Can you be transgendered at 7?

[Cracker]

DARIEN, Ga. (WSAV) -- A McIntosh County father is asking the school board to allow his transgender child to use the boys bathroom.

The 7 year-old second grader is physically a girl but living as a boy, and the family said school officials had ordered the child to use the girls restroom.

The boy's father, Tommy Theollyn, is transgender. He is actually the child's biological mother, but began his own gender transition about a year after giving birth.

Theollyn said his child, D, began living as a boy a year ago. Theollyn said he pulled D out of school after this happened at the start of the school year.

Theollyn says D's teacher at Todd Grant Elementary told him before the school year started it would be ok for D to use the boys bathroom.

But he said that changed when classes began, so on Thursday night he and the child's grandmother showed up at the McIntosh County School Board meeting with nearly 41,000 signatures gathered from an online petition in the last three weeks.

"Thank you to the people that signed the petition," said Theollyn. "We very very much appreciate that. It helped get us through that meeting with the board and just, thank you."

"He needs to get back to school," said the child's grandmother, who identified herself just as Granny. "We hope they'll make some concessions or start a conversation that's nuts and bolts."

The family said the board was clear at the beginning of the closed door meeting that no decision or response would come from them Thursday.

An advocate from Georgia Equality said they are asking the board to do what is best for the children.

"The main issue here is that students are not safe if they are in these conditions, and so we're just here to promote the safety of all students and being able to use correct facilities and just having access," said Em Elliott, a field organizer with Georgia Equality.

Theollyn said D came out as a boy last year by his own choice, and they didn't have any problems at the school D was attending in the Atlanta area at the time.

There is no word on when the McIntosh County School Board will issue a decision.
____________________________________________________


Tell me this parent didn't have a thing to do with convincing the 7 year old girl she was a boy...

I know some of your will say transgender issues are not sexual, but they are. They involve gender roles and behavior that ultimately define sexual behavior.

This story just pissed me off. Why should a little girl have to see little boy peepers when she can easily go in the girl's restroom and close the door to do her business? Would this even be an issue if her mom didn't think she was Chaz Bono?

[Cynical Ninja]

This is another case of a parent transfering onto their child, the parent is transgender so decides that their child must also be transgender. The child is like a toy extension of the parent.

The notion of a seven year old being transgender is patently ridiculous.

[FAHQTOO]

No one will ever convince me a 7 yr old can make this decision all on its own. I'll bet this school will accommodate this fucked up kid.
And what the hell will happen when this "boy" starts his period? I know the schools around here don't even have doors on the bathroom stalls in the boys restrooms.

[username]

Hell no. I think 7 is way too young to make that call and yeah, it sounds like the "was a mother, now a father" is projecting on to the kid.

It's totally fucked up.

[HairOfTheDog]

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.

[Cracker]

If I were the parent of one of the boys at this school, I would be a little pissy about it. But the "dad" doesn't give a shit. "He" is only thinking about "his" own child. The other parents need to raise holy hell.

That's the trouble with education; parents. Keep your agenda at your own fucking house. Let the kids enjoy school without your hangups, creepiness, religion, etc. Who cares if Billy has two mommys? Keep your munching mommys at your house.

Poor little girl has had to listen to her mom/dad go on and on about gender issues since she was born. You would think the grandmother would have more sense, but no. Social services really needs to step in and make sure this little girl is being raised properly. There is a difference between letting a girl be a tomboy and making a girl want to alter her body before her body even matures.

[Cracker]

This is why I hate homeschool ~ there is nobody to save a kid if the parents are fucked up:

Are both her parents gay men, then? If they are both female to male transexuals, who is the woman? Cracker is confused...

A mother in Townsend, Georgia is seeking ACLU representation to sue the McIntosh County Public School system after her 7 year old daughter was denied special permission to use the boy’s locker rooms and bathrooms at Todd Grant Elementary School. The child’s biological mother Tommy Theollyn, 28, claims that both she and the child’s co-parent are female-bodied “males” and that her daughter is also a female-bodied “male” who was diagnosed with transsexualism by a unnamed medical doctor. She also claims the physician is “treating” the seven year old girl for transsexualism, though the specifics of the medical treatment were not specified.

Theollyn states that her daughter is a Female to Male transsexual just like both of her parents. “My child is transgender; put simply this means he looks like and identifies as a boy, but has the body parts assigned to girls.” Theollyn alleges that the government has an obligation to disguise her daughter’s sex and that the right of secrecy for children pretending to be the other sex takes precedence over the privacy rights of other children. Theollyn claims that the disclosure of her daughter’s true sex would endanger her, because the deception would be revealed and there is social pressure against deception.

The mother claims that sex segregation in elementary school private areas should be assigned based on strict adherence to cultural sex role stereotypes and not by actual sex.

“Forcing him to use a bathroom that does not match his presentation effectively discloses his status as a transgender child and thus endangers him.”

Theollyn’s beliefs echo those of the Transgender Rights Movement: That the government has an obligation to uphold sex role stereotypes by actively assisting in disguising the biological sex of those who don’t conform to such stereotypes. Transgenders maintain that individuals who don’t conform to cultural stereotypes based on physical sex must hide their true sex in order to avoid undermining cultural sex roles, and that the government is obligated to assist them. They claim that dismantling stereotyped sex roles is undesirable and that the government should have an interest in maintaining them.

Theollyn, (who claims to have “become a male” 12 months after her daughter’s birth) feels that locker rooms and restrooms segregated by biological sex cause irreparable harm to children who don’t conform to stereotyped sex role presentation- hair cuts, clothing etc. and hopes to engage ACLU litigators to force the school board to eliminate sex segregated locker rooms and restrooms at her daughter’s elementary school.

From the Georgia Voice:

Theollyn says that his son began expressing his own gender identity as early as age 18 months.

“The first time he told me he was a boy he was about 18 months old,” Theollyn said.

In early 2010, D. began insisting that he be identified as a boy. Theollyn said that D. asked to have his head shaved and began throwing away and hiding his girl’s clothing.

“For a while he was saying he really didn’t care, that he was above all that gender stuff. Then one day he asked us to shave his head. He said, ‘I can’t wear girls clothes. I need to look like a boy.’”

Theollyn said at first, he thought D. was just emulating him. Other people who knew D. also expressed the same feelings.

“That really did not go well in a lot of ways,” Theollyn said. “He was very disappointed by the response.”

D. was home-schooled prior to this year. Theollyn said that his son wanted to go to public school because he wants to be a veterinarian and he wanted to interact with children his age. Theollyn said that D. felt being in home school would hurt his chances of becoming a vet.

“He was so ready,” Theollyn said. “It’s such a disappointment. He’s got a bookbag full of supplies he can’t use. He’s very clearly frustrated and disappointed.”

Theollyn said that he and D. have been working with a doctor.”

Transgender activists have started an online petition against elementary school locker rooms and restrooms that are segregated by physical sex. Over 2300 transgenders have signed.

“Theollyn said that he reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this week to discuss the incident. The state chapter forwarded the case to the organization’s main office in New York, according to Theollyn. He said he has not heard back.

Theollyn said he will present members of the McIntosh School board with educational material and a copy of the Change.org petition during a mid-September school board meeting.

“There’s several things I want to discuss,” he said. “I have no idea how that’s going to go.”

In the meantime, D. is back to learning at home.

“I don’t want to give him the message that it’s OK to treat people this way,” Theollyn said. “At the same time, I also know where that leaves us — back at home school.”

[ZEROSPHERES]

Gender identification exists at age 7 or earlier. Are the parents projecting onto the child in this case? Please look at the case of, David Reimer, where the parents and professionals projected a female gender reassignment onto a male child from the age of 22 months. The child was never told of the circumstances that brought about his reassignment to female, or that he was born male. Somehow he knew his whole life that he was really a male even though he was raised female from age 22 months and looked to have female genitalia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer

[HairOfTheDog]

These parents aren't doing it for "their kid" without concern for the other kids. It's worse than that. These parents are doing it for "themselves, their cause", without concern for their own child or anyone else's children. This child is fucked.

I was hoping that the parents weren't already pushing physical alteration at this point. I was relieved that gender transition treatment was not cited in the first article posted. However, it doesn't surprise that they seem to be doing just that, on a 7 year old. Just how does one "diagnose" that a child has transsexualism? Why not name the doctor who made such a revolutionary diagnosis and explain the scientific/medical diagnostic evaluation? It's horseshit, that's why.

I hope the ACLU stays out of this one. I would like to believe that even the ACLU would logically conclude that a 7 year old is not qualified to consent to elective gender transition treatment and that the parents in this case are actually violating the civil liberties of the child by pushing it on her (even if the parents influence the child to agree she wants to do it; she can't know yet and every child wants to please their parents).

I think these two parents simply want to be heralded as trailblazers by the Transgender Rights Movement. The best interest of the child is something they are willing to sacrifice for their cause. They are deplorable, imo.

NAMBLA uses similar fucked-up reasoning (as the parents in this case) to promote pedophilia. Small children "want to have sex" with adults. I mean, they are not forced (of course, they have been conditioned to believe it's normal because the adults tell them so, but no matter to the pedophiles). It's only us unenlightened sticks in the mud that see pedophilia as victimization rather than natural. More horseshit. The ACLU defended NAMBLA's right to state their beliefs publicly, but did not defend or support the rights of adults to have sex with children. In this transgender case, I don't see anyone trying to ban these two parents from spewing their beliefs publicly like the protesters did against NAMBLA propaganda (yet). So, since they are speaking freely, why would these parents summons help from the ACLU?

I'm guessing reaching out to the ACLU is a ploy to get a well known organization attached to their cause. I sure hope it's not an indication that there is a movement of transgender parents looking to change the genders of their small children. I don't believe the ACLU would defend the rights of these parents to do so. But, if the ACLU gets sucked into defending their rights to freedom of speech at some point, the Transgender Rights Movement will quite likely claim that they are supported by the ACLU and that changing your child's gender is therefore a civil liberties issue.

This is getting me riled up. Poor kid, sacrificial lamb, imo.

[Duchess]

the parents and professionals projected a female gender reassignment onto a male child from the age of 22 months.

That's just so wrong on so many levels.

[HairOfTheDog]

Gender identification exists at age 7 or earlier. Are the parents projecting onto the child in this case? Please look at the case of, David Reimer, where the parents and professionals projected a female gender reassignment onto a male child from the age of 22 months. The child was never told of the circumstances that brought about his reassignment to female, or that he was born male. Somehow he knew his whole life that he was really a male even though he was raised female from age 22 months and looked to have female genitalia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer

Right, it didn't work. In the parents' defense in David's case, poor kid's penis was cut off during circumcision (that's the official story anyway) and they were advised by a case worker that raising him as female was the best option. He was then used as a case study to show that gender association is learned. Maybe it is to some degree, I don't know. But the idea that with no penis, early hormone treatment (and no knowledge of his birth gender) that David would naturally acclimate as a female was a big fail. He never felt comfortable as a female and began living as male at age 15 or 16, IIRC. He later killed himself.

Changing gender is a personal choice only to be made by mature adults who understand the matter and what's involved. 7 year olds don't qualify. 7 year olds whose parents are both transgender and looking to use the child as a case to promote the Transgender Rights Movement need to be protected from said parents. This is just my opinion.

[ZEROSPHERES]

the parents and professionals projected a female gender reassignment onto a male child from the age of 22 months.

That's just so wrong on so many levels.

I Agree.....Last time I read about such insenitivity I was reading about Nazi experimentations....Here is an excerpt from the therapy.
p.s. The gender reassigned identical twin later commited suicide.


Dr. Money forced the twins to rehearse sexual acts involving "thrusting movements" with David playing the bottom role.[4] As a child, David Reimer painfully recalled having to get "down on all fours" with his brother, Brian Reimer, "up behind his butt" with "his crotch against" his "buttocks".[4] In another sexual position, Dr. Money forced David to have his "legs spread" with Brian on top.[4] Dr. Money also forced the children to take their "clothes off" and engage in "genital inspections".[4] On at "least one occasion", Dr. Money took a "photograph" of the two children doing these activiites.[4] Dr. Money's rationale for these various treatments was his belief that "childhood 'sexual rehearsal play'" was important for a "healthy adult gender identity".[4]

[ZEROSPHERES]

Right, it didn't work. In the parents' defense in David's case, poor kid's penis was cut off during circumcision (that's the official story anyway) ........ He later killed himself.

That didn't stop the Doctor proclaiming the gender reassignment a SUCCESS....WTF?....
Here is a case where you create an expectation and don't let something like the truth get in the way...

about the official story...please let that be so!!! I can imagine a senerio where the upon delivery of the second twin the Doctor says "Another healthy boy!" followed by the mother's "But I wanted a Boy and A Girl"

[Lady Cop]

another case, across the pond. this is a male child.
mother is a nutjob as far as i am concerned. fucking parents have no guts. hey! you're a boy! deal with it!
no, spend your life with total angst and the abuse of other kids and then kill yourself is better, at least we parents were tolerant and understanding while ignoring your desperate obvious need for psychiatric help.




link to story
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...skirt.html


Already fretting about the onset of puberty, Livvy says she is ‘freaking out’ over the thought of developing facial hair and can’t bear the thought of her voice breaking.


So Saffron is looking into hormone therapy to block the development of masculine traits, but says that is a couple of years away and, besides, who knows what the future holds.


As for the teenage years when Livvy’s female friends are dating boys, the family would rather cross that bridge when they reach it. They haven’t even begun to think about the possibility of transgender surgery.


‘We are just taking one day at a time,’ says Saffron. ‘We’ve been told any hormone therapy is reversible, so if Livvy suddenly decides at 18 she wants to be a man after all, then she can. But she is who she is. She’s only ten and I just want her to be happy now.’

[ZEROSPHERES]

LC....If that child were a little older she could have been the love interest of Angus T. Jones on the opening show of 2 ¹⁄₂ Men with Ashton Kutcher this season. Chaz Bono could cameo as her father and Bono and Kutcher could discover an emerging bond to each other as the youngsters discover the real meaning of the show's title.

[ZEROSPHERES]

[HairOfTheDog]

Right, it didn't work. In the parents' defense in David's case, poor kid's penis was cut off during circumcision (that's the official story anyway) ........ He later killed himself.

That didn't stop the Doctor proclaiming the gender reassignment a SUCCESS....WTF?....
Here is a case where you create an expectation and don't let something like the truth get in the way...

about the official story...please let that be so!!! I can imagine a senerio where the upon delivery of the second twin the Doctor says "Another healthy boy!" followed by the mother's "But I wanted a Boy and A Girl"

Checked a few sources. David's penis was accidentally removed when a piece of electronic equipment malfunctioned and burned it entirely off during his circumcision. It is verified by several sources. The official story is not disputed regarding the botched circumcision.

Regarding Dr. Money, he continued to claim publicly that the Reimer sexual reassignment and case was a success up until his death in 2006, despite the fact that David never identified as a female and that both David and his twin brother Bruce were tragically impacted by Money's experiments (Bruce overdosed and David later committed suicide). Privately, his colleagues told the New York Times after his death, Money was mortified by the case.

[ZEROSPHERES]

[WolfHouse]

Damn, talk about child abuse.

[ZEROSPHERES]

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