It Is All About The Children

I don’t know how many times that I have written that title. It seems that children bring out the worst in adults. The adults always claim that they are looking out for the wellbeing of the children, but really they are imposing their bigotry onto the children. Last week I wrote about a child who transitioned in England, this week it is about a trans-child down in Georgia.

Georgia school denies use of boy's bathroom to transgender child
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Christian Boone
September 14, 2011

The father of a 7-year-old born a girl said the second-grader, prohibited from using the boys bathroom at school in McIntosh County, has never fit traditional gender roles.

At 18 months, the child told Tommy Theollyn, 28, "I'm a boy."

The child's father, who gave birth a year before beginning his own gender transition, said he wants school officials in this rural southeast Georgia county to view his son the way the child has always viewed himself.
[…]
There was little controversy at the time [when he transitioned] because D. was attending a more liberal private school in Atlanta, his father said. Financial problems forced Theollyn and his son south to McIntosh County: population 14,333.

Theollyn met preemptively with his son's teacher, who said she would accommodate D., allowing him to use the boys facility when it was unoccupied.

After D. was told to use the girls bathroom instead, Theollyn arranged a meeting with McIntosh school superintendent William Hunter, who threatened to alert the state's Child Protective Services division about the situation. The superintendent did not return calls for comment from the AJC; Theollyn said CPS was never contacted.

The threat of calling the state child protection agencies is very real and they can make life hell for the parents and children when they step in. There are many cases where they removed the child from their parents and their parents arrested on child abuse. One of the things that child advocates recommend is to create a "Safe Folder" which contains information with proof that you are working with therapist or anything that proves you are seeking professional help for the child, that you are following standard medical treatment. It is kind of sad that you have to worry about protecting yourself and your child from over zealot state agencies, but that is what you have to do.