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First baby born without a gender in Canada

I gotta give props to the parents for going against the grain and giving the kid the freedom to choose how they identify later.

Nothing really wrong here from a gender perspective.

It does feel like one of those things where in trying to avoid bias, they might just be introducing bias into the equation. Like raising a child as an atheist so they can choose their own religion I'd imagine would generally result in an atheist in later life. Just as how many Christians are Christians for not many more reasons than that's how they were raised. So if this kid grows up without ever identifying a gender, I would imagine it would be because of how they were raised, no? Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just an interesting thought.

As long as this sort of decision making doesn't lead to situations where the parents don't vaccinate their kids until they decide for themselves, I think all is well.
 

Frodo

Member
Wouldn't surprise me if the parent had a child specifically to do this, imagine pushing your own agenda that hard on a baby that has literally just been born.

Kid is in for an interesting life for sure

Imagine...



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Bonus:

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Siegcram

Member
A general preference to getting special treatment and being a special unique snowflake, sure.

The only thing Barbara Findlay is achieving with this is giving groups like the alt-right more ammunition to use in their anti having-basic-empathy-and-a-brain agenda. Look at this crazy liberal oppressed by grammar, etc.
I didn't realize we were all now living our life according to what some keyboard nazis might think of it.
 

TrutaS

Member
No advantage to having gender at all in you certificate apart from demographics if I think about it. So why not.
 

SomTervo

Member
Stupid.

We all are born male or female (save for a few hermaphrodite cases etc).

Now, if you want to raise them gender neutral, fine. But scientifically, biologically, that baby has a gender.

No, "scientifically, biologically" that baby has a sex.
 

Kyzer

Banned
Between linking her chosen lower case name to a social cause and teaching her baby that being transgender is a choice, I dont think this parent is doing what they intended to do lol. Looks like they believe in astrology as well, maybe not the best representative for the cause
 
Damn, some of you care shockingly much about things that have literally zero impact on your lives. Does someone not capitalizing their name or someone not wanting to force their children into a specific gender at birth actually make you uncomfortable?

I'll probably never think of lowercase lawyer ever again after I exit this thread, but somebody who thinks they don't have to conform to language rules (proper nouns) cheapens the discussion around things that actually matter.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
So, I think people are used to the idea of Transgenderism on GAF, but this is more of an example of non binary gender, if we take the parent into account.

Basically, it's uncommon, but lots of people adhere to the idea that they have no gender, or have a gender that is not aligned with male or female. I think this idea naturally unfolds into the idea that gender assignment itself is a social construct, and thus it's better to avoid perpetuating any assumed gender because of biological sex.

For people who think this is going to unnecessary confuse the child - I promise you that the gender on their health card will be an insignificant divergence from what you might percieve as normal child rearing compared to many other things that will happen to them.
 
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Okay Canada. Seems like this is more for the parents than the child, and highly doubt that this sort of system will be a thing worldwide. Ever. It makes absolutely no sense.
 

Kyzer

Banned
Damn, some of you care shockingly much about things that have literally zero impact on your lives. Does someone not capitalizing their name or someone not wanting to force their children into a specific gender at birth actually make you uncomfortable?

Yes because linking choosing your name to be all lower case to societys views on transgender issues hurts the discourse and makes the issues seem less serious, because they literally have nothing to do with one another. People who suffer from gender dysphoria are not making a choice that is slightly different from the norm, they were born with a legitimate medical condition that can cause tremendous pain and suffering.
 

Fades

Banned
Omitting gender is one thing, which I do support, but there is a reason why things like medical forms ask for biological sex. Sex determines hormone production and a person's succeptability to certain diseases, as well as other aspects of treatment and triage; this is information that medical professionals do need to know, and refusing to assign your (non-intersex) baby a biological sex means that it's another extra step for them to get the care they need. The obvious exception to this would be an individual who is intersex, but that's also something better handled on a case-by-case basis.

Ultimately they can do what they want because it doesn't affect me, an outside, unrelated observer, but there is a reason for certain precedures.
 

BADMAN

Member
I'm ok with this. I'm happy the parents got what they wanted and had it officially acknowledged on the birth certificate.

Not sure how it's gonna work out for the kid though. Seems like that would be a big decision for the child to handle. Not to mention environmental factors.

On a side note, could someone fill me in on the lawyer's name? Is that a thing now?
 

Fred-87

Member
Damn, some of you care shockingly much about things that have literally zero impact on your lives. Does someone not capitalizing their name or someone not wanting to force their children into a specific gender at birth actually make you uncomfortable?

About the grammar i dont care at all. About the child i do care. Because im afriad the child will get only confused.. 'Mom/dad am i a girl or a boy? Well what do you think?' And the child will get bullied at school for it. Such bad of me for caring about a child right.
 

PJV3

Member
I don't get the reaction to the lawyers name, it's one of those times you go "fair enough" and move on.
 

kinggroin

Banned
I won't lie, my first reaction was an eye roll. But I honestly don't care. The child is going to figure it for themselves eventually anyway and yeah.

Nothing to see here. Heh
 
About the grammar i dont care at all. About the child i do care. Because im afriad the child will get only confused.. 'Mom/dad am i a girl or a boy? Well what do you think?' And the child will get bullied at school for it. Such bad of me for caring about a child right.

To be fair, the real solution is to teach kids to be accepting of all people (it's the same justification some homophobic people use: "we shouldn't let gay people adopt because their kids would get bullied at school!"). But of course properly educating kids takes work.
 
Stupid.

We all are born male or female (save for a few hermaphrodite cases etc).

Now, if you want to raise them gender neutral, fine. But scientifically, biologically, that baby has a gender.

Technically speaking we are all female at one point.
During gestation embryo's with Y chromosomes change into males due to hormones.
Our genitals change from female to male form. Our ovaries drop and turn into testicles.
For some people with Y chromosomes this doesn't occur the way it does with most.
The mother does not consciously control this.

The real issue here is the effect on the child of having a stupid mum and a stupid name.
 

Skux

Member
The non capital bullshit is the just the worst. You're not railing against the status quo/patriarchy/capitalism/whatever by not using capital letters. You're just being annoying.
 

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
So he/she doesn't feel like he/she belongs to any of the genders? Like, she's not a woman, but he's not a man too? How does that work? Seriously asking, I'm pretty clueless about this.

Most likely they'd go by 'they' as opposed to he/she. I know we gender a lot of things in life, but that can be pretty easily worked around for someone who wants to.

So like, think of a situation in which having a gender that is either male or female is essential for getting through the day - it probably doesn't really exist.
 

UrbanRats

Member
I dont think it's a bad idea in theory, it would be interesting to see how gender identity at large in a society would turn out, if social pressure to comform to one of the two genders was reduced.

How things will shake out for this kid though, it's a different matter, since he/she's growing up in a very different society.
 

SomTervo

Member
The non capital bullshit is the just the worst. You're not railing against the status quo/patriarchy/capitalism/whatever by not using capital letters. You're just being annoying.

That's entirely the point.

On her website:

"My name is spelled without capital letters. People make many assumptions about why that is. Here is the story. I have always signed my name without capital letters. When I was taking a Master of Laws degree in 1990, I had letterhead designed and my name was in lower case. I liked it, so I continued it when I returned to private practice in 1992. What an uproar! Lawyers called me up to say that they had a vote in their firm about why I chose that spelling; a court rejected an Order because my name was not properly spelled; and the local queer newspaper refused for years to spell my name without capital letters.

I realized that I had a perfect illustration of how we react when someone moves even a tiny bit away from a norm of behaviour, even with respect to something that has no impact on anyone else. So I have kept that spelling, and I tell this story in unlearning oppression workshops."
 
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