them. The members of the transgender community would also have to worry about attending the opposite bathroom if the laws were removed due to the then illegality of their actions. A final point was made by an unnamed transgender student who said, “I wouldn’t have to wear a dress if I wanted to do harm in a bathroom, that can be anyone.”

Another controversial topic discussed was women being on birth control, which Father Pacholczyk said was akin to neutering them. This is, Father Pacholczyk said, because it takes away their reproductive capabilities. Burnett said that this is untrue because birth control is just a method of controlling reproductive cycles. She said that it is mainly used to control when pregnancy happens, not to prevent it entirely.