If you are an adult and you are actively encouraging your child to choose their gender rather than accept what they were born as, you are guilty of child abuse and should be imprisoned. I really feel bad for these kids who are going to grow up confused as hell because their parent made their life more difficult than it needed to be. Kids are learning that it's trendy to be LBGTQ and straight kids are choosing to be LBGTQ because they want to be cool. It's tragic and is one of the reasons we have a nut for a president right now.

So, how does everyone feel about having gay, lesbian, transgender, etc preteens in gender-specific camp cabins?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't "what gender are you?" and "what do you identify as?" be two separate questions? Everyone is born with one set of parts or another. I respect everyone's right to their own identities and preferences, but except in extreme cases, the set of parts is an absolute and I believe people should use the facilities that are designed for the set of parts they were born with.

The fact that camp cabins for 11-12 year olds now contain transgender kids is an issue I have encountered for the first time this summer.

You "respect" everyone's "right" to their own preferences? Are you always this loony???

I believe it's snowing outside today. Do you "respect" my thinking when I go out on 90 degree heat wearing a snowsuit? I hope you would recognize that I'm either sick in the head or just doing something off beat to get attention. And you would "respect" that?

Who sounds loony? I fully support your right to give yourself heat stroke.

It's weird for me because I'm gender non-conforming. Everyone assumed I was a dyke in high school and college. It didn't even occur to me I was anything other than a woman who liked wearing jeans and men's cut shirts, and that it's possible to like men while wearing jeans and men's cut shirts. But just like "emo" kids needed a label, I suppose this isn't any different. I do like that people seem to be divorcing outerwear from sexual orientation. It always struck me odd that casual work clothes on a woman read as dyke.

My kid says she's a lesbian and has for a while now. Recently she also indicated she's gender non conforming.
I think it's important for me to let my kid know I love her and I accept her whether she's GNC, bi, gay, whatever. Frankly her sexuality is not important to me. Her sexual HEALTH is, and I don't want her having sex yet with anybody of whatever gender. But what she grows up to prefer sexually is not important to me. As long as she's healthy, happy, and not hurting anyone.

Now my kid (daughter) is about as feminine as a person can be. In my heart I don't really believe she is GNC. But I take her to a therapist (started for other reasons) and I'll respect her right to go by whatever name or pronouns or wear whatever clothes.... that's all trivial to me. I'm more concerned with her grades, diet, exercise, and rewarding social life.

I think this is another form of teenage pushing the envelope and testing the waters. I think it's important not to make this an issue around which the kid can rebel. If she wanted to get surgery or take hormones, that would be a different situation. Much more serious. As it involves her long term health. But right now she wants to label herself as a (whatever) sexual with her gaggle of girlfriends? I really couldn't care less about labels. As long as she is kind, respectful, well-behaved, studious, etc. etc.

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty trendy right now.

Ten years ago it was being bi sexual ( as a teen) that was edgy - now its being bi gendered or non gendered.

A very, very small percentage of teens will go on to identify as neither male nor female into adulthood. For 99% of these kids, they are just being edgy and cool.

I do think it is pretty trendy right now for the kids that don't fit into specific groups. At one point my kid came home and named 11 girls in Art that were gender fluid. I understand that it is a real thing, I just don't think that over 50% a class is truly gender fluid because statistically it just doesn't make sense. I think a lot of kids have this idea that you just get to pick your gender, and I think that does a disservice to children who are truly gender dysphoric and are struggling.

Yes, I have noticed this in my 14 YO and her peer group. No one wants to be boring vanilla anymore.

Anonymous wrote:Why can't "what gender are you?" and "what do you identify as?" be two separate questions? Everyone is born with one set of parts or another. I respect everyone's right to their own identities and preferences, but except in extreme cases, the set of parts is an absolute and I believe people should use the facilities that are designed for the set of parts they were born with.

The fact that camp cabins for 11-12 year olds now contain transgender kids is an issue I have encountered for the first time this summer.

You "respect" everyone's "right" to their own preferences? Are you always this loony???

I believe it's snowing outside today. Do you "respect" my thinking when I go out on 90 degree heat wearing a snowsuit? I hope you would recognize that I'm either sick in the head or just doing something off beat to get attention. And you would "respect" that?

Anonymous wrote:Why can't "what gender are you?" and "what do you identify as?" be two separate questions? Everyone is born with one set of parts or another. I respect everyone's right to their own identities and preferences, but except in extreme cases, the set of parts is an absolute and I believe people should use the facilities that are designed for the set of parts they were born with.

The fact that camp cabins for 11-12 year olds now contain transgender kids is an issue I have encountered for the first time this summer.

The questions you're looking for are, "What set of parts were you born with?" and "What gender are you?"

I'm 49 years old, and nobody has ever asked me what set of parts was I born with, or asked to check my parts before allowing me to use a particular public restroom. Nor have I ever asked about anybody else's parts. It seems like an intrusive question that is none of my business -- unless I had intentions for those parts. Or if I were a health care provider, but I'm not.

Why can't "what gender are you?" and "what do you identify as?" be two separate questions? Everyone is born with one set of parts or another. I respect everyone's right to their own identities and preferences, but except in extreme cases, the set of parts is an absolute and I believe people should use the facilities that are designed for the set of parts they were born with.

The fact that camp cabins for 11-12 year olds now contain transgender kids is an issue I have encountered for the first time this summer.

Anonymous wrote:

No, I'm judging the rude, profane idiots who are posting on this thread who are, presumably, adults. Very immature and twisted adults, but adults none the less. Oh, and parents who allow their kids to devolve into this nonsense. I'm judging them as child abusers, yes.

You're fighting a losing battle, PP. You're telling people that their sense of self is wrong. You can't win that. (If I told you that your sense of self was wrong, how would you respond?)

The only battle you can potentially win is (re-)legitimizing discrimination against people whose sense of self you believe to be wrong. And there are a lot of people (including me) who will work very hard to make sure that you do not win that battle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are talking about 11, 12, 13 year olds who still haven't figured out whether they are boys or girls, and you can't see what a problem that is, then you have your head completely in the sand. Most of us figure that out by the age of 2 or so.

Most of us do. And some of us don't. Different people are different people who have different experiences. (DCUM always has troubles with this concept.)

More to the point, how does it harm you? Having to acknowledge that there are different people who have different experiences does not constitute harm. Neither does having to acknowledge that different people understand the world differently. And, really, if somebody wants you to use a particular pronoun/name for them, but you want to use a different one, then there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Including my opinion that it's rude.

It's harming me greatly because it is harming society. More to the point it's harming my kids to have to put up with this BS at school, when they should be learning about, you know, physics or chemistry. I agree that it is harming most of all the poor kids who do not have parents with the sense to see the danger on this.

You are not convincing. It's not harming society. Rather, society previously was harming people who identify this way.

Why don't you give Joe Straus a call and solicit his views on this. You'll like him -- he's the Republican Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

This isn't about you and your backwards, twisted and invalid views, OP. Either get with the program or get out of my country. You're not welcome here anymore.

Wow. I would say the same thing up you but I'm a lot nicer person than you are.

I don't think you are. You're judging children. GTFO.

No, I'm judging the rude, profane idiots who are posting on this thread who are, presumably, adults. Very immature and twisted adults, but adults none the less. Oh, and parents who allow their kids to devolve into this nonsense. I'm judging them as child abusers, yes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are only 3 genders...male, female, and mental illness.

If you want to live your life like that, then you should live your life like that. However, I hope that you will be polite to everybody. Also, please be aware that, if you are rude to people for being their gender wrong (according to you), there are plenty of people who will have a low opinion of you as a consequence.

Only people who haven't taken a biology class. There are only men and women. Men have a penis and women have a vagina. PERIOD

The fact that so- called grown, mature adults have to be reminded of this is staggering.

Do you deny that intersex people exist?

What about people who had penises, but lost them due to medical incidents or accidents, even combat? They don't have vaginas? Isn't what's in your head important?

No what's in "your head" is not important especially since, as evidenced here, what is in a lot of people's heads is very peverted and mixed up. And as to men that have lost organs due to accident- they are still chromosomly and biologically males of course. As are men who wear dresses, change their name to Katie, and pretend to be female.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you are talking about 11, 12, 13 year olds who still haven't figured out whether they are boys or girls, and you can't see what a problem that is, then you have your head completely in the sand. Most of us figure that out by the age of 2 or so.

Most of us do. And some of us don't. Different people are different people who have different experiences. (DCUM always has troubles with this concept.)

More to the point, how does it harm you? Having to acknowledge that there are different people who have different experiences does not constitute harm. Neither does having to acknowledge that different people understand the world differently. And, really, if somebody wants you to use a particular pronoun/name for them, but you want to use a different one, then there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Including my opinion that it's rude.

It's harming me greatly because it is harming society. More to the point it's harming my kids to have to put up with this BS at school, when they should be learning about, you know, physics or chemistry. I agree that it is harming most of all the poor kids who do not have parents with the sense to see the danger on this.

You are not convincing. It's not harming society. Rather, society previously was harming people who identify this way.

Why don't you give Joe Straus a call and solicit his views on this. You'll like him -- he's the Republican Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

This isn't about you and your backwards, twisted and invalid views, OP. Either get with the program or get out of my country. You're not welcome here anymore.

Wow. I would say the same thing up you but I'm a lot nicer person than you are.

I don't think you are. You're judging children. GTFO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen the incidence of transgender is like less than 1%. The amount of energy being spent on this is just ridiculous.

Transgender =/= Gender non-binary or gender non-conforming. The students this discussion is about don't want to transition; they're just asserting that they don't fit into the feminine/masculine societal binary.

And most of them are wrong. The great, great majority of them are in the middle of the distribution. Its all nonsense. "I hate labels" - "Please call me by these labels" They/them is confusing when you are talking about a singular person. Just go about your life. Not every single person needs to know exactly how you see yourself.

It's always fun when Person A tells Person B that Person B is being Person B wrong.

If you're not interested in other people's labels or other people's identity, then you should feel free to ignore those things.

Also, people use they/them to talk about a singular person all the time. For example, "Who left this package by the door?" "I don't know, I didn't see them, the package was already here when I got here." Or "Who was the second tuba player at the rehearsal last week?" "I don't know, they're new."