Via the Washington Post, the Boy Scouts of America will allow transgender children who identify as boys to join:
…the organization will now accept boys based on the gender a parent puts on a child’s scouting application, ending a policy of accepting boys based on the gender listed on a child’s birth certificate.
Hope the new policy proves helpful and isn’t misused. We’ll see.
New York magazine, no rightwing rag, on why the issue of what’s best for transgender kids is not always so simple:
A lot of people don’t realize that there is a genuine scientific debate over how to best help out children with gender dysphoria, or those who feel discomfort — sometimes extremely intense discomfort — with the body they were born into….
A concern is that young “effeminate” boys and “masculine” girls, many of whom would otherwise grow into either healthy and happy gay men and lesbian women (or, sometimes, somewhat “effeminate” heterosexual men and “masculine” heterosexual women), are told they’re transgender, perhaps by well-meaning parents, and put on that course.
More. Alternate facts, via an op-ed by Debra W. Soh, a sexual neuroscientist at York University in Toronto, in the Los Angeles Times:
[T]ransgender activists firmly believe that gender is a biological, rather than social, reality—but of course they don’t believe that it’s necessarily tied to sex at birth. They also believe that gender identity is quite stable early on, warranting a transition not only for transgender adults, but also young children who say they were born in the wrong body.
From a scientific perspective, they’re partially right: Gender identity is fixed, but only in adults; the same can’t be said for children, whose gender identity is flexible and doesn’t become stable until puberty.
Currently available research literature—including four studies published in the last nine years—suggests that 61% to 88% of gender dysphoric children will desist and grow up to be gay adults. … They won’t continue to identify as the opposite sex in adulthood. In one study of 139 gender dysphoric boys, 122 (88%) of the boys desisted.
While transitioning can be beneficial for transgender adults, it therefore doesn’t make sense to treat trans children in the same way. Nevertheless, transgender activists and their allies have branded desistance as a “myth,” and those who suggest otherwise are called bigots or, dismissively, trolls.
10 Comments for “Transgender Scouts”
posted by Tom Scharbach on
Hope the new policy proves helpful and isn’t misused.
By whom? Girls between 7-10 (Cub Scouts) and 11-18 (Boy Scouts) wanting to share a tent with boys of the same age and willing to be identified as transgender in order to do so?
We’ll see.
Yup.
posted by Tom Scharbach on
A danger is that young “effeminate” boys and “masculine” girls, many of whom would otherwise grow into either healthy and happy gay men and lesbian women (or, sometimes, somewhat “effeminate” heterosexual men and “masculine” heterosexual women), are told they’re transgender, perhaps by well-meaning parents, and put on that course.
Parental stupidity will always be with us. What does this have to do with Scouting?
posted by Jorge on
So, they decided to side with the parents of transgender children, regardless of their decision, and tell the other parents to shut up.
A lot of people don’t realize that there is a genuine scientific debate over how to best help out children with gender dysphoria, or those who feel discomfort — sometimes extremely intense discomfort — with the body they were born into….
Well from the perspective of the Boy Scouts, wouldn’t that cut both ways? If the doctors disagree on what to do, doesn’t that make it all the more compelling for the parent to be the authority?
I definitely want to watch that BBC documentary referenced in the link.
posted by JohnInCA on
To be fair, what your kid looks like naked really isn’t the business of other parents (or the BSA, for that matter).
posted by TJ on
I can see concern with regards to the best age to begin the actual transition, but here its probably easy to usea bit of comnon sense.
posted by Houndentenor on
Well, one might start with actual experts and professionals in the field. It’s frustrating to live in a time when every idiot thinks they know as much as people who have studied a topic for decades. And now we’ve elected such an idiot as president. FML.
posted by Jorge on
It’s frustrating to live in a time when every idiot thinks they know as much as people who have studied a topic for decades.
That’s nothing new or remarkable in a heterosexual society that promotes a nuclear family. Parents have the first and final say about matters concerning their children for a reason.
posted by Houndentenor on
I know of no one actually involved in trans issues who doesn’t admit that gender is complicated. It’s the religious right that wants it to be simple and binary (which even biologically speaking it isn’t). Everyone is aware of that. Perhaps there are some misguided liberals going overboard (like they tend to do) but the people who actually study these issues, the people who we should be listening to since they know what they are talking about, already know this. Unfortunately we are now in the Trump years in which experts are reviled and facts no longer matter.
Also, how many trans boys are there trying to join BSA? Is it past single digits? This isn’t a problem. They should be allowed to join and everyone should go on about their business.
posted by JohnInCA on
I’m sorry, but what, precisely, differentiates what “concerned” anti-trans folk are saying from what “concerned” anti-gay folk used to say? “They’ll grow out of it”, “that’s no choice for a kid”, “by enabling them, you’re abusing them”, “the science isn’t settled” “what, listen to them about their own experiences? That’s just crazy talk!”
And so-on. If I have to choose who I’ll listen to and who I’ll ignore, I’m going to ignore the concern trolls that, twenty years ago, would have told me to go bang a hooker to “fix” being gay. If I have to choose who to ignore and who to listen to, I’m going to listen to the people actually affected.
posted by Kosh III on
“to live in a time when every idiot thinks they know as much as people who have studied a topic for decades. ”
Or regarding climate change, the idiots profess to know MORE. SMH