Free Republic

The number of young Americans who describe themselves as “transgender” has exploded over the past decade, increasing by a factor of 20 to 40, according to gender clinic referral data and a recent Williams Institute report based on surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why? Jody Herman, author of the report, calls that a “bewildering question.” Clinical psychologist Erica Anderson tweeted that the surge “defies explanation. . . . Something is going on that we don’t yet understand.” The two leading explanations are greater social acceptance and social contagion. Both are likely contributing factors, but I think...

“I just wanted to check,” the teacher said. “Your child wants to be called a boy, right? Or is she a boy that wants to be called a girl? Which is it again?” I cocked my head. I am used to correcting strangers, who mistake my 7-year-old daughter for a boy 100 percent of the time. In fact, I love correcting them, making them reconsider their perceptions of what a girl looks like. But my daughter had been attending the after-school program where this woman taught for six months. “She’s a girl,” I said. The woman looked unconvinced. “Really. She’s...

From the moment he joined, 8-year-old Joe Maldonado eagerly looked forward to camping trips and science projects as a member of the Cub Scouts. But his expectations were dashed after his mother said she received a phone call from a scouting official who told her that Joe would no longer be allowed to participate because he was born a girl. Kristie Maldonado said she was stunned because her son had been a member of Cub Scout Pack 87 in Secaucus for about a month, and his transgender status had not been a secret. But some parents complained, an official from...

Campbell Co. girl asked to stop attending school because of her "boyish" looks. In a letter sent to Sunnie's grandmother and legal guardian Mrs. Thompson, the following was written: "We believe that unless Sunnie and her family clearly understand that God has made her female and her dress and behavior need to follow suit with her God-ordained identity, that TCS is not the best place for her future education."

Cameron Diaz claims to have always been a tomboy. That's how she explains her tendency to go braless, in case you were dying to know. Britney Spears, Charlize Theron, Hilary Swank, Michelle Pfeiffer, Keri Russell and Keira Knightley all say they have, or had, a whole lot of tomboy in them. It's chic in these post-feminist times for beautiful female stars to admit to a certain "maleness." Ordinary women, too, now often wear a tomboy childhood, once tinged with varying degrees of anxiety (why can I not find it within myself to be a dainty princess? will my daughter grow...

Former Gov. Christie Whitman believes the Republican Party is in deep trouble. The GOP, she says, is now where the Democrats were a dozen years ago in Washington when they lost control of the House for the first time in 40 years. President Bush's popularity is at a low ebb and several GOP leaders have been snared in ethics scandals. "We're at a critical point," she said. "We're starting to see polls that look just like the polls looked to Democrats in '94." From a converted hayloft of the barn on her family estate in Oldwick, Whitman works each day...

One can only hope that the fourth grader attending a Methuen, Massachusetts’ elementary school as a girl before February vacation who has returned to school as a boy, is not just passing through that classic childhood phase known as "the tomboy". According to an Associated Press story, "The parents of the 9-year-old child said the youngster was born with the body of a girl, but the brain of a boy." The little girl, who must have made friends among fourth-graders in her class, came back from a brief break as a brand new person in the same classroom. Her parents...