All this excessive need to quickly label children as “transgender” will be placing parents in an extremely difficult position whenever a child shows interest in playing with toys or colours traditionally viewed for their opposite gender.
Parents will be less keen on allowing their child to explore their interests, especially publicly, due to the fear that others (i.e. school, family, other professionals) will want to label their child as transgender and disagreeing will be viewed as transphobic.
Referring to my own experience, DS growing up, wasn’t interested in cars, trains etc. He had an interest for numbers, electronics, plush toys, tv character toys etc. At around 6, he took an interest in Hatchimal toys (targeted at girls) and had acquired quite a collection of the figures.
For his 6th birthday, he wanted talking Hatchimal toys. OH queried if we should continue allowing him to play with “girly toys.” I replied, would you rather we said no to him, and in doing so, send the clear message that boys must not play with “girly toys” and thereby reinforcing that such a thing exists? And make him worry about the authenticity of his identity? Or would you rather teach him there is no such thing as “girly toys” and he can play with that ever he likes? And thankfully, OH understood and did not raise this as a concern again.
Around that same age, DS went through a stage where he liked pink
he would pick out pink items at the supermarket; i.e. pink ball, pink bubble blower.
For school, DS needed a lunchbox and he chose a pink and purple lunchbox. Now, here is where I have to be honest and say I got concerned. Not because I was worried he liked pink/purple, but worried how his preference for these colours would be construed by the school. There had been a huge push on LGBTQ that year, with the school running the “No outsiders” programme and I was concerned he would be questioned in school about his “preference.” With this in mind, I pointed out the green/blue lunchbox and asked DS if he would rather get that as blue is his fave colour
. (I know, I know. I’m not happy I felt the need to do that). And he chose blue. If he had selected the pink one, I would’ve had to get that, and then would’ve been continuously worried about what others were saying to him or asking him at school. As the ethos at school nowadays is no longer teaching children they can play with whatever they want, dress however they want. Rather, it is more “Oh you like pink? Do you think you might be a girl?”
DS is now 8 and no longer interested in pink or hatchimals.
We appear to have regressed back to sexist stereotypical views that girls like pink and dolls and boys like blue and trucks. And when a child does not conform to these stereotypes, even if for a short period of time, apparently these are signs that a child is transgender. And parents failing to immediately agree or force this gender identity ideology on their child are accused of failing to validate the child’s “feelings” and are called transphobic.