5 year old transgender boy

For the record, my "fail" picture in the FSF was put in before you posted this.
(I don't want people to think I'm even more insensitive than I already am.  )
 
As for the story above, I think this is a better case for child services to get involved than most (except that they're a Government agency which usually means the most illogical path is taken... *Sigh*  )

craigb
For the record, my "fail" picture in the FSF was put in before you posted this.
(I don't want people to think I'm even more insensitive than I already am.  )
 
As for the story above, I think this is a better case for child services to get involved than most (except that they're a Government agency which usually means the most illogical path is taken... *Sigh*  )

No worries Craig.......your post just reminded me of the news (which I rarely watch nowadays) I saw last night.
 
I don't expect anything good to come out this story........"normal" people are a rare breed these days......most peculiar mama.

And if you had any hope for humanity left - one of the Kardashians is about to spawn for the 3rd time. 

As George Carlin once said, "The average person is pretty dumb, but the real kicker is that half the population is even dumber than that!"

At that age, (2-5) the parents are the ones deciding what clothes to dress the kid in and what toys to buy them. Parents have total control of the early formative years. Which means, essentially, they can really screw up that little child's head big time.  

My opinion (for what it's worth) is if the child is male, treat them and raise them as males. That means toys, games, activities, clothing, etc...  Now..... if the child upon reaching an appropriate age has gender identity issues, then you can have a deeper look....actually that young person/adult can have that deeper look.
 
In the event you think I'm biased to the conservative side of this issue..... case in point:  My little brother, growing up, did all the normal boy things. He and I were raised as "rough and tumble" boys of the 50's and 60's were raised back then by our parents. We hunted, fished, played baseball and football, and did all sorts of typical boy things. We both dated girls, got married and had kids.  As he approached his  mid 30's or so, he began to feel like he wasn't quite "right". He later told me he had felt this way since puberty as a teen but kept it quiet for social reasons.  Long story short, after many years of counseling and therapy to resolve the issues, he opted to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Now, my brother has become my sister legally and in every other way as well. No one pushed him to this decision other than he himself but only when he was an adult and fully capable of understanding ALL of the ramifications involved.....certainly not at the age of 2 or 5.
 
It was undoubtedly harder for the family to accept this than it was for my brother to do this. My brother has been my sister now for many years and we are all on good terms and while I don't agree with the choice, as well as other family members don't agree either, we accept that this is what our sister wanted, and she has to live with this decision. She does seem to be happy, well adjusted, and enjoying life as a woman.  She still wears camo, drives a 4 wheel drive truck, runs a business, fishes and hunts and field dresses the game..... so hey..... life is good. I go to visit, stay with my sister when I do and we go out and hunt, shoot guns and have a good time..... just like the old days......except she can't pee on the trees in the woods anymore like I can or write her name in the snow as easily.
 
my 2 cents

I think the child should be supported in his decision.  In the immortal words of Sheryl Crow, "if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad."

AndyDavis
No one would think to doubt the child's word if they said their stomach, throat, or ears hurt.  Yet somehow, if it has to do with a state of mind, suddenly it couldn't possibly be coming from the kid.
 
My brother-in-law is female to male transgendered.  One day, we somehow we got onto the topic of his growing up.  From when he could first remember, he always knew he was a boy, he just had the wrong gear.  He couldn't understand why his parents made him wear a shirt when all the other boys in the neighborhood were running around without them.
 
Certainly, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I think it is very reasonable to expect that kids that young "know" that they are boys and girls and sometimes what they know doesn't match their bodies.  
 
Given that the suicide rates amongst transgendered people are extremely high and that transgendered people suffer a host of abuses at the hands of the ignorant, perhaps this kid's parents are just trying to make sure that their child knows that they have a safe place where they are loved and accepted.
 

I'm all for supporting the kid. It's the endless thirst for public notoriety that's questionable. 
 
Can't people do that anymore? Show support w/o nominating themselves for awards? Do something nice without publicizing it on Twitter and FB? 

craigb
....
As for the story above, I think this is a better case for child services to get involved than most (except that they're a Government agency which usually means the most illogical path is taken... *Sigh*  )

You need to finish the sentence ... "path is taken to spend the most money and get nothing done."

From that Matt Walsh blog: 
 

They tell us in one breath that it’s OK for boys to like pink and girls to like blue, and we should stop expecting our sons to play sports and our daughters to play with dolls. These are just social norms, they say. We should not subscribe to such archaic notions. But suddenly they proceed to derail their own narrative when they next inform you that a girl liking blue and a boy playing with dolls might actually be a sign that the girl is a boy and the boy is a girl.

I had to laugh. So true!

I didn't really like any "gender specific" stuff when I was a kid. Didn't like playing with guns much, or reading war comics or soccer comics. Didn't like Spiderman or any other superheroes. Wasn't really into toy cars or toy soldiers or any of that. On the other hand, I had a dislike for girly stuff too. Hated pink, hated My Little Pony and all of the pastel shaded junk that little girls seem to surround themselves with. I liked girls from a young age however and in fact recall being something of horny little perv from a very young age (like maybe 5 or 6). Looking up girl's skirts, following them into the bathroom, that sort of thing. LOL! But even today I'm still not a fan of things that are overly feminine or girly - I have never dated a girl who wore makeup or high heels, for instance. And most of the "babes" that seemed to get my friends in a state never did anything for me. I was always attracted to girls who were good looking but not in a "doll" kind of way. I once got called gay because I said that Pamela Anderson does nothing for me. She really doesn't. Miss world contests? Don't find a single one of them attractive. Peta Toppano? Kate Bush? Hubba hubba! 
 
But yeah kids go through all kind of weird phases which don't necessarily define them for the rest of their lives. At the age of 6, I decided that I felt sorry for trash, and started hoarding it in a drawer in my bedroom. That lasted until my mother opened it and discovered hundreds of orange peels, rotting apple cores, half eaten sandwiches, candy wrappers etc. And she threw them in the trash immediately without letting me say goodbye. I was an emotional wreck 

I have mixed feelings on this kind of things. I honestly have to say I find it strange that something as complex as sexuality can be accurately and definitively etched in stone by 5. At the same time I have no clue what it feels like to experience what this child claims to experience. I helped produce a tv show once that interviewed transgendered people and their stories gave me better insight but also made me realize just how much I still don't know. Sexuality and gender issues can be complicated for those that ( at least on the surface) have these things somewhat clearly defined. Can't imagine what it is like for those that nature made a little more ambiguous. I guess I am relieved it is unlikely I will ever have to deal with it directly in my life.

bitflipper
I don't know the specifics of this particular case, but there are legitimate reasons to prescribe a gender change for a child.
 
Birth defects can include malformed or incompletely-developed genitals, such that the attending physician has to take a guess at the sex of the infant. Sometimes, they guess wrong, and saddle that individual with a lifetime of gender confusion. Male/female psychological differences are profound and begin to show up at a surprisingly young age, long before puberty. 

You bring up some good points.  Unfortunately, that's not what this case is about.
 
The girl decided she didn't like pink, said she was a boy, said that when her family died she would cut her hair.  This started at age 2 and by age 5 the parents decided to treat her like a boy.
 
The parents say by that treating their child as a boy (note - the article did not explicitly say surgery) they hoped to save their child from pain and confusion.  However, I can't help but think that they are just kicking the can down the road.