Prepubescent "Transgender Activist"

[Sparko]

Jim, that was a scientific study, and not the only one. In the past I had posted three such studies. The fact is most kids grow out of this gender confusion in adulthood. And yes it is based on the subjective. It is subjective when a kid says that he is gender confused and it would be subjective when he relates in adulthood that he is no longer confused. But if you take his/her word when they claim to be confused we should take their word when they claim they no longer are.

when boys are little they all think "girls are yucky"

With the way liberals think, they will just start raising them as gay and claim that they made their choice!

[Jedidiah]

Whoops, phone corrected Dysphoria into that

So you are saying mental illness rather than child abuse?

[JimL]

Jim, that was a scientific study, and not the only one. In the past I had posted three such studies. The fact is most kids grow out of this gender confusion in adulthood. And yes it is based on the subjective. It is subjective when a kid says that he is gender confused and it would be subjective when he relates in adulthood that he is no longer confused. But if you take his/her word when they claim to be confused we should take their word when they claim they no longer are.

There are many studies on this seer, and I don't think anyone, least of all those of us with no personal experience with the issue, has a complete answer. I think the parents and their doctors are better suited to make these kind of judgments than we are. What if you are wrong and the kid, his parents and the doctors treating the kid are right. I know, you don't believe they are right, but so what, it isn't our decision to make.

[Starlight]

There are many studies on this seer, and I don't think anyone, least of all those of us with no personal experience with the issue, has a complete answer. I think the parents and their doctors are better suited to make these kind of judgments than we are. What if you are wrong and the kid, his parents and the doctors treating the kid are right. I know, you don't believe they are right, but so what, it isn't our decision to make.

Exactly.

What is important is that we as people are kind, caring, loving, respectful, thoughtful, and compassionate. And that is the key to approaching anyone or any situation. So when a child says they do not identify with their own gender, our responsibility as caregivers and humans is to hear them, respect them, give them the freedom to be their own person, and offer them kindness and love. Maybe they'll grow out of it, maybe they won't. That is for them, as an individual and a person, to decide. It's not for us to order them to conform to our views about who they should be, or impose our ideals of How Everyone Should Behave And How The World Should Be upon them.

Scientific studies done so far suggest that children who identify extremely strongly with the other gender will very likely retain that transgender identity into adulthood, but that children who identity only weakly with the other gender will likely not retain that transgender identity into adulthood but are very likely to have a homosexual identity in adulthood. Likewise many people who become transgender in adulthood have no noticeable precursors to this in childhood. While we can learn from these studies, again we must remember that it is up to the individual and the studies only describe common patterns, they do not tell us what the individual child or adult must do, or must be forced to do. Again, the onus is on us to treat the person with respect, to listen to them, to compassionately provide to them the freedom to live their own lives and shape their own identity and person. There is no need for us to try and make them grow out of it, or make them keep their trans identity - they either will or they won't and that is up to them. Rather as people and family we need to make it clear to them that we have deep love and acceptance for them as a person, regardless of who they choose to be and what they make of themselves in their lives.

Our modern Western society differs to most societies in world history in that it only has two genders, and so does not have social constructs like a 3, 4 or 5 genders that would provide these people with the flexibility that they potentially want or need. To counterbalance the fact that society itself is not necessarily particularly helpful or tolerant of them, we as individuals need to be all the more kind and loving and helpful and understanding.

And what angers me in threads like this is all the conservatives queuing up to say things along the lines of "These people are so wrong for not conforming to my ideas about how they ought to be and how they ought to live their lives. How dare they not follow my views and conform to my ideals." Disgusting.

[Sparko]

we are not making their decision, we are discussing their decision.

[seer]

There are many studies on this seer, and I don't think anyone, least of all those of us with no personal experience with the issue, has a complete answer. I think the parents and their doctors are better suited to make these kind of judgments than we are. What if you are wrong and the kid, his parents and the doctors treating the kid are right. I know, you don't believe they are right, but so what, it isn't our decision to make.

No Jim, I have not see a study that concludes that gender confusion is an immutable condition for the majority of children. Hey these parents are ruin their child if they wish - and they will. Just don't tell me this little boy has to shower with my granddaughter in school gym class.

[JimL]

No Jim, I have not see a study that concludes that gender confusion is an immutable condition for the majority of children. Hey these parents are ruin their child if they wish - and they will. Just don't tell me this little boy has to shower with my granddaughter in school gym class.

I don't think anyone is forcing your grandaughter to shower period. Besides, I don't think that little children would care one way or the other if it wasn't drilled into them by their uptight parents/culture that they should care.
And again, you can believe that the parents are ruining their child, that their child is only, for some strange reason confused, but I think the parents, who are much more familiar with their own child, are better equiped to make that judgement for themselves. You would probably feel the same way if you were in their shoes.

[seer]

I don't think anyone is forcing your grandaughter to shower period. Besides, I don't think that little children would care one way or the other if it wasn't drilled into them by their uptight parents/culture that they should care.

Biology Jim is not drilled in Jim, it is an objective fact. Unlike subjective feelings. But like I said, if you don't require shared showers or bathrooms then these parent are free to confirm their child's delusions.

[rogue06]

I don't think anyone is forcing your grandaughter to shower period.

Don't know what it is like today but showers were mandatory if time permitted after gym when I went to school.

[KingsGambit]

Don't know what it is like today but showers were mandatory if time permitted after gym when I went to school.

For my middle and high school, nobody showered unless it was a pool day. In retrospect, that is gross.

[Starlight]

Don't know what it is like today but showers were mandatory if time permitted after gym when I went to school.

Weird... I don't think I showered even once at school ever. Also most showers in my country have individual cubicles, so it wouldn't be a problem even so.

[JimL]

Don't know what it is like today but showers were mandatory if time permitted after gym when I went to school.

Where I went to school, and that was in different parts of the country, they didn't, and to my knowledge still don't, even have shower facilities until high school.

[Starlight]

I don't really understand the mindsets of US Conservatives in these matters...

I mean, in lots of countries the kids at the beach are often naked to the age of about 4. In Europe and South America, women sunbathing topless can be quite common. In various parts of Europe, naked saunas with both genders are a thing. Any children who grow up on farms will see animals mating on a regular basis and understand the idea. And until recently in human history it's been reasonably common for families to live together in single-roomed houses in which the children were present while their parents do the deed.

In short, children don't melt die, or otherwise combust, if they know or see the differences between males and females, or if they know about or see sex. The idea that we need to withhold information to protect them is absurd, and says much more about our own lack of comfort with such subjects and our unwillingness to talk about them, than it says anything at all about whether it matters if children know or see things about gender or sexuality.

Yet despite that, US conservatives seem to see it as their job to protect the little babies from the scary knowledge. Thus, they try and sabotage sex education classes. Thus they try and make sure no girl ever sees a boy's peepee. They flip out at the idea of mixed gender showers because of their prudishness (I don't necessarily object to prudishness itself, I'm from a similar culture that's similarly prudish and even frowns at the idea of same-gender showers, and am happy saying any level of prudishness is just an arbitrary cultural norm). Yet... bizarrely... they seem totally fine with same-gender showers, and don't mind the idea of all the boys in the locker-room showering together, even though it's inevitable that a reasonable percentage of those boys are gay. It's apparently important to keep the transgender kids out of the locker-room in case something is seen, but the gay kids can look all they want, or something. Unless... bizarrely... the kid openly comes out as gay, and then it's apparently a big problem, because it means sports teams can't cope with the kid being in the locker-room. They were fine with the kid looking at the them naked when he was gay but hadn't told them he was, but they can't handle him being in the locker-room after he's told them. It all seems bizarre to me and full of double-standards and unjustifiable views.

[Jaecp]

I imagine if they had some way of identifying the homosexual scourge they might start bitching, but even then, what could they do?

[shunyadragon]

By now many of you have seen the cover for the January issue of National Geographic which features on its cover what they call a nine year old "transgender activist" by the name of Avery Jackson.

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And in a more natural pose which
doesn't try to be provocative

The first thing that strikes me is just how does he (or should I say "ze" ) know that he's transgender? I mean he hasn't even hit puberty yet. When I was that age there was a kid in my class who thought he was a dog. And the next year he was saying he was a Vulcan and incessantly went around giving the Vulcan salute and saying "Live long and prosper."

Worse, according to NG's editor Susan Goldberg, "She has lived as an openly transgender girl since age 5." What?!? At the age of five boys and girls barely recognize that there is a difference between boys and girls.

And apparently he has been an "activist" for a couple years now. To be brutally frank, who really cares what a nine year old thinks about such issues? Do we really want to be taking our lead from nine year olds^[1]? It isn't like they can make an informed decision.

At that age they aren't an activist but are being used by parents as a prop to support their beliefs. Avery's mom, Debi Jackson, describes herself as a "transgender rights activist"

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Yup, that's the picture she chose for her profile
thousand foot psycho stare and all

I think it is clear that she's the activist and is using her child to promote her views in order to get famous/infamous (in 2016 that line has gotten increasingly blurry) and impress people in her circle. "Oh look how hip and cool I am. I have a prepubescent child who is a transgender activist and you don't." She's worse than one of these obsessive beauty pageant moms.

Debi Jackson and her husband Tom have so screwed up their child by encouraging this that they admit that they had to hide knives and scissors because they fear Avery will cut off his penis.

If Avery still feels this way several years after puberty that is a different matter but now it seems that he is merely being exploited by his parents to promote a cause they feel passionate about.















1.

"I'm, I'm an activist and my mom says my opinion is important. I have important, um, like, stuff to say, um, about education. I think, um, I think, I shouldn't get so much homework and stuff. It isn't fair. I don't, like, have enough, um, time to play my new, um, video game. And, and, um, I didn't like it when my teacher, um, took my cell phone away cuz I was, um, watching videos. I think I should, like, be able to watch videos when I want 'specially when my teacher is, um, talking about stupid, boring stuff like math.

You need to take up a new hobby like making designer clothing for pigeons in the park.