Gender dominated the news about marriage, family, and sexuality this year. The fight revealed a paradox: Activists battled states, schools, and institutions for the right of transgender individuals to transition their gender and access everything available to the other gender, while at the same time pushing for no gender distinctions at all. Gender became preeminent and at the same time insignificant. And as always, children felt the brunt of the fallout. Amidst the confusion, 2017 also offered clarity about why God’s design for marriage and family is good.

Apparently sex isn’t for kicks anymore. From the halls of East Coast academic institutions to the malls of mid-America and the West Coast backlots, for decades now sex for sport has been taught, modeled, and marketed. Serial sex partners; sex outside of marriage; sex as an initiation rite onscreen, on campus, and to get ahead seemed a norm we could live with. The sexually pure became oddballs and losers. When comedian Louis C.K.’s show Louie featured the character Ellen Farber, a Christian virgin, it was all for laughs. And audiences did.

The Australian Parliament in a Thursday vote legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. The move follows a government postal survey last month, in which 61.6 percent of voters supported the new legislation. The bill passed with only four lawmakers in opposition. It changes the definition of marriage to “a union of two people,” instead of a union between one man and one woman. Same-sex couples can start applying to marry Saturday, although the first weddings will not happen until January because of the country’s one-month notice requirement.

In one corner sits Stedfast Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas, where Pastor Donnie Romero isn’t ashamed to use words this magazine won’t print to describe the homosexuals he’d rather not see. “I’m not gonna let any of these dirty [vulgarity] inside my church,” preaches Romero in a December 2014 sermon. “They are all pedophiles.”

Dozens of women—including 100-watt stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Lupita Nyong’o—have now detailed disturbing encounters with once powerful producer Harvey Weinstein, and several police departments have opened inquiries into alleged sexual crimes, including rape (Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex). Investigations from The New York Times and The New Yorker first exposed decades of alleged incidents of sexual harassment and assault by Weinstein.

The California legislature was a battleground for gender identity issues this year. Four landmark gender bills passed the state Senate and Assembly by the time the session ended Sep. 15, and California Gov. Jerry Brown signed all four this month.

Sometimes public events aren’t quite as public as they seem. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Such was almost certainly the case, for example, with the Aug. 29 release of a “Nashville Statement” on human sexuality. Drawn up in significant measure by thoughtful people with close ties to the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, the statement is intended to serve evangelical Christians as a reference point on sex and gender issues.