As a toddler, Daisy Morningstar often reached for her mother’s clothes to play dress-up and loved anything bright and sparkly, like many other little girls do.
And boys. Let’s get rid of these godawful, regressive gender stereotypes.
But Daisy wasn’t born into a society expecting this behavior from her.
That’s not true, but even if it was then F-society.
Assigned male at birth…
No one is “assigned” a sex at birth. Doctors and nurses observe external sexual characteristics (mainly genitalia) and report it by marking Male or Female.
…Daisy was 3 years old when she expressed to her parents, Eli and Joanna, that she preferred to go by a girl’s name and wear feminine clothes.
The idea that three year-old knows anything about anything is ludicrous.
If your three year-old son says he’s a girl, that does not make him a girl. Teaching him to ignore or dispute objective reality is unhelpful.
…While many parents wouldn’t embrace their child’s desire to present as transgender at such a young age, Eli and Joanna, who are both trans, have a personal understanding of the importance of respecting gender identity.
What a shock that one or both of the kid’s parents have gender dysphoria.
This sort of thing illustrates precisely the divide between the two sides: One side sees this is a heart-warming tale of parents listening to and caring for this child and the other side thinks this is parents foisting their own mental illness on their kid. The problem for those who believe this to be a heart-warming tale is that the kid’s future is likely filled with puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery, both of which carry large unknowns that frequently include infertility and loss of sexual function. How this constitutes success is beyond me.
…Eli and Joanna are taking Daisy’s gender fluidity one day at a time. In the last few months, Daisy has often asked to be referred to with he/him and they/them pronouns and—in many instances—has asked to be called Isaac. “There are times when she insists that her full name is Daisy Tulip Mac and Cheese. (4)-year-olds are silly, uninformed humans. [But] they’re still humans. They still know what they want,” says Joanna.
Or, conversely, their parents know what they want and the kid is the one who pays the price. This entire story reads like a cautionary tale of what happens to kids when parents can’t protect them from their own mental illness.