Society

Massachusetts Couple Announces That It Will Raise 5-Year-Old Biological Girl As A Boy In Controversial Transgender Case

Gender_differences_male_femaleWe have previously discussed the issues surrounding decisions to raise children according to their non-biological sex at a young age. Now, a Massachusetts couple has decided that their five-year-old daughter must be a boy and has decided to raise the child a such. I will readily admit that I am not an expert in this field, but as a parent of four I find such a decision to be highly troubling and premature. A five-year-old child seems far far too early to make such an extreme change. Indeed, this determination was made a year earlier.

The child is now called Jack Lemay rather than Mia Lemay. The change occurred after, at age four, the parents took the child to a family therapy team which concluded that the four-year-old was transgender.

The mother, Mimi, insisted that what she saw as a “psychological burden that I don’t think anyone should have to deal with, especially not my child.” She said that the child began early on saying that she liked boy things and saying that she was a boy. The father, Joe, said that “he was showing real signs of a lot of shame and self-hatred.” Now, as Jacob, they say that the child is thriving.

They are indeed the parents and must act according to their best judgment for their child. However, as a friend, I would have strongly discouraged such a change at such an early age.

What do you think?

Source: CBS

373 thoughts on “Massachusetts Couple Announces That It Will Raise 5-Year-Old Biological Girl As A Boy In Controversial Transgender Case”

  1. Diogenes, Keeping w/ the horse metaphor, it should be a dead heat. And, THANK GOD for Wisconsin fish fries!! A brief respite from insanity.

  2. Well boys and girls, and others, I think we have just about beat
    a dead horse (stallion) (mare) (gelding) to death. What say we call it a truce, or draw, whatever and move on.

    Still looking.

    P.S.
    I’m sorry, I just could resist that closing.

  4. As for trans-gender…how about a child born a hermaphrodite?

    I know one young man very well, now 19, who was “gender assigned” near birth as a female by lopping off all of his male genitalia at a major hospital. By age two he was plainly mostly boy, no feminine characteristics, and was renamed as a boy. He now faces surgery to reverse that earlier gender assignment. He’s not had it easy in school, and now has to decide if the surgery is worth it. He knows all too well that the girls he really likes romantically would be turned off by his condition, through no fault of his own….thus he draws back most of the time. Presently he does odd small chores for me (under an hour’s time) when he stops by weekly and I pay him an allowance (for lack of a better word) of $20/week for it. I really don’t have the extra $20 bucks, but I cannot help trying to make him feel welcome….and needed …I figure its my pay it forward bit for part of the savings I now have as a non-smoker. I’ve also made sure he has a Android Pad and other things beyond his reach otherwise. His father passed away while he was still very young, so he’s a single parent kid. I make certain I have the time to talk to him about what he’s interested in and encourage him…and reassuring him that the difference between me, an intact male, and him, is not indicative of his character, which is similar to mine, when the subject is mentioned. I’m perplexed on how to address the physical differences.

    Am I doing something wrong? For this kid it is anguish not a choice, or “discovery” he ever had. He won’t be campaigning for gender rights. His were taken away near birth. He’d now just like to not have to sit down to pee, nor hide things from girls he likes.

    Anyone here with suggestions of how I can help more, please do. Seriously.

    You may very well help a real trans-gender guy.

    1. Aridog – the situation with the young person you describe are the ones that break my heart. There is just no right answer. I know that everyone does what they think is best at the beginning but then it all goes to hell later. I am not sure what I would do if I were the parent. What you are doing is kind and I hope you are able to keep it up. The young person needs people in their corner, people who do not judge.

  5. Airdog,
    I don’t know what you did see on your side of the interwebs… virus?

  7. Max-1 …was your post titled “Tonight” at 7:10 PM supposed to show a review link of comments otherwise not made on this board? It does…make that “did” when it is deleted like the last 2 or 3 by others. I print-screened it this time so I will know I am not having delusions.

    If done on purpose, by you or whomever, what is the point of it? I’ve already said it doesn’t bother me…what I say elsewhere I will say here if it fits a topic.

    If this wasn’t purposeful, and a “hack” of some kind, what’s going on? Any one know?

  8. Squeeky, It is tough. Channel your thoughts to me as a way to vent your outrage @ the toxic ones. Hell, pretend I said the inane and vapid stuff and I’ll just take it from you and laugh. That way you vent but give no attention to the attention seeking people who are immature and in need of a team of skycaps for all their baggage. Some of these people leave after getting ignored. But, they return and find people they can suck into their personal drama. I’ll do anything I can to help you ignore these people who are ruining this blog. They care NOTHING about the blog, only about themselves.

  9. A Halmark commercial with a special message… Unconditional love has made him a better person in all of his relationships. Isn’t that what being a parent is supposed to be about?

  10. @NickS

    You are right. I am already trying to ignore the repetitive stuff and only respond to the rare and occasional substantive post. Ignoring some posters seems to be an ineffective strategy as I have noticed them cross-pollinating on several occasions. Sometimes, one of them will set up a “strawman”, and the other one will proceed to knock the “strawman” down. Sometimes, one of them will cry, and the other one will run to comfort them. All in all, they seem to be happy playing with each other. The psychiatrists have a term for this, as wiki notes:

    Folie à deux (/fɒˈli ə ˈduː/; French pronunciation: ​[fɔli a dø]; French for “a madness shared by two”), or shared psychosis, is a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another.[1] The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs (“madness of many”). Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as shared psychotic disorder (DSM-IV) (297.3) and induced delusional disorder (F.24) in the ICD-10, although the research literature largely uses the original name. The disorder was first conceptualized in 19th-century French psychiatry by Charles Lasègue and Jean-Pierre Falret and so also known as Lasègue-Falret Syndrome.[2][3]

    Hey, it’s cheaper than driving to the asylum for kicks, and better for the environment! 🙂

    @Bob Stone

    I agree with you that the “T”s probably shouldn’t be included. But I still think the inclusion of the “B”s are also iffy. My goodness, if Freud was right, we are all of us “B”s.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  13. Squeeky,

    I don’t see any wisdom in drawing conclusions about gays and lesbians through observations of bisexuals.

    I simply don’t see gays, lesbians and bisexuals on the same psychological footing as transgender individuals.

    Pogo’s points regarding deconstruction were quite intriguing.

  14. Lawsuit: Transgender man fired because he refused to wear a dress
    http://wgno.com/2015/04/13/lawsuit-man-fired-because-he-refused-to-wear-a-dress/

    Two years ago, Tristan Broussard was happy about landing a great job.

    “Just the environment inside, everyone was like family in there so I was pretty excited to start the job,” says Broussard.

    Shortly after being hired by the Lake Charles branch of Tower Loan, Tristan’s supervisor asked for his driver’s license for paperwork and noticed it stated his ‘Sex’ was listed as ‘female.’

    “I was very honest with her. I’m transgendered, but I’m on hormones for at least a year now,” says Broussard.

    When the company learned Tristan was Transgender, he says Tower Loan’s Vice President, wanted him to sign a document stating that because Tristan was born a woman, that he should dress and be treated as one. Tristan refused and says he was fired.
    (continued)

  15. If people would simply ignore 3 or 4 people who infect these threads w/ toxicity, they would be much more intelligent, civil, and not filled w/ middle school photos and links. The free speech policy here allows them to be vapid, and incendiary. But, the free speech policy allows us to IGNORE them. I implore you folks to @ least try it. You will feel better. I have not responded to some of these court jesters for months and I feel GREAT! It is liberating.

    1. Squeeky Fromm wrote: “I try to actually read and learn about this stuff when time.”

      Squeeky, I have followed your comments and your links. I find them very insightful and valuable. Thank you for taking the time.

  18. davidm equates a chemical abuse problem with being gay…
    What a wonderful guy.

    1. Max-1 wrote: “davidm equates a chemical abuse problem with being gay…”

      You forget that I am a biologist. I go with the science. Sexual arousal is caused by chemicals produced in the body in response to stimuli. The fact that your body produces the chemicals rather than ingesting it does not make that much of a difference to the body.

      Numerous studies have shown the addictive nature of sex, and the twin studies demonstrate the same kind of parallels in alcoholism as they do for homosexuality. There is a genetic component to alcoholism just as there is for homosexuality, but that is not all that is involved. Why do we accept that an alcoholic can manage his addiction through choice but we do not accept that sex is subject to the same kind of management through the choices we make?

      One of the worst concepts homosexuals put forward is that people have no control over their sexual choices. This concept has led to sexual immorality of many forms, including pedophilia, beastiality, adultery, promiscuous heterosexuality, etc. It also has led to alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. The message that we are helpless to control our bodily impulses is a very dangerous message. The message that choice is an unavailable option to us when it comes to sex is a lie.

  19. Squeeky
    “special protections” ?
    If the LGBT community wasn’t the target of bigoted animus, there would be no need to have ‘protections’. Get it?

    prolly not… sigh.

  20. @Max-1

    I am not surprised that the Gaystapo is acting like the Gaystapo. Are you??? Isn’t intimidation their favorite tool??? Nothing to see there, folks, Move along.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

Comments are closed.