You hold your wife’s hand as the nurse performing the ultrasound rubs the conductive gel over her swollen drum of a belly. The thud of a tiny heartbeat floods your mind as you wait in anticipating silence to discover the sex of your new baby. “It’s a girl!” cries the nurse, noting the beginnings of utero, your wife beaming at you. You’re pleased. So pleased. Maybe…maybe you’d been hoping for a boy…maybe you’d been imagining playing football and aeroplanes in the back garden instead of trying to wrap your head around dollies and all that girly stuff. But so what? You know you’ll love your new daughter endlessly, despite the crippling fear you now have that you will never fully connect with your own child. You, my reader, despite good intentions,
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It simply asks that we don’t project any particular gender onto our children, giving them a wide range of possibilities and experiences so that when they are old enough to decide for themselves (around three years old) their decisions can be based on their interests and what makes them happy as opposed to a stereotype enforced upon them in early life. This parenting style goes over and above painting the nursery yellow to avoid the traditional blue-pink polarity however, you must consider every message to your child and the impact that could …show more content…
Gender dysphoria is a medical condition which causes sufferers to feel that the sex they were assigned at birth (i.e. a male or female sex organ) does not reflect their true gender identity. Those affected with gender dysphoria are transgender and they are made incredibly vulnerable and forced to suffer at the hands of an ignorant society. In America, a massive survey of its gender-variant population revealed shocking results: 78% faced sever harassment in childhood and 41% admitted to having attempted suicide- a statistic made all the more horrific when you consider that only 1.6% of the general population have attempted suicide. GNP could eliminate the stigma transgender people and, indeed all members of the LGBT community are faced with. In addition, there exists the worry that raising a child in a gender neutral environment encourages that child to become “queer”, transgender or gay. So, if we ignore the inherent homophobia, transphobia and bigotry in prioritising your child’s sexuality over their wellbeing, I may put your mind at ease: studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of kids raised gender neutrally (85%) grow up to be cisgender and heterosexual. Raising our children in a gender neutral way ensures that they would be open minded individuals who can live
It simply asks that we don’t project any particular gender onto our children, giving them a wide range of possibilities and experiences so that when they are old enough to decide for themselves (around three years old) their decisions can be based on their interests and what makes them happy as opposed to a stereotype enforced upon them in early life. This parenting style goes over and above painting the nursery yellow to avoid the traditional blue-pink polarity however, you must consider every message to your child and the impact that could …show more content…
Gender dysphoria is a medical condition which causes sufferers to feel that the sex they were assigned at birth (i.e. a male or female sex organ) does not reflect their true gender identity. Those affected with gender dysphoria are transgender and they are made incredibly vulnerable and forced to suffer at the hands of an ignorant society. In America, a massive survey of its gender-variant population revealed shocking results: 78% faced sever harassment in childhood and 41% admitted to having attempted suicide- a statistic made all the more horrific when you consider that only 1.6% of the general population have attempted suicide. GNP could eliminate the stigma transgender people and, indeed all members of the LGBT community are faced with. In addition, there exists the worry that raising a child in a gender neutral environment encourages that child to become “queer”, transgender or gay. So, if we ignore the inherent homophobia, transphobia and bigotry in prioritising your child’s sexuality over their wellbeing, I may put your mind at ease: studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of kids raised gender neutrally (85%) grow up to be cisgender and heterosexual. Raising our children in a gender neutral way ensures that they would be open minded individuals who can live