I figured I would start off with this, for a more serious topic. I promise I'm not trolling anyone here, I genuinely found this interesting. Also, a little ridiculous, but....well, alright, let's continue.
If you read through the (admittedly long) article, you'll basically find that it's about two parents who are raising their 3rd child to be genderless. There are, I'm sure, many people who feel strongly against what the parents are doing, and just as many people who feel strongly FOR what the parents are doing. I am one of the former; I think this is wrong, and will seriously inhibit the kid in the future. Maybe I'm a conservative at heart, but...I really don't approve of this, and I'll tell you why (I'm sure you'll all so excited, lol).
This, to begin, is different from a situation where someone was raised as a boy or girl and then feels (for whatever reason) that they identify more either as a genderless person, or as someone of the opposite gender. That's perfectly fine to me; that is great, and if said person wants to pursue that, I am all for them, and it's wonderful when parents legitimately support their children. That is NOT what is happening here, just so we're clear. This is a decision being made FOR this kid, who is a three-month old baby.
These parents are, essentially, refusing to define what 'normal' is. I mean, don't you think that part (if not the most IMPORTANT part) of a parent's job is to tell their child what is normal and what is socially acceptable? Someone said the following, as an example, which I somewhat agree with:
Pretend this had nothing to do with gender; pretend this was about parents not teaching their children how to talk because they didn't want them to be "restricted by the confining nature of established languages, thus stunting their creativity." It's pretty obvious there that the parents are setting up their kids for failure, beause they'll be unable to communicate and function in normal society. Outside of their own family group, those hypothetical children would be completely helpless, because they lack something everyone else considers an extremely basic skill.I agree with this, essentially. I would also say that not teaching your kids to talk is somewhat of a larger issue, because speech is a tool that one needs in order to get through every day life (or at least MORE of a tool than gender is, IMO). What's worse here is that these parents (in real life, the ones in the article) are taking things a step further; they're showing the kids how to be ABnormal, and are encouraging it. If Storm is born as a male, biologically, then...what is wrong with that, exactly? Are they incapable of raising a child as a boy, and then teaching him AFTER the fact that it is okay to challenge the norm? What's wrong with that, exactly?
The way these two parents are raising their children is little different, because said children are going to be so socially maladjusted that they're not likely going to understand how normal society works (and being home-unschooled is only going to compound the problems).
These kids, not just Storm but Jazz and Kio as well, they have some rough times ahead of them, and I genuinely feel bad for them. They're going to have to go through some serious therapy if they ever want to come close to something that is 'normal', or else literally face scorn and ridicule for the rest of their lives. Being raised in an environment such as this will definitely create some serious sexual/gender identification issues, and if that doesn't mess a kid up, I don't know what will. I'm not saying they will DEFINITELY be screwed up, but they already have a tough road ahead of them. I simply disagree with this because it is something being pushed onto a three-month old baby, not someone who can make the decision for themselves.
Some might say that parents force a LOT of things onto their children, which is true. That doesn't necessarily make it right, however. For example, religion. Parents definitely force (if they follow a religion) their beliefs onto their kids from the moment they're born...yet, this is a horrible analogy, because religion in no way stunts someone's mental, physical or social growth. At the basest of levels, religion can be considered a 'hobby'...and this is coming from someone who IS religious, so bear with me. You might spend a day or two a week on it, you might learn some morals that you should have learned from your parents as general rules in the first place, and you'll get (more often than not) a book with things in it that you need to memorize. When practiced normally, religion is not taking the place of anything, such as social and intellectual interaction. Essentially, and I'm stealing this point from someone else who made it but it's a good one so w00t, "teaching a child to be religious does not remove a core skill the child would otherwise learn."
I don't want to come across as bashing the LGBT community or anything like that, because that's not what I'm doing here. There is a difference (an important difference) between a member of that community and these kids (Jazz, Kio and Storm): sexuality (or a lack of it, really) and social dissonance.
If you're attracted to your own gender, then that's a sexual urge and it's one that is not likely felt until you hit puberty, and that is a sexual feeling. The other thing here, which I've brought up already, is that of choice. Someone who chooses a transgendered lifestyle normally does that because they feel they were born with the wrong 'equipment'. Going to the kids that are currently being raised by the parents in the article, Jazz and Kio, I don't get either of these indications. Jazz, for example, wears dresses and does his hair up in pigtails...he's not doing that because he thinks he should have been born a girl, or because he feels like a member of the opposite gender (because, if you read the article, he identifies himself as a boy), he's wearing dresses because he thinks that's what a boy should do. THAT is what is messed up here. Challenging the norm is great; it's awesome, and if parents want to do that, then that's great. However, these kids are essentially having their conceptions of nearly everything screwed with, without being able to decide if that's what they want, and that is going to cause a great deal of hardship for them later on in life. They're also being home-schooled...so, great, they're going to have an even harder time when their schooling is done, since they'll have even LESS interaction with the outside world than normal.
Essentially, the choice for someone to move from a 'traditional' gender role to a less traditional one (aka, to decide that you are transgendered rather than a male or a female), that's a choice that should be taken by the child, and not the parents. These parents are forcing their own ideas of why the kid should be transgendered onto him/her, onto a three-month old baby no less, and it's sad, but the kid is going to be messed up in years to come. Kids already have hard lives....but that doesn't mean these parents should go out of their way to make it harder.
Bahhh those parents are so weird.
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