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Sunday, August 27, 2006

 

San Francisco Chronicle article about gender variance

Interesting article regarding gender variance in pre-school.

Comments:
I say FORCE boys to play with boy toys and girls to play with girl toys. Guns for the boys and easy-bake ovens for the girls.
 
Yeah. Otherwise we would end up with male chefs and female plice officers. Add electric shock if the kid picks up the wrong toy.
 
I’m surprised, Warren, the SFC would allow your statement!
I feel sorry for all the normal kids that are being used as guinea pigs in an unproven school atmosphere that is being created by a few agenda driven adults. Where is the study that proves that this type of school atmosphere is beneficial? I wonder if the parents of the normal children care about their children being used to promote a political agenda?
Those one or two transgender children have a serious mental disorder, as defined by the wisdom of the majority of professional psychiatrist and deserve better.
 
The reporter was pretty fair in her fact-gathering although I am not sure why she went to the TVC. At any rate, I was glad that she selected a couple of clear statements from the interview with me.
 
Come on Warren. You know that culture largely determines what boys do and what girls do. In some cultures, the men wear the make-up and jewelry. Are you redirecting them to their biological sex or merely reinforcing cultural sterotypes?
 
Helping find out what is happening inside a young person that seems at odds with biological sex can be immensely helpful. Given that many such children unhelped desire sexual reassignment, this seems to be a wise course. SR surgery is expensive, invasive, and rarely provides the kind of relief soughy. It seems merciful to me to attempt the least invasive intervention.
 
As a research scientist I can tell you that relying on one opinion by Dr. Toby Meltzer and ignoring other opinions that say the opposite will not prove the point that sexual mutilation is good.
 
My God. How can you tell if a preschooler is transgendered? How do you decide which traits are masculine or feminine?

This whole thing horrifies me. What do you do Warren? Try to make the sissy more more macho? Just what we need.

Ed faced the horror that was gym class because he was gay and society favors the bully.

They tried this stuff in the 60's -- punishing "effeminate" boys for picking "girl" toys. Why is our culture to terrified of gay boys? Not enough recruits for the military?
 
Boo - the pages you suggested were not as glowing as billed. There are multiple problems with this line of research. I do not deny that there are people who do well after surgery. I have spoken to some who seem quite happy. However, this does not invalidate the point that the least invasive measures should be attempted. Furthermore, preschool is way too early to make declarations about what gender variance "is" or what it means for any given child. Case by case is the way to go.
 
Ed - I agree with you. Check out this link for what I think is the wrong approach to this matter.
 
Ed/Warren -- you're both being confusing. What is the approach you'd suggest?

> by "help these kids avoid that trauma" are you refering to those so traumatised by having to share the World with a gender-discordant classmate that they need to act out with distain, abuse and violence?

> by "what I think is the wrong approach to this matter" are you refering to the views of NARTH's Joseph Berger?

Any update on that client-centred approach with regard to SRS?
 
Grantdale - The Harry Benjamin Society has guidelines for SRS - but I am sure you knew that :)

Yes, I am referring to Dr. Berger's comments near the end of the NARTH article. Incidentally, Dr. B. clearly knows how to use the word garbage.
 
Good -- I did also wonder about his recommendation to send a child out in the snow wearing nothing but their Reg Grundy's

I'm sure the local police will be most understanding when they return the child home.

We've always found a morning routine and an occasional use of "Now!" works a treat. But what would we know.
 
What the on earth are "gender variant interests or behaviors"? Who decides these things? The parents? Western culture? Right-wing psychologists?

Didn't Throckmorton or Nicolosi take ANY anthropology courses in college? Or do they assume that their own religious and culture-bound gender stereotypes are somehow God's eternal design for human behavior and feelings?

Whatever happend to "informed consent" and "right to self-determination"? What rights do you extend to the "gender variant" kid? I know personally the intense pain that such pressure inflicts on the "different" child.

By the way, is it OK now for Christian women to have short hair? Can heterosexual men cook, dance, take care of babies? Is it sinful for male actors to portray women on film or in the theater? Is it OK for women to design buildings? Drive trucks? Play football?

And how and why did EXODUS stop having effeminate (male) ex-gay hairdressers teach butch ex-lesbians to put on make-up properly? Should ex-gay men play football as Liz Moberly suggested?

It really honks me off to see Christian conservatives promote cultural bias and gender conformity as God's will. God is the God of VARIETY -- in case you hadn't noticed recently. He didn't stop at making one kind of butterfly...
 
I am a gay man. My 27 year old daughter is straight. As a kid, we gave her toys of all types -- dolls, trucks, blocks, transformers, legos, cooking sets, beads, dress-up clothes, telescopes, baseball equipment, chemistry sets. She enjoyed them all. She is now a well-adjusted, socially adept young woman engaged to be married to a heterosexual man.

In some cultures, only the men make pottery. In others, pottery-making would be considered inappropriate for men. According to ethnologists, the only activity apparently not undertaken by women in most cultures is hunting of very LARGE game -- like whales. Otherwise, it varies by culture.

Our founding fathers wore silk britches and powdered wigs. Maybe they needed "gender variant" therapy, huh Warren?
 
Dr. Throckmorton: What is your reaction to Joseph Berger of NARTH anvocating allowing children to tease, ridicule or bully gender variant kids?
 
I have contacted the NARTH website as a member of NARTH and condemned the comments by Berger.

At best, they are callous, at worst the are scientifically endorsed homophobia. Only Berger knows for sure.

It is my understanding that the article will be edited and the comments removed.

I abhor and condemn such comments. Children need our guidance and protection; not to be abandoned to the mob.

David Blakeslee
 
Well said, Dave.
 
Here is a copy of the blog post I sent to NARTH (it is not posted yet)

I find Berger's suggestion that children be harrassed at school as ahelpful response to GID abhorrent.
>
> As a NARTH member I apologize for such a comment. There is no possible
> helpful outcome to a child with GID being ridiculed at school.
> Bullying at school takes many forms and children's capacity to exploit
> other's weaknesses or difficulties is well documented. Children who
> use peer ridicule are rarely, if ever, doing it for the good of the
> recipient. It is often merely narcissism.
>
> NARTH should remove Berger's posting immediately and apologize.
>
> David Blakeslee
 
Sorry David, it looks like you've been NARTHed. Along with a few others.

Your input has not appeared. Ever.

And now, the entire thing has vanished from the NARTH blog.

September 1, 2006
Entry pulled on "gender variant" children

We have pulled the discussion on gender variant children in Oakland. The article contained comments that were deemed offensive to many readers and failed to accurately express the overall views of the physician who expressed them.

We apologize for publishing the article without getting proper clarifications first about how children with gender identity disorders should be treated by parents, teachers, and counselors.


Alice, is this Wonderland?

And why does that homosexuality/gender expert appear to be, well, not an expert at all?
 
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