'My transgender daughter should not have to use the men's restroom'

Yes. Transgender - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\

 

Well you can always question if the societal labels are the source of the issue. In a perfect world, which I understand that this is not, a person's clothing preferences, hobby preferences, presentation preferences, etc. would have absolutely nothing to do with gender. I only wear makeup and/or a skirt a handful of times a year. I love sports and math. I hate "hanging out" and shopping. When I was a kid, I strongly preferred Ninja Turtles and GI Joes to Barbies. None of that makes me any less of a woman though. So what if it isn't typical.

You're right, kids will label and tease and whatnot. But instead of embracing those labels, I think a better approach is to strip the gendered meaning from things and ask the obvious question - what is inherently girly about, say, a dress? Nothing (hell, in many cultures past and present, all people wear what we would call dresses). We call these things indicative differences now, but I'd argue it's really a cultural circular logic loop we should break.

And my question is does the child really care what the pronoun is at six years old? Nothing in the letter suggests that at some deeper level the child identifies as a she, only that the child likes to play with princesses and wear dresses, so the father has decided that means the child is a daughter rather than a son. To make the leap from "acts differently than what we consider to be a stereotypical boy" to "has a gender that does not match his biological sex" troubles me because I don't think that line is nearly as continuous as you suggest.

Of course, if the child has repeatedly (and unprompted) said things like "I'm not a boy, I'm a girl!" that's another matter entirely. But the story is presented as if playing with princesses and wearing dresses somehow makes the child being a girl self-evident.

 

As the father of an 18 year old, my experience is that it's 100% parents. Kids today do not give a single shit about gender/sexuality issues.

 

It's bothersome to me that the guy basically has absolutely no influence over his 6-year-old kid and instead lets the kid make the major decisions in the house. The kid's biggest problem is the father he's been saddled with.

 

Himmler, had something similar.

 

The six year old thing just seems unreasonable. Maybe a kid that young knows his mind that well, but it seems to me that the parents are just outright caving and not making any attempt to provide any guidance, Shrug. I dunno, I'm not in their shoes. My general attitude when observing idiotic parental choices is to think "Fine. You're the one who is going to have to live with him when he's fifteen. Good luck with that."

On the other hand, legislatures are passing bills prohibiting trans people from using the rest room of the sex they identify as, sending them to the one that matches their birth biology. The fear is that some man identifying as a woman will ogle women in the restroom, apparently. I wonder how many of them realize that women use stalls, not urinals where you can glance to the side and sneak a peek.

Chris Mosier is a trans man. Please tell me how sending him into the lady's room because he was born with lady parts would be better. Look at the pictures and tell me what you think will happen when he walks into one.
From the Mag: Will Team USA's first out transgender athlete be allowed to compete?

 

In my public middle schools and high schools, there were lots of reasons to avoid using the bathrooms. Worrying about whether someone who is transgender might be in there was not in the top 100.

In my Florida middle school, if you didn't say "It's cool" before opening the door in a certain bathroom, you'd hear the sound of a half-dozen dudes flushing their cigarettes. Then they'd yell at you for not saying, "It's cool!"

I actually loved doing that, though.