Tag: parenting

Christian “activists” hating on trans kids

The Christian right just hates the idea of transgender children.  Their specific target this time is a camp for transgender girls.

 photo 10_zpsfe1d1c00.jpgThe camp, known as “You Are You”, is in its third year.  It’s a place where trans kids and their families can gather to network with others in a similar situation.  You can see for yourself just how obscene that can be as documented by photographer Lindsay Morris.  Or, you know, you could choose to see kids being happy.

The camp offers itself as…

…a temporary safe haven where gender-variant boys can freely express their interpretations of femininity alongside their parents and siblings.

But there is a different view from those so-called “activists”.

There is a risk of locking children into a life course, which, if they had been left to develop naturally, they would have outgrown.

–Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council

A father joins his child

Here’s a great story.  Before I delve into it, I’d like to point out that there is some controversy over it.  At base it is about a boy who likes to wear skirts and the actions of the boy’s father.  Now, the story is in German at the feminist magazine EMMA.  oneandonlygabriel has provided a rough translation.  Then Gawker picked it up.  And Aravosis added his two cents about whether or not the child is transgender.

In my view, it doesn’t matter whether or not the child is transgender.  Because the child was born with a boy’s body and likes to wear dresses, the child is gender-variant.  And the father in question still gets my applause.

Fighting Forced Sterilization in Sweden

I generally troll the Transgender news regularly looking for stories to use in my quest to enlighten people about why transpeople need to be treated better than vermin.  This week I was deleted to discover a feature article by Ann Tornkvist at GlobalPost, entitled Transgender Actress mourns her “forcible sterilization”.

We like to think that Scandanavia countries like Sweden are bastions of good treatment for people like us.  I read the article and stand corrected.  Some things are apparently pretty much the same all over.

The article features the story of Swedish actress Aleksa Lundberg.  Now 29 Lundberg completed transition when she was 18.

Aleksa Lundberg remembers being four years old and standing by the kindergarten’s wading pool. The teachers began separating the children into groups for an autumnal walk through the nearby woods, ushering boys to one side, girls to another. Lundberg remembers being unsure which side to choose.

“I knew that I was expected to join the boys, but equally I knew that I wanted to join the girls,” Lundberg says.

As Lundberg moved to join the girls’ side, a teacher with a tight, graying perm framing a face contorted in anger grabbed Lundberg by the wrist and “half led, half pulled” her to the group of boys, telling her firmly that this was where Lundberg belonged.

“It was my first experience of an ‘authority’ telling me what I could do, what I should be, and it led to what is my first memory of an anxiety attack,” says Lundberg, now a popular 29-year-old actress who completed the transition from male to female when she was 18. “The silhouettes of the boys standing around me transformed into jail bars in front of my eyes.”

This remembrance strikes so close to my own experience that I had to keep reading.

Freedom of Choice Requires Freedom to Choose

At Meeting yesterday, the subject of raising children found its way into the messages of many.  Prompted perhaps by the presence of happy children singing Christmas carols early into worship, vocal ministry focused on the dual blessing and challenges of parenthood.  Many moving, emotionally rich stories were shared.   Each of them had a common thread, but each also stood separately by themselves as their own unique offering.  Much wisdom and humor was present as well, and I am a fan of both.  As some contemplated the fragility of the infant Jesus, it seemed fitting that this would be the unofficial subject of the day.  When it works well, the exercise in instantaneous revelation that is most Quaker worship is a rich, multi-layered experience, one that, in this instance, left several in tears.  

If Sarah Palin Did Not Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent Her

The celebrity gossip website TMZ has published an immature tirade/flame war involving two of Sarah Palin’s daughters, Willow and Bristol.  In it, both Palin daughters frequently exchange profanities with other posters and Willow, aged 14, uses a homophobic slur.  This exchange, carried on over Facebook, was in response to a poster’s criticism of their mother’s new TLC show.  The whole story would be little more than the softest of soft news, unless their mother had not set herself up to be the eventual leader of the party which claims sole rights over morality.  There is a certain gotcha, gutter journalism quality to this story, in keeping with many Palin revelations, but it also fits well within the canon of what we already know about their mother.

Bullies; The Mystery





Teaching Tolerance

copyright © 2010 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

Since I was a child he hounded me.  She stalked me.  I was bullied, intimidated, tormented not by a single person, but by a throng of thoughts.  Why did another child, adolescent, nay adult ever bully me.  What was it about me that kept me safe from harm or a persecutor’s pointed proclamations?  

“Spiritual But Not Religious” Parenting 101 ?

Apologies for making this a quickie. I have “company coming” this afternoon and I have to superclean  cleara path prepare. :-/

So. My daughter is 12.5, just finished 6th Grade. For a variety of reasons, I’m feeling like… well, it’s time. I’d like to take her to “Church” at least once in a while and so I’ll be doing some Church Shopping. More important, I’ll be talking to her, more than I have thus far, about all things God.

I’d love to hear from any of you who might have, uhm, an opinion, some experience, suggestions, or just stories if you feel like it. It’s Sunday after all.

A few more details below the line.

Mijo

Mijo.  Pronounced mee-hoe.

Mijo – Conjoined Spanish slang of affection.  Mi hijo, “my son.”

18 years ago today I was sitting in the Infant ICU at West Paces Ferry Hospital in Atlanta cradling a 7 pound, twelve and a half ounce bundle of pure wonder.  [Written Friday, 8/15/08.]

Daniel-in-ICU