A lesbian couple in California has triggered a controversy by giving their son hormone blockers to delay his puberty so that he can decided whether to be a girl or a boy. The 11-year-old boy named Tommy could decide to be a Tammy now that he is approaching puberty, but many are questioning the basis for such treatment or the ability of a minor to make such a decision. I am one of them.
We have seen prior stories of parents engaging in what seems questionably gender experimental approaches with their children. In this case, the mothers insisted that at age three Tommy seemed unsure whether he wanted to be a boy or a girl — so they started him on hormone treatments.
The Hormone Blocking Therapy delays puberty and is advocated by experts like Joel Baum, director of education and training for Gender Spectrum, a California-based non-profit group, who says “this is about giving kids and their families the opportunity to make the right decision.”
Yet, r. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University has denounced this as nothing short of child abuse “ike performing liposuction on an anorexic child.” Others have objected that the treatment could retard growth and have negative physical consequences.
Tommy’s parents, Moreno and Lobel, say that they will now call their son Tammy after he elected at age 11 to start the therapy by taking GnRH inhibitors over the summer to give him more time to explore the female gender identity. They insist that one of the first things he said when learning sign language (due to a speech impediment) was “I am a girl.”
He is eleven. I find the idea of inhibiting growth based on the wishes of an eleven year old to be highly disturbing. Indeed, I fail to see how any doctor could proscribe such a treatment if a prescription is indeed required (as it should be).
Source: Herald Sun
Some children kill themselves. Others mutiliate themselves. We can all be horrified by this reality, but it is reality. Trivializing a child’s feeling that there is something fundamentally wrong with him, or refusing to accept that he can have such feelings, won’t help him. While therapies of various types may be effective for some, for others they are not. I don’t know anything about this particular child, and I don’t know much about what the side effects of the planned treatment would be. I do know that if I believed one of my children was likely to seriously attempt to harm himself, I would probably be willing to consider almost anything that made such an action less likely.
MS,
Jury duty? This is one that should not reach the jury. I am curious, what facts do you think would justify giving an11 year old hormone treatments to delay puberty and allow that child to decide whether he wants to be a boy/ girl? Perhaps parenting is not for you.
If this is what is at the forefront of this child’s mind then he or she has been privy to far too many adult conversations.
I have a real problem with the hormone interference.
Btw, I agree with Jo.
culheath,
lol … I was afraid you might think I was being irreverant, then I thought, “No, not culheath … he sees the humor in life.”
Bloiuse,
“So many complete wardrobe changes will certainly benefit the fashion industry.”
Not to mention the walk-in closet industry.
“Consider the concept that in the future people will be able to alter there sexuality at a genetic level perhaps several times during the course of their life.” (culheath)
So many complete wardrobe changes will certainly benefit the fashion industry.
marjie
just stick with the facts ma’am
when my daughter was ten she didn’t want to grow up
when i was ten i wanted to be a teenager
eleven wants a lot of things, that’s why there are grown-ups
At 11 I wanted to ride bikes, roller skate, climb trees, play with the dog and plop in the mud. Six months later I was in love with Jack Webb of “Dragnet” fame and wanted only to wear pretty dresses and have curls in my straight hair. I would have hated to make a “life choice” at that age, or have been given some hormonal drug to course through my system. When did we stop letting kids be kids?
In 49 of the states, this would be child abuse and medically unethical. However, in the nation of California, where it is permissible to ask, (in a capital case) “If the limousine had been in the driveway, would you have seen it?”, People vs. Simpson, 199X, (that’s when I stopped watching) it is probalby ordinary and customary parental choice. Whic is why I am in favor of swapping that place with China for all our debt. Crisis solved, times 2.
Several considerations: Many transgendered adults look back and see that they felt different at an early age. OTOH, many kids who go through long periods of gender non-normative behavior have no desire to change their gender as adults. There’s a lot of controversy about when to start/inhibit hormones, but no really good research. There is research on competence to make significant legal choices and laws protecting certain kinds of access to treatment (e.g., drug abuse treatment, STI treatment), as well as contraceptive access. The competence research has tended to focus on common situations where children may be very aware of their choices/consequences, such as choice of custodial parent. there is some work related to research participation that takes this into somewhat more unknown territory. In all cases, no one would assume consequences for major decisions before about age 14.
In practical terms, I suspect that the child is considered a “freak” by peers and is at an age where that will get worse very quickly. Middle School is unforgiving and the largely unjustified move from schools being organized around elementary-junior-senior high to elementary/primary-middle-high school has been a big failure in terms of the social environment of children and the earlier appearance of behavior problems.
We really don’t have enough facts to know how much of this reflects a parental agenda or perhaps some misplaced “humanism” and permissive parenting on the parents’ part. Gay or straight, parents can do a lot of ridiculous things, although the potential media and other fallout for gay parents here is an issue. mental health services for gender questioning kids is based largely on “experience” rather than research and I would wonder whether the intervention they’ve received was of any use.
Bottom line…the child is too young to be considered competent for far more everyday kinds of significant decisions and on that basis the medical decision making here seems flawed. We don’t know enough about the parents to know their agenda and their competence. The child is probably going to have a rough time of it as Tammy or Tommy. No one really knows the best age to affect a transition and no one really knows how to predict the best outcomes for kids like this one.
I’m with Mike Spindell on this one. There’s just not enough information to judge.
It does raise a lot of ethical questions but many of them strike me as a tad Luddite in terms of accepting the idea that sexuality is plastic and mutable.
Consider the concept that in the future people will be able to alter there sexuality at a genetic level perhaps several times during the course of their life. Once we have control of the genome there is no gauging what will become the “norm” for what we mean by human physiology.
Brave new world coming atcha.
I predict this to become a central issue in the next Republican Presidential debate…
Even teens sometimes don’t like too much pressure:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfNq0kboAII&w=640&h=360]
Juris:
Single moms have a very hard time raising children from my observations.
I am not saying they are not capable, loving parnets, I am saying some children need what males and females bring to the table in parenting.
My guess is that cases like this one will be used to argue for government intervention in gay or lesbian adoption and custody of children. That’s unfortunate.
I have a hard time understanding why this couple is seeking so much publicity. They seem more interested in protecting the child’s body from developing male attributes than in protecting the child’s privacy. Regardless of the merits of their actions this child is being exploited by such activism.
In one of their early interviews there is a claim that children as young as three can articulate that they are the wrong gender for their body.
In law school 😉 we take the facts given, then hypothesize and analyze.
If the facts change we reserve the right to change our analysis.
To the “more cautious” commentators:
There may be more to the story, as blhlls points out above. But I think that is irrelevant. I cannot think of any circumstances that could justify giving an 11 year old child hormone inhibitors or treatments for the purpose to delay puberty to allow the 11 year old or his parents to decide whether he wants to be a boy or girl.
Bron, I am of the belief that lesbians and gays are just as capable of raising children as the rest of us and do not agree that something is missing. Single moms have been raising children alone for decades. My opinion of this story would be the same if the parents were male/female.
Juris,
Wouldn’t it be better to know all the facts before jumping to conclusions? If you don’t think so then perhaps jury duty is not for you.
Bron,
“A man and woman each offer certain emotional support for children. While same sex couples are no less loving and affectionate to a child, there is something missing.”
really? it may be that the thing that is missing is the *abusive* parent.
An emotionally distant or unresponsive parent can inflict more damage than a whole closet of same sex individuals.
There really is no *perfect* parent formula anymore than there is a *perfect* child formula. The only true perfection is unique….
Just plain sick and wrong. The parents and the doctors should be thrown in jail for this. Because of the influence of the two mom’s the poor child is totally confused. Its as if they are saying God did not really mean for this child to be born a boy, but really a girl. God does not makes mistakes we are the ones that do. Homosexual parents should never be allowed to adopt a child for this very reason.
Drugs inhibiting hormonal growth?
VERY dangerous. Personally I think making this much muck about a childs sexuality at the ripe old pre-pubertal age of 11 to be disturbing but that’s just me. But this child will be ta $$$$$maker for a lot of people it seems…
and it’s not like people get this upset when the hormones are added to the milk…or the meat….or the GMO veg….hell, trauma makes chemical changes in kids that affect thier hormones…ask any child that has been sexually molested….