Children must come before gender choice? What an odd statement! Given, for the affected community, Children and their normal development/welfare are a priority!

And far more so in some of the hetero-community where cultural practice includes, child brides, domestic abuse/violence and the ROUTINELY IGNORED sexual abuse of minors!

All while bible-bashing, holier than thou, judgemental fundamental fanatics, rabbit on about homosexuality and (none of their business gender choice, SSM) Then go home and belt (rape) their (punching bags) wives and kids?

[Do we know that they don't?] And the actual case so many times, given proven, one out of four, stats!?

To the extent that children and their safety and normal development in a loving family environment is ignored!

Gender choice has made it all but impossible for these fanatics to persecute perceived difference! And that for them, is their real issue with gender choice

If life, its quality and children growing up in a safe loving environment actually mattered, then euthanasia would not be acceptable nor the enforced incubation of unwanted children
Alan B.

Footnote: Some of the most egregious crimes by holy Joe paedophiles in the recorded annals of history wore the robes of office of various religious orders!

If children matter then its the aforementioned vexatious villains we need to protect them from! {School chaplains, anyone?]

As for the order of priorities, we can walk and chew gum simultaneously!
Alan B.

Got to agree with Alan.

Even more so when you check out the usual benighted right wing suspects who have endorsed the book which provided the locus for her essay. One of whom even pretends that christian-ism is the "total truth" which implies in a very much in-your-face matter that ALL other ways of being (christian or otherwise), except for the ONE that she advocates are FALSE - such hubris is of course completely astonishing.

Meanwhile two books (among many) which describe the all-encompassing psychological damage which is quite literally beaten into the flesh of the countless victims of the toxic child-rearing practices advocated by such "religious" traditionalists.

Spare the Child The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse by Philip Geven

Breaking Their Will Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment by Janet Heimlich.

The title of the second book obviously refers to the hugely influential work of the benighted James Dobson who was/is infamous for his advocacy of the NECESSITY of breaking a child's will by copious beating the "devil" out of the child. Dobson founded Focus on the Family and of course (surprise surprise) was an enthusiastic supporter of The Golden Golem of Greatness.

Its seems to me that much of the confusion that some/many young people are now suffering re their gender identity could quite likely be caused by the fact that artificial hormones are now almost everywhere. And the presence of hormone mimicking and disrupting plastics too.

Hormones are quite/very powerful and even tiny/micro amounts can make big differences to ones subtle bio-chemistry.

Plastic baby bottles, plastic food and beverage containers, plastic cling-wrap, and the fact that almost everyone now has minute plastic nano-particles in their blood and embedded in their bodies. One source of such plastic nano-particles is the "ink" which is used to print the receipts that we get for almost every transaction.

Another now everywhere source of hormones are the growth hormones which are regularly fed to cows (beef and dairy), pigs, chickens etc all of which remain in the meat that we eat, the milk that we drink and the various dairy products too.

Meanwhile Robert George was one of the principal movers and shakers in the creation of the Manhattan Declaration which was then widely promoted by the First Things cabal. George is a member of the deeply misogynist outfit Opus Dei. First Things also has close ties to Opus Dei too.
Principal members of Opus Dei practice bodily mortification on a daily basis as described here: http://odan.org/corporal_mortification

Would any still sane person rely on such people for moral guidance, especially in the realm of sexuality.

Face the fact Daffo the Duck.

Society lost its moral compass, when it threw away the rudder which steered it for Millenia of guidance, from its roots in Christianity.
Children simply suffer the consequences of this, with excessive anxiety from the alternative slippery slope of secularism.

Try another of your stupid ideas, and I’ll see how that looks!

Dan.

While I support people's gender choices, I must admit some uneasiness about allowing permanent physical changes in children too young to be competent at making these choices.

Well argued, Daffy! With comprehensive erudite, educated, informed, evocative evocation! It may surprise some of the willfully blind, that medical science has discovered a gay gene not just one but two positives and three more probable. See Alan Sanders and his team of highly credentialled geneticists and their peer-reviewed medical research!

Research that Diver Dan and co, will not even look at let alone believe?

Synonymous with a story related by Sir Richard Bramston, where he tells a story of inviting a highly placed flat earth society official to a flight in one of his low orbit, near-space, rockets.

The invitation accepted and as they flew the earth receeded and became the globe we all know it is. All while the said official was glued to a porthole window.

Upon landing, Sir Richard enquired, what do you think now? whereupon, and I paraphrase, the special effects were extremely realistic as were the very admirable graphics.

Ignoring the evidence and their own history is what these (hard-right) religious fruitcakes do best!

If ignorance is bliss, its folly to be wise, Quote, unquote.

All we need do now is wait for the religious cage rattlers commenting here to descend, as is their want, to abuse and drama-queen histrionics?
Alan B.

Most folks know who they are while still young school kids! Even more so with puberty and hormonal changes! To argue otherwise is abysmally ignorant bigotry!

Gender reassignment is not an easy choice, given the inordinate expense and the whole of life consequences of irreversible medical procedures!

But worth it, if only to get this mindless religious (stone age) rabble with their, garbage in garbage out, belief system off their backs and out of consenting adult bedrooms!
Alan B.

Al

While you and Daffo type your screeching bigotry into OLO forum from the same key-board, I’ll plod down the path of purity with a Christian message.

I was doing some light reading of Revelation, today while swinging in my hammock by the lake.
Unless you repent of your twisted ways, and wash your raiments white, you will not be one of the saved to appear before the Lamb in the end times which are obviously approaching.

Which of the apocalyptic horsemen will you be trampled by? I suspect it will be the pale horseman of death.

Good luck with your debauchery Al.

Dan

Children must come before gender choice by Edie Wyatt- I like the title - Looking forward to reading the article. I am very concerned that the left can't see this policy as dangerous to children. Their ideology seems to guide them on their path to evil.

*...Their ideology seems to guide them on their path to evil...*

Following this stuff renders Stephen King boring.

Mass psychosis.

Dan.

Alan,

There is more than enough evidence that while many teens are sure of their gender, many change their minds as to their gender as they mature with a significant number that were certain at the time reverting to their biological gender only to find problems with fertility etc depending on the extent of their transition.

To claim that anyone questioning gender changes for children is a bigot is in itself ignorant bigotry.

Sorry shadow, your opinion is not evidence, neither is anybody else's!

Diver, swing away and misrepresent the Bible for all you are worth!
None of which will assist you when you are called to account on your own day of judgement!

Truth-telling not anything like debauchery!
So just crack on with the hate-filled abuse/bigotry, because that's is who you are! And all you are!
You'll have a nice day now, y'hear.
Alan B.

You won't like hell or its wholly terrifying master!

Some kids are born blind others stone deaf others both blind and deaf!

Nobody sticks the boot into them for their birth defect! Or persecutes them with hate-filled froth spilling from their lips! And like Pavlogs dogs, a conditioned reflex!

I've witnessed gay men who were beaten/kicked to near-death by homophobic monsters, who justified all they did with completely unproven biblical scripture! Some of which is patently untrue, just a reflection of the prevailing social mores of the day?

Which made Slavery a social norm and wives, the personal property/sex slaves of men And the stoning to death of females merely accused of adultery acceptable? None of these are acceptable in today's world!

The bible was written in the first instance by scribes, not those who spoke the words.

How much of it is the spoken word and how much of it is the slant/misinterpretation imposed by the, scribe imposed, social mores of the day? Dan?

I wonder if the seeming increase in homosexuality is nature's/God's way of birth control on an over-populated planet? After all, annul sex/Dan's debauchery, has been used as acceptable birth control in some cultures, in otherwise, normal heterosexual couplings! Not saying, I necessarily approve!

Breeding for homosexual couples seems a difficult assignment!

Less difficult than conception achieved while standing in a hammock!

But far more difficult than getting the homophobes off their backs/ out of the bedroom or having that vociferous minority cohort look at the actual mounting medical evidence with open eyes and completely open minds!

Understandable if you accept this cohort is slightly more selectively deranged than neo-Nazi Trump supporters?
Alan B.

The author write:"They bring reputable data, science and professional research to the table, to argue that children are least likely to be abused, more likely to be nourished, educated, loved, cared for and given life chances by biological parents. "

Well that's all fine. But that evidence, unchallenged and unchallengable, has been around for a long while now. The evidence that children, on average, do better when living with their biological father and mother. Well know and utterly ignored. I raised that data on these pages when the homosexual marriage debate raged.

The attitude then, both here and obviously in the wider community was - don't care. The rights of the homosexual parents overrode the rights of the children. The desires of the homosexual community were much more important than the interest of the children let alone the interests of the wider society.

That was the case then. It remains the case now. It won't change.

Its good to see that some people remain concerned about the welfare of the children over and against the selfish desire of the homosexual community and are cognoscente of the facts. But none of that matters any longer.

Thousands of years of tradition. Thousands of years of societal learning were overthrown on a whim, as the result of a twitter storm. It can't be undone. It won't be undone. And when the results of the change become clear, it'll be denied and blamed on any and everything other than the true cause.

Alan B,

What a feeble response. As everything you've posted is "your opinion" that makes it equally worthless!

If the treatment of juveniles was entirely risk free and reversible, I would have no problem with anyone exploring their gender identities. However, as much of this "treatment" includes surgery and chemical treatments that are non reversable and have permanent health and fertility risks, and that there are more than a few documented cases of youths changing their minds and having to deal with the consequences the call for caution is more than justified.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20191007/Hundreds-of-trans-people-regret-changing-their-gender-says-trans-activist.aspx

Gee - what's wrong with just letting kids just be "kids".

When did "gender morphia" develop into a "class" of category of kids.

Seriously - what's wrong with you all and society.

Let kids be kids.

Let kids play and develop their own characters, we don't need "outsiders" telling our kids how to "conform" to their "world" agenda.

Parents know best about parenting - they don't need an "outsider" to tell them what to do.

Get lost.