News and Commentary on Politics, Media and Culture

There is an appalling article in the New York Times that all but advocates the use of hormones called “puberty blockers” to help a child stave off puberty until they are comfortable with their own sexual identity. The “they” in this case is a newly recognized class of children who have “sexual identity” issues – also known as the transgender child. But I have a feeling that a good number of “them” are the parents themselves.

California and New York are leading the way in acceptance of this new sexual identity crisis with a couple of initiatives from advocates activists who are working overtime to change the school environment to accommodate transgender children.

Nila Marrone, a retired linguistics professor at the University of Connecticut who consults with parents and schools, recalled an incident last year at a Bronx elementary school in which an 8-year-old boy perceived as effeminate was thrown into a large trash bin by a group of boys. The principal, she said, “suggested to the mother that she was to blame, for not having taught her son how to be tough enough.” [Webloggin note - key here is the term suggest, there is no doubt in my mind that the parent is likely hypersensitive to this issue. God forbid anyone hurt anyone's feelings here. But does anyone really believe that the principle said that?]

But the tide is turning.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, for instance, requires that students be addressed with “a name and pronoun that corresponds to the gender identity.” It also asks schools to provide a locker room or changing area that corresponds to a student’s chosen gender.

One of the most controversial issues concerns the use of “blockers,” hormones used to delay the onset of puberty in cases where it could be psychologically devastating (for instance, a girl who identifies as a boy might slice her wrists when she gets her period). Some doctors disapprove of blockers, arguing that only at puberty does an individual fully appreciate their gender identity. [Webloggin note - activists at the New York Times never fail to overstate their case; thus the extreme wrist slashing example]

The tide is turning alright. This is part of an ongoing effort to normalize adult sexual behavior at a teen and pre-teen level. Children are being inundated with contradictory sexual messages courtesy of contradicted adults and the Hollywood gay lobby that supports them. It truly is a testament to the power of nature that a child grows up without being confused.

The introduction of cross dressed children into the classroom from kindergarten on up is a highly confusing distraction to normal children. Yes, I used the term normal because transgender is not the biological norm. It important to focus on the use of the term normal because the NY Times article is all about normalizing cross-dressing with an under riding emphasis on self esteem.

A child who is not considered normal will ultimately suffer low self esteem. But the self esteem of normal children is always supposed to take a back seat to the self esteem of the minority transgender child. That is the way it is in this politically correct social engineering experiment that is festering in today’s public schools. Never once do activist educators consider that they are the catalyst of the confusion with such emphasis. Johnny sees Jimmy at lunch wearing a dress; Johnny becomes confused.

One way to solve self esteem issues is through interaction. Children need to belong. Perhaps the self esteem issue stems from working parents who are too involved in their own lives to get involved with the lives of their children. This is one of many possibilities.

But we shouldn’t discount the possibility that some children who are being identified as transgender are the product of screwed up parents. Don’t sit there and tell me this can’t happen; it is a very real possibility. Compound that with a psychotherapist who is willing to use hormone therapy to block the child’s puberty and you have a real issue at hand that culminates in a potential life destroyed. You never know until it is too late. Whoops.

What we do know is that scientists and doctors have yet to find a biological factor to account for this “sexual identity” issue. That should probably be the first step before we decide that it can be treated with puberty blocking drugs.

The New York Times article suggests that some parents are actually demanding the hormone treatment. This seems a bit odd, where would the parents get this idea if it was not suggested to them by some gay activist group – in this case the New York Times. Tell me, what sort of affect will a puberty blocking hormone have on self esteem? Wouldn’t this further isolate the child?

My problem with this is that we are dealing with an issue that has no medical evidence to back it up (and by medical I mean some genetic or biological marker). Don’t get me wrong here, I believe that there is a scientific explanation; most likely genetic, that can explain why a person is predisposed to be gay. But we are not talking about that in this case. You can’t discount the possibility that the parents have done a head job on the child.

How can anyone expect to deal with this issue when the definition of transgender itself is in a mass state of confusion?

The New York Times uses the following terms to describe it: “aren’t gender typical”, transgender, cross-dressing kindergarteners, gender-variant, sissy boys, tomboy girls, and “sexually marginalized children”.

Wikipedia makes matters more confusing with its one stop for all variety of explanations.

Transgender (IPA: [tʰɹænz'dʒɛndɚ], from trans (Latin) and gender (English) ) is an overarching term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies that diverge from the normative gender role (woman or man) commonly, but not always, assigned at birth, as well as the role traditionally held by society.

Transgender is the state of one’s “gender identity” (self-identification as male, female, both or neither) not matching one’s “assigned gender” (identification by others as male or female based on physical/genetic sex). Transgender does not imply any specific form of sexual orientation (transgender people may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual or asexual.)

Definitions are set forth below, but the precise definition for transgender remains in flux.

Sorry, science is more exact than a flux. Of course if you are confused you can always refer to the Internet.

Not all cases of “gender variation” or children that identify themselves as transgender are going to be true cases. Allowing activist psychotherapists to experiment on children with hormone blockers to halt puberty is appalling and should be a crime.

The same goes for parental choice. I shouldn’t have to send my child to a school that has cross dressing children. They are there for an education. The last thing any child needs is to be confused by the mixed messages that the gay lobby if forcing down their throats; especially something as confusing and medically unsound as the term transgender.

Update: The New York Times does include a passage from a researcher who seems to have a better handle on this that is contrary to the direction that school administrators in California are taking.

“But Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist and head of the gender-identity service at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, disagrees with the “free to be” approach with young children and cross-dressing in public. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Zucker has treated about 500 preadolescent gender-variant children. In his studies, 80 percent grow out of the behavior, but 15 percent to 20 percent continue to be distressed about their gender and may ultimately change their sex.

Dr. Zucker tries to “help these kids be more content in their biological gender” until they are older and can determine their sexual identity — accomplished, he said, by encouraging same-sex friendships and activities like board games that move beyond strict gender roles.”

This is the correct approach IMHO. Rather than fight a biological identity it makes more sense to make a child comfortable with that identity. It certainly can not be in the child’s best interest to drug them up with hormones. Especially that 80% who discovered they weren’t transgender after all - some of whom figured out that the confusion they had was a normal course of discovering their own sexual identity in a world that is intentionally convoluted by activists with an agenda.

Others: Thoughts from Upstate SC

Related: Wizbang - The Sexualization of Little Girls
Other Fodder:

Colorado Family Action, Professor George Reisman

 Send this post a Friend  

Trackback URI | Comments RSS