Parents keep child's gender secret
by Jayme Poisson
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/babiespregnancy/babies/article/995112--parents-keep-child-s-gender-secret

QuoteIn an age where helicopter parents hover nervously over their kids micromanaging their lives, and tiger moms ferociously push their progeny to get into Harvard, Stocker, 39, and Witterick, 38, believe kids can make meaningful decisions for themselves from a very early age.

...

The moment a child's sex is announced, so begins the parade of pink and barrage of blue. Tutus and toy trucks aren't far behind. The couple says it only intensifies with age.

I like the idea of freedom of expression, the article author kinda blows it by quoting people who want to keep the social pecking order intact by implying that the laissez faire approach to gender roles and expression is harmful because (the child) won't be participating in the glorified hierarchy of male/female interpersonal relationships.

Quote from: Flan on May 21, 2011, 11:19:10 PM
I like the idea of freedom of expression, the article author kinda blows it by quoting people who want to keep the social pecking order intact by implying that the laissez faire approach to gender roles and expression is harmful because (the child) won't be participating in the glorified hierarchy of male/female interpersonal relationships.

Same.

Also, why is it so widely accepted that it is wrong to allow children to be different for fear that they may be bullied, rather than wrong for society to bully anyone who is different?

When many couples have a baby, they send out an email to family and friends that fills them in on the key details: name, gender, birth weight, that sort of thing. (You know the drill: "Both Mom and little Ethan are doing great!")

But the email sent recently by Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto, Canada to announce the birth of their baby, Storm, was missing one important piece of information. "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now--a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place? ...)," it said.

That's right. They're not saying whether Storm is a boy or a girl.
Full article

As an update, I took the time to read the first 200 comments out of 13,000 to this article. Ignorant, ugly comments abound. 0/200 support the parents position. People seem to lack the skill to logic through the parents reasoning. It is apparent that few, if any outside of the gender community understand the difference between sex and gender.

Cisgender people seem to be playing a game with the play-dooh factory, jamming their play-dooh kids through the machine and forming them in the shapes that they demand.   

What a concept.  Let's let the child decide who they are rather than conditioning them into one of two genders. 

This is something I have heard many a TG wish had happened to them.  I'm really surprised this thread hasn't had more activity.

When Julie told me about this the first thing that came to my mind was what the typical reaction would be.  I figured people would be screaming bloody murder.  Based on the comments, the concept stirred up a lot of negative emotions.  It's amazing how many people WANT to be told how to act, dress, walk, talk.  I thought free will was something innate in humans.  I guess I was wrong.

"TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!" 

Are these the most PC parents in the world? The couple raising a 'genderless baby'... to protect his (or her) right to choice

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:47 AM on 25th May 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389593/Kathy-Witterick-David-Stocker-raising-genderless-baby.html

Meet Storm. With those big blue eyes, fair hair and chubby cheeks, the four-month-old is certainly adorable.

But whether this baby is a bruising boy or a blushing girl is, the parents say, a secret. In fact, they're leaving the decision up to him – or her.

The bizarre move has led to Kathy Witterick, 38, and husband David Stocker, 39, being labelled the most politically correct family in the world.

Good for them, and shame on Society.  Gender should have no bearing till the child makes the decision as to what they want.  Until the bathroom issue is raised, gender has no bearing on anything.

And the bathroom issue only comes into play, when the public ( Society again ) sticks their noses in someone else business.

To call it sad that the Daily Mail has sunk to the level of pushing it's narrow view of the world, by exploiting a child with inuendo is an understatement. The issue has, sadly been picked up, including the obvious inuendo, by some day time TV chat shops here.

QuoteFriends cleverly accused the couple of taking away the newborn's right to choice by imposing their own ideology on the tiny baby.

Such nice friends, eh? Reminds me of the argument that to free slaves is to deny them of their rights. Perhaps they like being slaves.

QuoteThe result is that most people believe the boy are girls.

And why is this a problem? What business is it of anyone, what these children have between their legs? This is the entire issue after all here.

QuoteAnd once Mrs Witterick was forced to rush him out of a store when a saleswoman refused to sell him a pink leather boa because 'he's a boy'.

Good. I'd be interested to know the name of that store so I could stay away from it. He a young child for goodness sake. What business is it of a shop keeper, what a child does? (If this ever actually happened).

QuoteThey have visited revolutionaries in Mexico and spent weeks in Cuba learning about the Communist revolution.

Well, that's it then. Let's shoot them all!

QuoteMrs Witterick is now a stay-at-home mother who practises 'unschooling' - that is, home schooling driven by a child's curiosity rather than a schedule or tests.

I'm not an educationalist by that sounds reminiscent of Rudolf Steiner schools. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner_School

QuoteThe family 'co-sleeps' on two mattresses pushed together on the floor of the master bedroom.

You mean like...  Poor people?? Oh my!

QuoteThe child will be unable to position his or herself in a world where you are either male, female or in between, she said, arguing that they have created another category entirely.

Rubbish. All they've done is to tell people to concentrate on a baby not what it has between it's legs.

Last part of the op-ed:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/allison-pearson/8536831/My-huge-sympathy-for-these-vengeful-wives.html

By Allison Pearson 8:55PM BST 25 May 2011

Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, a Canadian couple, have decided to raise a "genderless baby". The poor guinea pig chosen for this experiment is their five-month-old infant Storm. The baby's parents know what sex Storm is, and so do his/her grandparents, but no one else is to be told. This will mean the baby is protected from a world "ruled by stereotypes" though, sadly, not from its own loopy parents.

I'll leave this thread now, otherwise I'm be inclined to want to hurt myself....

Spoken in a fanatical, forceful way with a German accent (think Hitler)

"Vat do yu zay?  Rasink a chilt vit no gender?!?!  Dis iz unspeakable!  Ve must conform!  Ve must obey the laws uv zociety!  Ve must do as ve are tolt!

Zees parents should be executed!  Ve vill take dis chilt und zhow it how to act!  Ve vill prevail!!!

Or, in the words of Taras Bulba...