Stop Treating Kids Like Sex Objects
Children, like the little boy crying in New York, can’t know their sexual identity because they don’t have one yet.
Children are not sexual beings. Repeat after me: Children. Are Not. Sexual. Beings. That simple fact appears to have been forgotten in this world of gender-bending and gay-pride parades. For a while now, we’ve heard about transgender kids being given hormone treatments and transgender bathrooms in schools. Each story fails to spark the general outrage it merits. It’s come to the point where the Washington Post shames parents who dare speak out against their children sharing a bathroom with a member of the opposite sex.
Last week, the Facebook page for a photographer famous for capturing everyday New Yorkers, Humans of New York (HONY), posted a photo which has gone viral like few of his images have. Hillary Clinton personally commented, as have Ellen DeGeneres and hundreds of thousands of other Americans.
“I’m homosexual and I’m afraid about what my future will be and that people won’t like me.”
Posted by Humans of New York on Friday, July 3, 2015
The image is of a “teen” (as the Independent described him) fearfully decrying future treatment he might experience as a homosexual. He is tearful, and the image is powerful. But there’s one problem. He is not a teen. He is a child of, I estimate, eight years old at most. Maybe ten, being generous.
I Didn’t Fit Gender Norms, Either
If you’ll permit me, I would like to share a personal story. When I was around this age, my mother had an incredible friend whom I greatly admired. I saw in her an adult version of myself. She didn’t like to dress up, she didn’t like makeup. Unlike all of the other tomboys I knew, she wasn’t into sports. She was a lesbian, so I became convinced I was, too. If I had been born in 2006 instead of 1986, I might have thought I was transgender instead.
