The Trans-Christ-ian Bridge
Children and Teen's Page
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What is going on with the children?
Innocent children should be the best indicators that gender alteration truly exists from environmental substances as opposed to dismissing an affected person as mentally ill or in some way making up a false gender alteration story. Too many little children today protest their assigned gender practically nearly from the time they can talk or acquire a sense of gender, and are able to socialize with other children.
Blame the parents!!!
Many people especially in the older generations blame parents for raising the children in a gender neutral manner, thus confusing the children regarding their gender. This simply does not fly. Yes there are a few accounts of parents who choose not to assign their child's gender at birth, preferring to wait and observe their child's natural behaviors, preferences, and the child's own declaration of gender before settling the question. There are countries and places in the US that do not require a gender marker on birth certificates or the parents are given several months to declare their child's gender, thus making room for testing or for the child to display evidence of gender. However those are not typical parenting choices. Given the blame that parents of truly misidentified children endure later, there may be some justification for some parent's hesitancy to assume their child is actually the gender they appear to be at birth. Today, it is impossible to be sure of a child's gender in the delivery room, but experts still insist a child needs a gender. Just be flexible to recognize later if the assignment is truly in question and deal with it then.
The vast majority of these truly gender altered children ARE assigned gender at birth as usual, as has happened for thousands of years, but later the little children themselves violently protest this choice. The children have no knowlege of the only very recently emerged, larger social transgender scene (Trumps election era, only 3 or 4 years ago). Reports of daily struggles over clothes, swim suits, hair styles, and toys are typical and common of these children. Parents agonize over the implications not only for their child, but endure undeserved blame themselves from judgemental family and friends for "purposely confusing" their child regarding the child's gender. The truth of these cases is that the parents may resist the child's protests for long periods of time and then require counseling and endure a grief process before they are able to process that their child is not the gender they originally assumed. The parents are all too aware that gender altered people do not have easy lives socially, and are more likely to suicide or be abused, or murdered. Furthermore the current treatments to change a child's gender persona are not ideal nor is there a comfortingly long history to establish known side effects. They worry extremely over the unknowns. Nevertheless, typically in true cases they report that the child becomes much happier and better behaved when they are finally allowed to live in the persona they insist that they actually are.
The watchprase in the community for such a child is that often nearly from the age of awareness of gender, the child is "insistent, consistent and persistent" that they are not their assumed gender.
Similar are young people who undergo an apparent dramatic shift in gender and such in teens, in high school and possibly around college age. Medical procedures they have undergone may need attention, or puberty may have exacerbated latent issues and they are finally putting words to something they have not been able to outgrow or overcome or pray away. Folks often blame the internet or bad friends but we must consider that these may be a result, not a cause, of their shift.
These little innocent children speaking up should be an unbiased witness to us all that "something" significant has changed on a developmental level that is relatively recent. Yes there have been rare cases of gender alteration throughout history, probably due to twin anomalies, natural toxins such as mercury exposure, estrogenic plants, and other as yet unknown factors, but "something" has exacerbated this phenomenon in the past century and even more dramatically in the past decade or so. Many people in their 50's and 60's or even older have "come out" as more attention and medical interventions have become available, that is the ones who have not already committed suicide. Another tsunami of teens and children have appeared in society in the past decade, with numbers that still are rising alarmingly, and many suicides in their wake. These events place suspicion upon practices from the 1940's plus or minus, and again additional concern upon events from the 1990's until the present.
Why the explosion of gender issues? What is causing this? Is this all just societal degradation?
Certainly societal degradation is being led by satan himself and he is abominably clever. Surely he and his demons were present in corporate chemistry labs, closed door policy meetings, regulatory agencies, and many other corners of society, education, etc. that play a part in the gender situation.
Under the microscope in the biomedical research community are a laundry list of substances capable of mutating gender, attraction, anatomy, hormones and genes as well as other non gender health effects. These include estrogenic chemicals and other endocrine disruptors, artificial fragrances, sunscreens, flame retardants, most plastics, dry cleaning chemicals, soy and soy formulas and other poisonoous and estrogen mimic plants, and likely more to be identified. Also included are mercury and other toxins, artifical estrogenic drugs (diethylstilbestrol DES, and analogues) given to cattle and pregnant women for decades from the 1930 throught the 1970's, DDT, PCBs, dioxins, now off the market but many persistent in the environment and stored in our bodies to be passed to future generations, genetically altered crops and their accompanying chemical companions, viruses that have been altered by artificial processes. Concern is growing that possibly human dna harvested alive from the flesh of baby girls and boys (the babies die), that is replicated, fractionated and commonly placed in the blood stream of living children and teens of opposite gender amy alter them by insertional mutagenesis if it lands in the wrong place in their bodies. Much more research is needed on these issues, with inadequate attention from regulatory agencies or funding sources, and a great deal of controversy.
Bottom line we need to cry to God for mercy and learn, listen, comfort and help the affected children and their families. (And eschew these immoral substances.)
Teens - Sorting out the fads from the serious
Teens are well known to jump on fads and bandwagons or to follow friends into all manner of "cool stuff", and attention getting behaviors. They influence each other extremely. However the transgender bandwagon is not an easy one, there are no social advantages, and a lot of negative attention, rejection, loss or partial loss of family and friends, rest room challenges, and higher rate of being beaten or murdered. If the teen is taken seriously and eventually a persona transition of some degree is carried out, then they have to settle down and live life in the gender they have claimed they actually are. If they are not truly gender altered in some manner, the "fad" will likely fade. Conversely if the child or teen is not heard or taken seriously (and in some cases even if they are), the truly altered ones have a higher rate of suicide or of disappearing from the family circle. However acceptance in general usually normalizes the suicide rate. Occasionally a young person may leave a loving accepting family in their extreme desperation to seek medical assistance, before the family has a chance to settle on a plan of treatment.
Children, teens, and the "wanna-be" category.
The "wanna-be" phenomenon needs to be also understood and discerned. Often a true gender altered person is better equipped to pick out these cases that are a poor risk for persona transition. They may be somewhat affected but on a milder spectrum or simply unduly responsive to the social choices available today. Family or social circumstances or curiosity or abuse or other factors may cause a person today to consider a gender change who would not have thought of it years ago. These people often may not experience gender dysphoria. Thier language is often that "want to be" the opposite gender. A strongly gender altered person may use the term "want to be", meaning they want to transition persona, but they will usually also insist, persistently and consistently, that they "ARE" opposite gender. With children there is time during the latent years before puberty for them to "try on" the choice, and with their parents, competent medical professionals, and a supportive praying church, arrive into puberty and adulthood better equipped to choose to an appropriate plan of action.
Children, teens, and gender correction strategies
To clear up common rumors and misunderstandings, it is against the law to prescribe gender related hormones to children under the age of 16 and corrective surgeries are outlawed under the age of 18. Parents allow their children to change their persona with clothes, hair, color, room decorations, activity choices, friends, name and pronouns adjustments, etc. Hormones at necessary ages to delay puberty are allowed to suppress secondary anatomical sex characteristics in order to give the child, parents and medical professionals more time to map the wisest plan of treatment. This affords more time for the child to mature and account for possible changes in their gender identification to surface. Balancing this process is the very real risk of serious depression, dysphoria and possible suicidal ideations the child may experience during this waiting process.
Kids in rest rooms and locker rooms
Doesn't it make sense that if a self conscious gender altered girl with male alterations to her body, already going through puberty which is tumultuous enough to most teens, will be over the top distressed in an all male locker room or rest room? Of course in a female facility some of the other girls may be nonplussed. on the flip side, they are more likely to handle and accommodate better than we may realize, if they sense, recognize and identify with the gender altered girl as one of them, a girl, with some extraneous parts.
Commonsense options? Put up curtains (and supervise!) or provide family rest rooms and private dressing room options! It's not that hard. Most businesses already have single stall or family bathrooms.
Kids in sports?
Admittedly tough.
In today's spectrum of gender altered children and young people, there are not only strongly gender altered kids, but many more masculinized girls and women and feminized boys and men. Their identity matches their birth anatomy, but they are built with opposite gender frames and skills. Perhaps it would be more reasonable to divide sports teams according to physical characteristics (height, weight, build, muscular coordination and type), rather than gender, so their structure is more evenly matched and their skill differences can compete in a more level arena. Let them use privacy adjusted and supervised locker rooms as needed.
Kids and names and pronouns
Doesn't it make sense that everyone on earth wants to be called by their real name, the one they actually "are". Even God says "I am Who I Am." and expects to be properly addressed by His real gender.
Names and pronouns are extremely important to all children and all adults. Children already do not have control over their lives, (for good reason). To remove control of their name is a serous way to provoke them to anger and frustration, which is warned against in Scripture. Gender altered people usually tolerate mistakes (painfully!) while others adjust, but intentional "dead naming" is not excused. This is perceived as a violent attack on their person. How can we win a childor teen to Christ if we denigrate their very name, and refuse to use matchingn pronouns?
Gender altered childrena and teens and the community in general are so distressed by misnaming and wrong pronouns that they have coined new pronouns including "they" and "them", because those pronouns are gender neutral and because they are both male and female. This may be difficult for the rest of us to adjust, but after all, we the "cis" community produced these children, we embraced the chemicals have (unintentionally on our part) created these changes. The least we can do is help them be more comfortable as is possible.
Children who are agender and gender fluid
Some children appear to be agender, ie, they do not identify with either male of female, but development of secondary characteristics may upset them extremely. Finally, the most confusing and troubling piece of gender alteration may be children who appear to be "gender fluid". They may identify male part of the time and female part of the time. To onlookers this appears simply a "convenience" situation, but in some cases this is a real phenomenon and requires prayer and understanding from our Father Who knows, understands and loves each of His children.
The implications for Christians and churches is that the claims of these children and teens need to be appropriately understood in the light of the Missing piece and other factors individual to that child, and addressed on an individual basis with prayer in a climate of love and support. Families need to be able to turn to their church for non judgmental assistance, love, and comfort. Truly Scriptural instruction and informed moral teaching is needed, with knowlege and understanding for each individual case. Scripture is very plain regading the role of shepherds, that they are not to seek their own benefit but the benefit of the individual sheep and the flock, perhaps at the risk of themselves being misunderstood. More than ever, education, information and understanding of the times and tears of this generation are required. Church elders may worry the "messages" sent to their own young people if gender altered persons are accepted among them, but reports indicate most young people and this generation of children are far more equipped to recognize in general that gender differences are real, and while they may or may not understand why, they often deal more easily with them.
Knowledge of the Missing Piece, of endocrine and genetic disruption, and other factors, is a crucial piece of this understanding for everyone, perhaps most particularly for the older generation,.
God help us. Isaiah 56, Ezekiel 37.
Why are Christians here?
We are conscripted to represent Christ Who loved and died for all, to help others to the Lifeboat the same as we were, as this world sinks into ruin. In all the accounts of the sinking of the Titanic, there is no mention of crew checking under skirts for gender markers, or questioning anyone's attraction status or non essential faith based beliefs. The only question that mattered was if they wanted a seat in the lifeboats. Horrifyingly, there appeared, too late, a huge discrepancy in the lack of assistance or even room afforded the steerage passengers.
Thankfully in God's plan, there is plenty of room in the Lifeboat for all. All are welcome and very very precious to Christ, Who calls us each by our names, who suffered agony, individually, for each one who is willing to "Come".
Aren't we the crew? Can we do less?
Perhaps the last soul to come to Christ before He calls us Home might be a gender altered child or teen?
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Raising Ryland
by Hilllary Whittington (mom)
A true life account of the struggles
of a faith based family as they deal
with their young transgender child.