Posted on 06/23/2013 7:19:55 AM PDT by mkleesma
Danielle Sheridan, age 8, was born a boy. Before she was 3, she began telling her parents she was a girl. It wasn't a phase. She was insistent. She identified with Cinderella. She wanted to grow up and marry a prince. She began dressing like a girl at home. We kept it in our home only because of our fear of society. We wanted her to be happy, but we wanted her to be safe, said her mom, Leah Sheridan, 35. Finally, her daughter said she didnt want to live if she had to live as a boy. She said that God made a mistake and that she was born with the wrong body parts, said Sheridan. We waited to see if it was a phase, but no, its deep in her heart, her soul and her brain. Danielle is a transgender child. Once utterly taboo, transgender children, even young children, are finding it easier to live their true lives. After seeking counselling with a gender therapist at Family Services of York Region, Danielles parents allowed her to decide whether she would choose to live as a girl or a boy. In a flash she was off, stuffing all her boy clothes into garbage bags. She had picked out a new name: Danielle. A couple of the boys at her school didnt understand, but they came around. Teachers in the school bought books to help her classmates understand the change. Danielles brother was and remains her biggest supporter. Danielle is happier, bubbly and now doing well at school. She no longer talks about not wanting to live. On Saturday, Danielle led a colourful mermaid float in the first pride parade in York Region, winding through Richmond Hill. The family had worked on the float for weeks with friends. My daughter had the time of her life, said Sheridan. Richmond Hill Mayor David Barrow threw his support behind the event. Were a very inclusive community in Richmond Hill, whether its faith, gender or sexual orientation, said Barrow, after the parade. He was unable to attend this year due to a scheduling conflict the parade was put together in about three weeks. But he said he plans to attend a pride week barbecue in Richmond Hill on Sunday and will participate in the York Region pride parade next year. With two floats and some 200 people, the parade traveled west on Lorne Ave. then north along Yonge St., past the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. It ended at the Falcon and Firkin pub, where organizers celebrated over brunch. It was a historic event, Day One for a journey that is just starting, said one of the organizers, Jacob Gal, who lives in Vaughan. Fellow organizer Dave Williams said they wanted to make the point that residents dont have to pretend to be heterosexual when theyre north of Steeles Ave. theres a diverse community north of Steeles too. One reason we wanted a parade this year is theres nothing like a parade for visibility, said Williams. Mayor Rob Ford has been noncommittal about whether he will attend any events at this years pride celebration in Toronto, which began June 21 and runs 10 days. Its the largest pride celebration in the world, drawing an estimated 1.2 million participants, according to organizers. It ends June 30, when the 33rd annual pride parade will march through the city. According to organizers the event celebrates the history, courage, diversity and future of Toronto's LGBTTIQQ2SA communities, which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, intersex, Queer/Questioning, 2 Spirited and Allies. Leah Sheridan knows there are other families with transgender children in the region. She felt it was important to support Danielle publicly by taking part in the parade, so she would know how much support is out there for her. There are other people suffering the way she did. Maybe her courage will let them be free and be who they are, she said.
I’m A Boy - The Who
(Pete Townshend)
One girl was called Jean Marie
Another little girl was called Felicity
Another little girl was Sally Joy
The other was me, and I’m a boy
My name is Bill and I’m a headcase
They practice making up on my face
Yeah, I feel lucky if I get trousers to wear
Spend ages taking hairpins from my hair
Chorus 1
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But if I say I am I get it
Put your frock on Jean Marie
Plait your hair Felicity
Paint your nails, little Sally Joy
Put this wig on, little boy
Chorus 1
I wanna play cricket on the green
Ride my bike across the street
Cut myself and see my blood
I wanna come home all covered in mud
Chorus 2
I’m a boy, I’m a boy
But my ma won’t admit it
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m a boy
I’m a boy, I’m a boy, I’m__ a__ boy__
I’d never actually met anyone who was born a hermaphrodite until the 1980’s-when I was working as a workers comp case manager, I had a male client who had born so-he was in his mid-30’s, married and had a naturally-created child with his wife.
Since he had all the necessary male parts, internally and externally, and not a complete set of female ones, he showed a natural inclination to maleness, and had gender assignment surgery as a teen, when testosterone production confirmed what testing had already shown.
He told me about that part of his life in a very open manner, and he was completely comfortable with it, rather then treating it as a dark secret, or with any drama.
There are several famous/well known people who are rumored to have been born hermaphrodites, and been assigned the appropriate gender surgically...
I would give pretty good odds that the mother already is-she is turning the kid into an enabler for her emotional problems...
Homo-perversion activists are always telling us that this is solely a “medical” condition that must be diagnosed through genetics and brain scans. But who wants to bet that this little boy’s parents didn’t get ANY medical advice.
Re: the differences in how men’s and women’s shirts are buttoned. There really is a gender-based reason for this.
you mean, beyond the idea that men are so stupid that it would be hard for them to unbutton the women’s blouse if they couldn’t use the same hand they use for their own shirt?
There are many elements of personality, including what activities a person enjoys, that are unnecessarily considered “gender specific.” As you say, why shouldn’t a girl like to play with trucks, or a boy with babies? It has nothing to do with their biological sex, nor with their adult sexual feelings.
With the way fashions are going, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that nail polish and makeup became common for “masculine” use. It wouldn’t be the first time in history that men’s personal adornment approximated or surpassed women’s.
What’s crazy is for a parent, or the society in general, to pick up on a taste or interest and declare the child IS the other sex because of it.
The statements supposedly made by this child sound like a load of lies that originated in the mind of the mother. Those who know children realize they don’t speak this way. The sickness in this family is in the mother, and is being forced on the child.
Nursing a baby and being able to unbutton with the right hand while holding the child.
Of course, not all women are right-handed but majority often rules.
These cases make me think of women who want a girl, have a boy, and abuse the boy instead of having a second child.
Or like Snooki, who hopes her kid will grow up to be gay.
I totally agree.
I wonder how much of this is rooted in his ultra-liberal parents misinterpreting an infant boys normal behavior of wanting to wear makeup or nail polish because his mother is wearing them as being evidence of transgender tendencies.
Very likely.
Whatever a 3 year old does comes from their environment - they are not producing their own ideas, but learning from others. The mother seems to want a transgender child - her behaviour is very attention seeking.
When we were kids, my sister and I had a friend who was a boy of about 10, and he loved visiting us so he could raid the fancy dress box, and also play with make up. We all thought it was great fun. We didn't have adults trying to write us into a great script of protest against society.
Two spirited? Intersex?
That might be a good reason, but I can’t find any historical evidence for this being the reason. Further, women’s shirts would require the left hand to be used to unbutton — men’s shirts are set up for right-handed buttoning.
The most commonly accepted explanation is that, in the time period when buttons first came into use, they were for clothing of the rich, and rich women did not dress themselves. So, the buttons on their clothing were set up to make it easy for the maid.
Which also makes it easy for the male, but that doesn’t seem to be the purpose either.
Although I am left-handed, and have no trouble using my right hand to do buttons. It doesn’t seem like a complicated task to learn.
They’re going to run out of letters and numbers soon.
The new phonebook is here!
My heart breaks for this child.
Did it shoot anyone with an imaginary bow and arrow?
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