A Canadian couple has decided to keep the sex of their child secret, in an attempt to raise a genderless child.IT IS usually the first thing that proud parents reveal to the world about their new offspring. But a Canadian couple has sparked controversy by deciding to keep the sex of their baby secret as part of an attempt to raise a "genderless child".
Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, who live in Toronto, believe that a child's sex should not determine his or her place in the world.
When Storm was born four months ago, they sent an e-mail to friends and family reading: "We've decided not to share Storm's sex for now - a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place?)"
There is nothing physiologically ambiguous about Storm's sex. However, whether he or she is a girl or a boy is known only to the couple's sons, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, a close family friend and the two midwives who helped to deliver the baby.
The parents say that it will be up to Storm to decide whether he or she decides to live as a boy or girl but their plan has led to them being labelled the "world's most PC parents".
They say that they are striking a blow against the gender stereotypes that order society, which they believe begin as soon as parents pick out blue or pink romper suits. "When the baby comes out, even the people who love you the most and know you so intimately, the first question they ask is: 'Is it a girl or a boy?'," Ms Witterick, a housewife, said. Mr Stocker, a teacher, told The Toronto Star: "If you really want to get to know someone, you don't ask what's between their legs."
Storm's grandparents have been supportive, but some friends have accused the couple of imposing their values on a newborn.
Others have criticised Storm's parents for setting up their child for a life of bullying and notoriety. "These parents are turning their children into a bizarre lab experiment," one reader wrote to The Toronto Star.
"For most people, gender is bedrock. When two parents challenge that bedrock, as Storm's parents have, it makes everyone anxious," said Diane Ehrensaft, a California-based psychologist and a specialist on gender roles.
The couple, who spent a recent holiday meeting Zapatista revolutionaries in the mountains of Mexico, are nothing if not aggressively progressive.
They believe in "unschooling"; a variation of home schooling in which a child is allowed to decide what he or she learns. The entire family sleeps on two mattresses pushed together on the floor and their young sons decide when to cut their hair and which clothes to wear each day.
Jazz recently donned a pink dress, which he said he loved because it "really poofs out at the bottom" and "feels so nice". He wears his hair long and his favourite colour is pink. Kio prefers purple. Most strangers assume that the boys are girls - but Jazz was recently shunned at a playground by two girls who said that they did not want to play with the "girl-boy".
The debate on the long-term effects of Storm's unconventional start in life are likely to rage on. For now, however, the parents have declined to do any more interviews.
"We don't want [our children] to feel like exotic bugs. When consulted, they said 'no thanks' to more media attention," Ms Witterick said
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/canada-to-kathy-and-david-a-bouncing-baby-something/story-e6frg6so-1226062578752
Poor kids, they will never live a normal life now thanks to the fact that their parents have imposed their aggressive progressive political opinion on them at birth. Left-wing political correctness at its best...
