Posted on 05/22/2012 4:28:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
A 5-year-old child with large dark eyes, full lips and a button nose stares out from the front page of the Washington Post Sunday edition. "Transgender at Five" declares the provocative headline. The child's hair is being cut in a close boy's cut by her father.
We learn from the article that "Tyler," who was born "Kathryn," began insisting that she was a boy at the age of 2. "'I am a boy' became a constant theme in struggles over clothing, bathing, swimming, eating, playing, breathing." The child's parents, at first uneasy and later accepting of their girl's desire to be a boy, agreed to raise her as a boy. Starting at age 4, she began to wear boys' clothes, was permitted to choose a boy's name for herself, and has been introduced to family, friends, teachers, and congregants at church as a boy.
Oh, boy.
Let's stipulate, for the sake of argument, that something called "gender dysphoria" -- with which Tyler was diagnosed at age 4 -- does exist. Let's further agree, again for the sake of argument, that the proper treatment of this condition is choosing to live as the other sex, with all that such a radical decision implies. Is there any reasonable way to conclude that something as drastic as attempting to change one's sexual identity can be undertaken by a 4-year-old?
"Parents who ignore or deny these problems," warns the Post, "can make life miserable for their kids, who can become depressed or suicidal, psychiatrists say." How many psychiatrists? The very most that can be said is that the practice of treating children for what is sometimes called "gender identity disorder" is highly controversial in the psychiatric world. Some psychiatrists want to change the name to "gender incongruence" to remove the word "disorder." Others, such as Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, think the whole idea of treating children for this condition is unwise. "We shouldn't be mucking around with nature," he told Fox News. "We can't assume what the outcome will be."
Apparently, hormone blockers are being prescribed more and more for children with "GID." The hormones postpone puberty indefinitely and, the Post explains, "give the kids more time to decide who they are and whether switching genders is the answer to their problems." McHugh calls giving hormone blockers to children "child abuse." Some young people are having "gender reassignment" surgery as young as age 16.
Perhaps some tiny percentage of children truly is born feeling trapped in the body of a person of the wrong sex. But it is undeniable that the vast majority of children go through stages. I recall wishing to be a boy myself when I was about 5 or 6. I didn't like frilly dresses and asked my playmates to call me "Timmy." Perhaps mine was a normal tomboy phase and maybe that's distinguishable from what Tyler is experiencing. But how can we be sure? The Post quotes Dr. Edgardo Menvielle, of Washington's Children Hospital, who has been treating "transgender kids" for a decade. About 80 percent, he says, switch back to the gender they were born into by the time they reach adulthood.
The problem with the Post's recommended approach -- which amounts to "let's accept a child's version of reality to avoid causing depression or worse"-- is that the decision of parents to indulge a child's whim on gender identity is itself irreversible. The effects of hormone blockers, the Post reassures readers, are fully reversible. Maybe. How much research can there have been on such a new practice? Would parents who hesitate to let their kids eat preservatives or nonorganic eggs consent to block the complex hormones that begin to flood kids' bodies at puberty? In any case, the decision to dress a girl in boys' clothing, cut her hair, and call her a boy -- even if reversed later -- must, absolutely must, scramble a child's psyche. Imagine the confrontation between a teenaged girl who has changed her mind and the parents who raised her as a boy. "Did you not think I was pretty enough to be a girl? Wasn't I feminine enough?" Or perhaps even more damaging, a teenaged boy demanding to know whether his father thought him lacking in masculinity as a child. It's a psychological minefield.
We have the technology to make -- or at least appear to make -- women into men and vice versa. If adults choose to do this to themselves (and can afford it), that's their business. But a child? One wonders: What other major life decisions should 4-year-olds be judged competent to make?
Whether or not a sitting President backs the adoption of "gay marriage," perhaps.
Children are, according to popular media, smarter than adults.
I'm not willing to stipulate, not even for the sake of argument, that the proper treatment for a mental illness is to reinforce the delusion. I had a son who decided at a young age that he was a puppy. That's a fun game for a few hours, one that I'm sure many parents have dealt with, but it lasted more than a day. Rather than getting him a collar and a doggy dish and being completely supportive of a permanent identity change, perhaps even demanding that others call my son "Spot", I got the other kids ice cream. "Puppies don't eat ice cream, you know." It only took a little over an hour of things puppies don't do before we heard the last doggie whimper and my son decided he'd rather be a boy.
I would not amputate the leg of a child with "body image identity disorder" (a real disorder in which people want a body part removed). Any decent person and even many democrats would recognize amputation in that context as child abuse and medical malpractice. Why do the genitals get special politically correct treatment when it comes to this mental illness? As an adult, I recognize the difference between an adult and a child, and I would not permit someone under 18 to make irreversible decisions or even long-term decisions of this nature about their own lives. If there are psychologists, psychiatrists, and surgeons sick enough to mutilate adults with this mental illness, or to support that mutilation, I can't stop them. I will not, however, support the abuse of mentally ill children in the name of political correctness.
Not surprising when society promotes gender confusion.
” “Kathryn,” began insisting that she was a boy at the age of 2.”
That’s fishy right there. How many 2 year olds even identify girl vs boy?
This past year I observed a young eight year old with two fathers who were both female! The little girl had the self identity of a thirty year old. It wasn’t her fault. It was her screwed up parents.
Consciousness patterns of parents strongly influence the individual biochemistry and resulting personality and behavior patterns of the child.
Please allow me to explain. The little girl’s lesbian parents were both very masculine in their consciousness patterns. In order for a child to properly bond with a parent, one must be dominant feminine. Thus the lack of bonding by the child caused emotional abandonment and motivated the child to shift from a very young emotionally wounded consciousness to a logical self identity prematurely, as emotional protection. Thus the eight going on thirty demeanor she exhibited. I have found the same shift attributes of consciousness in Asperger’s Syndrome and autism, just it manifests while the child is in the third month of pregnancy.
Children normally develop in the complimentary masculine or feminine consciousness aspect of a codependent mother. This is the reason that so many strong masculine mothers have feminine son’s. This is especially true in single parenting where the mother develops a strong unhealthy codependency with the child rather than balancing her dependency with a partner.
I’ve worked with quite a few gays and lesbians and can usually identify the point in their life that gender identity shifted. Sexual attraction is based upon the dominant masculine or feminine aspect of consciousness more than gender. There are many possibilities for this shift.
I have always found it to be a nurture issue and not a nature issue. Gender choice in relationships is based upon what is intellectually acceptable. Masculine or feminine dominance causes complimentary attraction, regardless of gender.
Geez, it’s a phase parents need to not get hung up about. My four year wears pants on her head so she can have “long hair.” She’ll outgrow it if we don’t get weird about it, and I bet that child would out grow it if the parents hadn’t indulged in it.
Child abuse. Plain and simple.
pure child abuse.
ever heard of saying “NO”??
No, it isn’t. Plenty of little two year old girls love their princess outfits. Little boys don’t dress up so much but plenty of them are mini-jocks. And there are also many who don’t really notice, who haven’t picked up yet on the social identifiers.
How can you tell what kind of consciousness shift occurs in the third month of gestation?
What do you call your field of practice? I am truly curious here.
Yep. My cousin’s daughter insisted she had a penis and was really a boy when she was 4—and this went on for several months. They didn’t encourage her or treat her like a boy; they told her she didn’t have a penis; she had a vagina and was a little girl. She eventually outgrew that phase. She is now a complete girly-girl and is a teenager. When I read of these cases, I cannot help but wonder how absolutely messed-up she would be, if her parents had indulged this little fantasy of hers or took her to a pediatrician that did.
This just breaks my heart. :^(
How did a four year old girl know what a penis is?
Children basically adopt the values of the person they are dependent upon, whether it be racism, gender stereotypes, economic, and even anger/stress responses. As teenagers when they are trying to gain independence they will often adopt the opposite value in order to create separation to find independence if the parent is too controlling and does not allow the teen to find themselves.
I worked with a lesbian activist who became gay as it was the only way she could separate herself from her very controlling legalistic mother. When she came home from college and told her mother that she was gay, her mother immediately stated, “Then you are no daughter of mine!” She had created the freedom from control she wanted for many years. The problem is that the gay community is one of the most self validating groups in existence and to a lost teen it gives them a group identity they can feel safe in, just like a gang does to many children. She became a lesbian activist as in her mind, if she could convince others that her lifestyle was ok, she could believe it herself.
Each situation is different.
Allow me to add that I do not judge them for their choice. I only help to assist them in finding inner peace when the inner conflict is destroying them.
Thank you for the further explanation of your take on gender issues.
Are you a therapist, clergy, informal counselor of friends?
I am still wondering about the consciousness shift of an unborn child. Is that Scientology?
“How can you tell what kind of consciousness shift occurs in the third month of gestation?”
It’s kind of a curse that was thrust upon me many years ago when I went through a near death experience with meningitis. Ever since then I can read people’s life experiences back to conception, just by being around them. I feel their memories as physical tangible objects. Just as you hear a person’s vocal tones, I feel or sense the emotional levels attached to people’s stored memories. It’s pretty easy to read a stored memory in a person’s soul and tell them what their mother thought of their father when they were in the womb. Doesn’t matter if the subject is now in their 70’s, the memory is still stored there exactly from the perspective experienced at the time of the event with the full emotion originally experienced. I was a CPA and university professor when the near death experience happened. I crashed and burned and ended up returning to the university to pick up a degree in psychology and then went on to study neuroscience to gain understanding of what I could do.
It bridges the gap between science and religion(s) without discounting either.
“What do you call your field of practice? I am truly curious here.”
I have no name for what I do. It’s not anything I trained for or studied, it was thrust upon me, and was very difficult for me to deal with. I’m still uneasy after doing it for twenty years. The abilities are a natural function of growing spiritually and are not gifts. If I hold on to the abilities as a possession, they become anchors to block further growth.
Back to the third month of gestation, those memories are stored in a very specific location in a person’s soul. When I reach in and stimulate the stored memory, the person’s physical body often moves as though I have a physical hold on them, even though I am 10+ feet away from them. It’s pretty easy to explain and demonstrate as it causes a consciousness shift from the feminine to masculine and alters the child’s utilized methodology for storing, retrieving and processing memories. It appears to be a confusion in the priority sort within the thalamus used to block emotional sensory stimulation input. This is the reason that more boys get the disorder than girls as the consciousness shift does not have to be as great. I’ve found the reverse attributes in MS, and is the reason more women get it than men.
thanks for your insights
One very public family that seems to be going through this is the Jolie-Pitts.
When I see Brad Pitt’s beautiful daughter with her hair cropped off, her boy clothes, her scowl, her distance from her mother in all the publicity-seeking “candid family” shots, her thumb in her mouth (at age 6) and her tough masculine-looking nanny trailing her, I wonder if Angelina is deliberately trying to add a lesbian or bisexual to her “mother of diversity” resume
I appreciate your candor, as I am sure you very often run into skepticism.
“Is that Scientology?” I stay away from Scientology.” It’s dangerous the way they manipulate people and cause them to surrender their individual authority to the group.
I help people to grow spiritually by guiding them to go within. I do not want not would ever accept the authority or power over someone else. I have a difficult enough time just with myself!
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