Is a man merely dressing as a woman immoral?

Simply dressing as a woman for laughs, such as the filmmaker Tyler Perry does for cinematic alter ego Madea, is not necessarily a problem, nor is portraying in an artistic performance a character struggling with transgenderism.

The problem becomes when it is done as a validation of a disordered self-expression or lifestyle, such as a bona fide drag queen or through the Ladyboy culture in Thailand.

Objectively, transgenderism is a denial of one’s God-given identity as a male or female. Persons struggling with transgenderism need to be compassionately served, but that does not include surgery that mutilates one’s body (see CCC 2297) or otherwise identifying in a way that is contrary to one’s God-given male or female identity.