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The Vatican has condemned gender theory, which allows people to choose or change their gender, as being a "confused concept of freedom" in a new official document.

The document, the Vatican's first on gender theory, claims that basing gender on personal feeling rather than biology is an attempt to "annihilate nature".

It also rejects terms such as "intersex" and "transgender", the Associated Press has reported.

The Vatican booklet titled ‘Male and Female He Created Them’ describes gender fluidity as a symptom of the "confused concept of freedom" and "momentary desires" that characterise post-modern culture, rather than “anything based on the truths of existence".

LGBTQ+ rights advocates have denounced the 30-page text as damaging, saying it would encourage hatred and bigotry and further confuse individuals questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which seeks to reconcile LGBT Catholics and the institutional Church, called it "a gross misrepresentation" of the lives of LGBT people that could encourage violence against them.

"The misinformation the document contains will cause families to reject their children, and it will increase alienation of LGBT people from the Church," he said in a statement.

The document was released on Monday as millions of people around the world celebrate the start of Pride Month.

It was written by the Congregation for Catholic Education as an "instruction" to Catholic educators on how to address the topic of gender theory in line with Church teaching, and calls for a "path of dialogue".

However, Catholic advocates for LGBTQ+ rights have noted that the text appears to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians.

"The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document," said Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled Building A Bridge.

"We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin."

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While the document is not signed by Pope Francis, it several times quotes from his speeches and teachings and those of previous popes, according to Reuters news agency.

Pope Francis has repeatedly argued the position that people cannot choose their genders.

But the document represents the first attempt to put the Vatican's position, first articulated fully by Pope Benedict XVI in a 2012 speech, into a comprehensive, official text.

The booklet denounces gender theories which it claims attempt to "annihilate the concept of nature" and "educational programmes and legislative trends that ... make a radical break with the actual biological difference between male and female".

It also calls for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a "positive and prudent sexual education" in Catholic schools so children learn the "full original truth of masculinity and femininity".

Mr DeBernardo stressed such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia that determine gender.

"Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry - things not visible at birth," he said.

"People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences."

He said the Catholic Church should encourage this process of discovery, saying it's "a process by which individuals discover the wonderful way that God has created them".