09-17-2011, 12:23 PM
7 years old is definitely too young to decide that you want to transition to another gender.
I feel badly for this child. I don't object to a mature teen or an adult acknowledging that they should be or want to be a member of the opposite sex and taking measures to formally transition. However, I am not okay with a parent expecting me to support the idea that a 7 year old has made an informed and mature decision regarding such a life-defining matter.
Let her act and dress like a boy if she wants. No one seems to have a problem with that at the school. Maybe next week, the child will decide she likes being a girl. She's a child. Dad's act of turning the bathroom issue into a public cause and bid for attention tells me that this is not about the child, it's about the parent wanting to gain notoriety as a crusader and using his child to do it. Why go on-line and get signatures from thousands of strangers? Why not talk to the local parents and children about their reactions? These are the people who will interact with the child daily. Dad is a selfish bitch, imo.
Many gay parents raise children successfully. Some of the children are gay and some are straight. Selecting a partner of the same or opposite gender is a sexual and lifestyle issue. Whether it's a choice or determined by nature is not a debate that interests me. It doesn't matter to me who loves whom, who has sex with whom, or why.
This specific transgender parent issue is different. This isn't a case of a parent openly transitioning to the other gender and raising the child to ultimately be who she chooses or was meant to be. This is a parent who is advocating a child to reject who she currently is physically and demand that others make accommodations and change policy for her, years before the child is mature enough to evaluate or make a choice in the matter. It is exploiting and abusive parenting, imo. The effects on the child could be socially and emotionally devastating.
I feel badly for this child. I don't object to a mature teen or an adult acknowledging that they should be or want to be a member of the opposite sex and taking measures to formally transition. However, I am not okay with a parent expecting me to support the idea that a 7 year old has made an informed and mature decision regarding such a life-defining matter.
Let her act and dress like a boy if she wants. No one seems to have a problem with that at the school. Maybe next week, the child will decide she likes being a girl. She's a child. Dad's act of turning the bathroom issue into a public cause and bid for attention tells me that this is not about the child, it's about the parent wanting to gain notoriety as a crusader and using his child to do it. Why go on-line and get signatures from thousands of strangers? Why not talk to the local parents and children about their reactions? These are the people who will interact with the child daily. Dad is a selfish bitch, imo.
Many gay parents raise children successfully. Some of the children are gay and some are straight. Selecting a partner of the same or opposite gender is a sexual and lifestyle issue. Whether it's a choice or determined by nature is not a debate that interests me. It doesn't matter to me who loves whom, who has sex with whom, or why.
This specific transgender parent issue is different. This isn't a case of a parent openly transitioning to the other gender and raising the child to ultimately be who she chooses or was meant to be. This is a parent who is advocating a child to reject who she currently is physically and demand that others make accommodations and change policy for her, years before the child is mature enough to evaluate or make a choice in the matter. It is exploiting and abusive parenting, imo. The effects on the child could be socially and emotionally devastating.