It’s ‘verbal abuse’ for mom to insist her 6-year-old son is really a ‘girl’
Whoever coined the phrase about sticks and stones breaking bones but words being harmless must have lived an isolated life. I’ve endured some painful physical events, not the least of which was giving birth. But some of the verbal attacks leveled against me have left emotional scars that still sting more than any physical scab.
Words matter; words are powerful. Words can harm or heal. Who hasn’t been the victim of verbal assaults such as gossip or of outright invective? But one can also fall prey to a subtler form of verbal abuse: an inappropriate suggestion.
A Mother Who Wants Her Son to be Her Daughter
Six-year-old James, a first-grader living in Texas, is on the receiving end of repeated suggestions from one of the two most influential persons in his life—his mother—that he really is a girl. And many, I included, argue that James’ mother’s repeated suggestions are inappropriate and harmful. James was born as a boy, fully, completely, biologically male—just as was his twin brother, Jude. But it seems that the twin boys’ mother would have preferred one child of each gender, so she has, for three years now, waged a campaign of suggestion and even litigation to convince James and the world that this happily masculine boy is actually a girl named Luna.
Even more alarming about this bizarre situation is that James’ mother is a pediatrician. She, of all people, should understand how impressionable young children are. She should know the power inherent in a parent’s words. Her continuing insistence that James is a girl has to be playing heavily on James’ 6-year-old psyche. Deep down—according to many, including James’ father and many family friends—James knows he is a boy and wants nothing different. And when apart from his mother, James adamantly insists he is a boy. But his mother’s persistent efforts to convince him otherwise—including dressing him in girls’ clothing—must be causing him unspeakable confusion and distress.
A Point of No Return?
James has just two more years to endure this confusion before his gender is chosen for him. If his mother prevails, at age 8, James will begin to undergo a process of chemical castration. That’s right, an 8-year-old boy might find himself undergoing procedures otherwise reserved for criminal sex offenders (and then only in certain states, because other states consider the procedure to be too cruel). When James is old enough to choose for himself, he might choose to end the chemical procedures, but even if the physical effects are reversible, what will be the prolonged emotional effects?
Children as Pawns
If you assume this is but one isolated instance of a bizarre parental attempt to misguide a child, consider this from one of the world’s most famous entertainers. “CELINUNUNU liberates children from the traditional roles of boy/girl, and enables younger people to grow on values of equality with the freedom to strengthen their own power of personality based on mutual respect.”
Yes, Celine Dion, whose melodious lyrics have influenced countless listeners, has partnered with the founders of the Nununu brand of non-gender-specific children’s clothing to promote their notion that each and every child is utterly autonomous and can choose to be male, female or something in between.
Children are increasingly being used as pawns in attempts by far-left progressives to push the sexual-liberation movement to ever more ludicrous limits.
Use Words Wisely
Parents—and all other adults who are in positions to influence children—need to choose our words wisely. Responsible, thoughtful adults do not use words to mold children at their whim, but instead use words to encourage, to develop durable moral character in impressionable young minds. Words really do matter. I pray James’ mother will soon comprehend the power of her words and use them to affirm James as the boy God created him to be.
Denise Shick is the Founder and Executive director of Help 4 Families Ministry. She is the author of My Daddy’s Secret, When Hope Seems Lost, Understanding Gender Confusion-A Faith-Based Perspective and When Daddy Leaves to be a Girl.
