A boy named Sue.

A song from the past.

There's a boy names Sasha on my son's soccer team. He has long blonde hair. Most people assume he's a girl. He doesn't care. He corrects them and moves on. He plays hockey and roughhouses with the rest, but he's not overly aggressive. Nor is he particularly "girly". he's just a kid. A nice kid. A well adjusted, well balanced kid. I wonder how he'd be if his parents had forced a short haircut onto him and drilled him in "the differences between girl and boy behaviours". It's time to discard these gender stereotypes.

Sasha doesn't wear dresses and tell people he's a girl.

Did Sue?

No, but he had to learn to fight.

Which is precisely why it's silly for him (or his parents, or his teachers, or whoever) to make such an effort to switch to an overbearingly "female" stereotype. Better to say "Being a man doesn't have to mean X" than "No, no, Y means being female so obviously I am a woman."

..as long as that freedom of expression is not harmful ... to others. I (strike me now) agree with radar too. :greenface

So the school and staff giving special treatment to one kid doesn't infringe on the rights of others?

That's how I read it. What a load of crap.

Which special treatment infringes which rights?

Agreed! I still have a hard time believing parents are "uncomfortable" about teaching their kids about sex.
Would they feel more comfortable dropping a note in the kids coffin when he/she dies from AIDS?

And just to point out, being transgendered does not mean someone feels the need to ACT like the other gender. They know, and feel like, they ARE the other gender. So telling the kids to just dress like they have been even though it's not what they need to feel right within themselves is just a load of un-informed crap.

I'm with Sheldon on this one. If this child genuinely feels deep down that s/he is female, then telling him/her to conform to masculinity is a dangerous thing, psychologically. What do you tell the child? That you know they feel (know) that they're a girl, but they're wrong? That every fibre of their being is wrong? That their essential sense of self is wrong? Or worse, that they may be right but that this is something they should hide? That they should be wary of letting people see this essential truth about themself?

Christ what a psychological minefield. I admire the parents. It cannot be an easy thing to go with the flow, knowing the potential for bullying and extreme reactions. But, frankly, I suspect this kid will be well supported by the parents and from the sound of it the school too.

Man this article is big after only one day, I wish I had saw it yesterday.

I don't really know how to feel about this. This is something I've never experienced in school or heard about on the news. The thing about unisex bathrooms though....in my honest opinion that is just weird and well, unnecessary. I feel a person can be whatever gender their mind tells them, but biologically the sex they are should determine where they use the bathroom in grade school. I'd raise an eye if I saw "Dani" the "Tranny" (excuse my language) using the child urinal next to me with a skirt and leggings but I bet the little girls would be even more shocked to see Dani coming out of one of the stalls to wash his hands. Physical features are pretty evident to the sex of children at mid elementary school age.

It's very bold of the parents to encourage transgender dressing in public elementary school. Maybe, too bold? Consider home school? Aww, shucks I really don't know.

All the bathrooms in my house are unisex.

Your house is not a public institution, though.