The idea of breaking down barriers is so that the things we percieve to be 'different' now, might be considered normal or even ok in the future.

If we continue to say it's not ok to say you're gay or that you want to wear girls clothes when you're young to those who feel a physical need to do so then those barriers will remain in place and we will continue to have a high number of homosexual males commit suicide rather than come out and say they're gay. They'll continue to be bashed by homophobic males. They'll continue to be abused.

Until we raise the awareness of the general community and take all the hoodoo's away, we'll continue to be a dangerous society for gay people to live in.

And again, I don't see anywhere in the article that they're making special provisions for the child anyway. If the loo's are available to other students also, then what's the big deal?

This has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuals or homophobia.

I think it does, and these are my reasons.

Western society is built on gender stereotypes. Everything we do including how we dress is based on male/female roles. This of course means that when uniformity is required as in schools, we have no choice but to revert to those stereotypical norms.

However, as our society has evolved, slowly but surely, these stereotypes have begun to break down. We see women doing traditionally male oriented jobs and we see men doing traditional females jobs as an example. We've seen women start to wear pants over the last hundred or so years along with bikinis and all sorts of other things that once were considered inappropriate or perhaps even 'special'.

I can understand the resistance some people might feel towards these barriers being further broken down, but I'm certain that in the future, children who are now considered 'special' might just be considered ordinary, but none of this will occur without first having to go through the public forum to be debated ad nauseum.

I know I'm on the winning side of this debate though. History tells me this is so.

Then call it whatever phobia you want. It's still wrong.

So it's just your perception on what is valid and what isn't.
You can have a valid perception but it doesn't make it correct.

And if a child can be proven to actually BE a Koala Bear trapped in a human body then the answer is yes. Just like being Transgender IS a provable state.

Human beings can't digest Eucalypt leaves anyway. ;)

Besides, providing such a comparison is simply an attempt to trivialize the situation, and it's not a trivial subject.

How do you prove a second grader is Transgendered?

How do you prove they're not?

Psychological testing.

You have much more faith in Dr Phil's ability, to tell a second grader from his elbow, than I do.

I said Psychological testing. Not quack jobs.

Touché.
How can they test a second grader, except compare his answers and actions to standards? Isn't that putting him into a preset box?

He's a boy. If he and his parents want to make him a girl and change his name to Pat, fine and dandy, do it. Then he'll be a girl and problem solved.
But going through life being one thing, and claiming to be another, is going to bring him, and those around him, nothing but grief. He might even end up in jail.

He might end up in jail because he's a man who likes to wear women's clothing?

This is starting to sound like all those arguments against gay marriage. "You can't let them marry cuz they might want to marry a goat next".