[drt1]

"She said the child's condition is the result of a birth defect that causes the body to develop as one gender, while the brain is hardwired for another."

I don't mean to be callous but this sounds like so much psycho-babble to me.

[thoughtomator]

I wonder how exactly this change gets explained to the other kids, especially the boys who now have a girl using their bathrooms, locker rooms, and sharing their gym classes.

Are they planning to pump her body full of hormones so that she doesn't develop?

[Slump Tester]

OK, so does he/she squat to pee?

Better yet, what about writting it's name in the snow?

[G.Mason]

I've had the same medical problem for years.

I'm a lesbian trapped in a male body.

Help me rhonda

Help, help me rhonda ...

[Mr. Blonde]

I thought this was called being a tomboy and a fairly normal occurence?

[LurkedLongEnough]

...and what happens if s/he changes its mind and decides s/he is bisexual?

Then what?

[FoxInSocks]

She said the child's condition is the result of a birth defect that causes the body to develop as one gender, while the brain is hardwired for another.

Oh, so now there are differences between male and female brains. The story changes every week.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

I'm curious as to the home environment. This is just such an odd story, I can't help but imagine that there must be some very weird external influences in this child's environment (especially regarding the parents - I suspect there's quite the little freak show going on with these two).

[G Larry]

Its lazy parenting.
If 'he' makes it through highschool in disguise, 'she' won't get pregnant.

[Southern Federalist]

Lots of important questions here are being put aside in favor of a "how she feels is how it is" answer. For example, grant the premise her body is female while her brain is "hardwired male" -- grant the premise that "hardwired male" is real rather than junk science (I don't know). Even so, does that mean that the body is less important than the brain? It sounds like the same sort of reasoning that also says "If the brain is less than perfectly functional there is no person to respect."

Furthermore: is it really a good idea to tell a nine-year-old that she should live the rest of her life in radical denial of her body? That her body is in a sense her enemy? (With the most extremely invasive sort of surgery presumably down the line.) Doesn't the way we relate to our bodies generally change a lot as we mature? Is it really clear that as she matures there would be no possibility of finding strategies for reconciling mind and brain? Maybe she's a girl with a unique point of view, rather than a boy "trapped" in an unsuitable body.

You just wish people would think. But I guess one of the attractions of the "each person's feelings define their reality" idea is that it removes the burden of hard thinking from so many areas of life.

[Smartaleck]

"come back to school as a boy"

At first they thought he came back as a fruit.....but that's only recognized in MA and CA.

[jsmith48]

born with the body of a girl but the brain of a boy

This is my fantasy.

[beaversmom]

Is the person an XX or XY? If they are an XY with female parts I can understand the problem but if they are XX with female parts then they would be no different than an adult that "feels" like another gender. In reality you can't change your sex--you can alter the outside but you are what you are.

[beaversmom]

Since the parents decided to do this, I think they should have sent their child to another school where her history as a girl wasn't known. Why subject all the other children to this? The other children didn't need lessons about this in elementary school. Those parents weren't given a choice.

[Tacis]

So, these arrogant parents are forcing the school staff and all the other students to participate in the kids therapy, against their wills. They should have put the kid in another school but didn't because it was easier on him to stay where he was. Now, when he starts getting harassed by other students, most of whom are not being malicious, they're just inquisitive, these parents will demand that they others return to their therapy rolls or be punished. What about the other kids in this school who may have sexual identity issues that would otherwise work themselves out but now are faced every day with freaky uncertainty? It is a typical left-wing view that the many have an obligation to provide therapy for the few. My favorite example is the silly signers that the leftists have at every meeting, even if there are no deaf people present.

[Shery]

Here we go again!

[Incorrigible]

Previous thread:

Parents: 4th-Grade Girl To Become Boy

[GOP_Proud]

< She said the child's condition is the result of a birth defect that causes the body to develop as one gender, while the brain is hardwired for another. >

The possiblity could be that the child was born "hermaphrodite". Many years ago these children grew up and became carny fodder. With the advent of plastic surgery, drs began adjusting the malformed genitals to the one that they "thought" seemed to be predominant. However, it was the luck of the draw. They did these surgeries when they were babies. They would sometimes cut off what was the makings of a possible penis and the child would eventually grow up but "feel" male and vice versa.

Recent medical advice in these cases has been to let the genitals remain ambiguous until the actual gender is more determined. Some people have waited until puberty. That could have happened in this case. However, she doesn't really specify it. I'm going by her comment about "birth defect".

If this is what was really going on, my disagreement would be on subjecting the child to the change in the same school. They should have moved to a new community. Drs even advise parents to give the children ambiguous names so that they can keep the same name...Bobbie/Bobby, etc.

I'm no expert. I just remember this from one of those medical shows on Discovery Channel.

[freespirited]

What are they going to do a year or two from now when the "boy" starts developing breasts?

[muir_redwoods]

"She said the child's condition is the result of a birth defect that causes the body to develop as one gender, while the brain is hardwired for another."

Paging Larry Summers