“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” Luke 17:2
For centuries, the abuse of children has been considered one of the worst crimes a person could commit. Child molesters often find themselves outcasts even in prison. Societies look harshly upon those who endanger their children. It’s a standard that’s nearly universal.
That’s why it is so chilling to see the ABC television network air an episode of its 20/20 news magazine that features and celebrates transgendered children. Barbara Walters interviews with gushing sympathy the family of a 10 year-old boy who thinks he is a girl. The boy’s parents have encouraged him to live as a girl for the last three years:
This past Christmas, Riley Grant received a present that can be described as bittersweet — a video game that allowed her to morph a digital body into anything she wanted. Almost immediately, Riley, a 10-year-old transgender girl who is biologically a boy, adopted a virtual female persona. If only life were so easy, that she could punch a button and turn into a girl.
“She has a birth defect, and we call it that. I can’t think of a worse birth defect, as a woman to have, than to have a penis,” Riley’s mother, Stephanie, told Barbara Walters. “She talks about the day she’ll have a baby. That’s not in her future. But she sees herself as growing up to be a woman.”
According to the parents, the child first informed them that he was in the wrong body when he was 2 years old. That’s right, two years old. Just today my own two year-old informed me that he was a turtle. He even swam at me with a sinister turtle voice. I called his bluff, yet these parents wouldn’t think of denying their child the right to be who he/she really is.
I have no doubt that this child has serious problems — much more so than my son’s turtle identity disorder. I have no doubt that it is difficult raising such a confused child. I also have no doubt that what these parents have done is a dereliction of their duty as guardians of their child. God can redeem even the deadest of us, so I pray that before it’s too late, they will realize what they have done. For they have sacrificed their child upon the altar of the spirit of the age.
May God help them.
“Gender Identity Disorder” is a bona fide medical condition. It is treated both in therapy and by medical doctors. It is not a religious issue. I run a support site for the “Transgendered” and we have talked to hundreds of thousands of TG’s. Our mission is to lower our 31% suicide rate. Over 50% of our untreated users have had at least 1 suicide attempt by their 20th birthday. Barbara Walters told the truth. These trans gendered children will end up as a suicide statistic if left untreated.
Our moderators are certified in youth suicide prevention and have saved thousands of lives. The only abuse being committed would be if those parents did not get their children to a qualified Gender Therapist http://www.lauras-playground.com/gender_therapists.htm . They alone can determine if their children has the disorder or is a phase or not.
If transgendered people were treated earlier as is being done now, my site would have no suicides to prevent. Instead we are swamped. All Barbarra Walters is trying to do is save lives. What’s wrong with that. You need to get the facts not the myths.
http://www.lauras-playground.com
Laura, I don’t doubt that “Gender Identity Disorder” is a disorder, but to say “it is not a religious issue” ignores the fact that we are religious beings. I do disagree that capitulation to disease it is the answer. There is a better way.
Your solution of casting transgender children off a bridge with a millstone around their neck is a bit impractical nowaways, and might be considered child abuse by some (probably liberals). I have a modest proposal. Let’s ridicule these children and treat them with shock therapy until they conform to our notions of proper behavior. The suicide rate is, admittedly, a bit high. But differences that do not conform to my religious ideals can simply not be tolerated.
Jillian, why do you want to cast these children off a bridge? Why would you even say that?
We treat cancer to make it go away. We don’t feed it carcinogens in order to grow more cancer. I would think that a doctor would rather help them combat their disorder than succumb to it?
Not everyone subscribes to your christian beliefs. Not everyone can claim to know the “truth” that you claim you do…tell me whats more insane, to believe in mystical writings that direct people to burn “witches”? How about belief so pervasive that it causes you to drink the koolaid..(Jim Jones). Is belief in a deity that says you have to accept me as the truth or you spend eternity roasting on a pit also sane? So you use these “truths” to decide that someone who actually consideres a childs condition, backed by medical, psychological, factual evidence to be less than what “the word” tells you?
I guess that you have never been to a doctor or a dentist to cure a medical problem, cause if you have you have interfered with something that god created and man changed it…you hypocrite.
We once believed the world was flat, as we believed that every time it thundered the Gods were angry. We have since evolved and science has improved our life and showed us the many variety and complexity of nature.
You are still stuck in archaic times. You have the right to practice and believe in your religion. But this right does not constitute your discrimination, bigotry and lashing tongue. Educate your self before you speak such garbage, remove the nose out of the old scriptures and read the medical journals that will teach you about this condition.
Your sons turtle identity is not a medical condition but a vivid imagination, very different I would say. So lose the analogy.
The only serious problem these children face is a world full of ignorant bigot individuals that claim to be God loving folks. Stop using God as your shield for your hateful and backward ways.
Learn compassion, I am sure there is something about that in your belligerent bible.
This parents are great parents, I should have been so lucky to have had parents like them. Instead my parents had our mentality and I was put through a world of hell. It took me 39 years to finally align my body with my mind, but not without feeling the hurt and hate from this backwards world we live in.
View and learn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3JvXxXnB8I
Imagination and feeling are completely separate things. Your son wanted to be a non-human creature, which obviously isn’t even close to being possible. However, transgendered individuals are humans, and it is possible for us to be a gender that we were not born physically as.
My parents are a bunch of ignorant people on issues like this, and that is a dangerous thing, since they have knee jerk reactions to everything. Now, if I had this child’s parents, I may have come out to them sooner, and actually gotten the support system I needed.
I have a very depressive and tormented state of mind these days – not from my own doing, but rather because of the intolerance and lack of compassion from the world around me.
Know what its like to hear from your parents that they would have abandoned you when you were a pre-teen if they had known back then what they do now?
From my experience, any time a person brings religion into a conversation, they are about to justify an ingorant, discriminating view. Give the religious panderings a rest, not everyone believes in the same thing as you (I’m Buddhist, for example).