Saturday, August 13, 2005

What do you make of this?

I discovered this on a Focus on the Family website. I don't know what your reaction is to it, but it doesn't "feel" right to me. It even feels a little psycho to me, maybe even dangerous. What do you think or feel about it?

http://www.focusonyourchild.com/develop/art1/A0000684.html

Is My Child Becoming Homosexual?
Before puberty, children aren’t normally heterosexual or homosexual. They’re definitely gender conscious. But young children are not sexual beings yet — unless something sexual in nature has interrupted their developmental phases.

Still, it’s not uncommon for children to experience gender confusion during the elementary school years. Dr. Joseph Nicolosi reports, “In one study of 60 effeminate boys ages 4 to 11, 98 percent of them engaged in cross-dressing, and 83 percent said they wished they had been born a girl.”

Evidences of gender confusion or doubt in boys ages 5 to 11 may include:

1. A strong feeling that they are “different” from other boys.
2. A tendency to cry easily, be less athletic, and dislike the roughhousing that other boys enjoy.
3. A persistent preference to play female roles in make-believe play.
4. A strong preference to spend time in
the company of girls and participate in their games and other pastimes.
5. A susceptibility to be bullied by other boys, who may tease them unmercifully and call them “queer,” “fag” and “gay.”
6. A tendency to walk, talk, dress and even “think” effeminately.
7. A repeatedly stated desire to be — or insistence that he is — a girl.

If your child is experiencing several signs of gender confusion,
professional help is available. It’s best to seek that help before your child reaches puberty.

“By the time the adolescent hormones kick in during early adolescence, a full-blown gender identity crisis threatens to overwhelm the teenager,” warns psychologist Dr. James Dobson. To compound the problem, many of these teens experience “great waves of guilt accompanied by secret fears of divine retribution.”

If your child has already reached puberty, change is difficult, but
it’s not too late.

5 comments:

. said...

I found myself wondering why nothing was mentioned about girls with what could be considered as gender identity issues. What about girls who play with toy cars, join softball teams, work with tools? Just something that makes me go "Hmmm..."

BTW, Ken, great sermon this morning! I love how you distilled Paul's life and writings down to the essence. I felt as if I had a favorite writer/preacher who I had read extensively, and just now got the chance to hear him speak for the first time! Thanks for making Paul come alive!

Ken Schenck said...

I don't know if they have comments somewhere on the sight about girls?!!!

Thanks for high compliments on this morning! I always do what I do... and then never quite know what I've done! Thanks for affirming me.

Jason Fry said...

Hmmm...I can't say that I know exactly what makes that article seem a bit "off." Like already mentioned, it just focused on boys and not any on girls. Is that because seeing boys be more feminine freaks people out more than seeing girls align more with masculine tendencies? I know that I've heard in different circles where people say..."woah that boy is a bit off" and so on because they decided to cook instead of play baseball or something... Anyway...I am still a bit iffy on what that article is suggesting.

And one more thing...thank you, as well, for the Paul "sermon." I really appreciated it!

Ken Schenck said...

Thanks for the affirmation.

Yeah, my son can get whiny sometimes, even though he's Spiderman most of the time. He seems to punch things often enough to pass this text... but sometimes he would put on his sisters' bracelets if we let him... :)

It just angers me to think I'm supposed to label him on some sort of macho scale because of actions that are not even gender related in his mind.

It seems very ignorant and dangerous to me.

(But then again, I run after moving traffic sometimes...)

. said...

Probably safer than running after parked cars! :)

I know what you mean, though, about little boys. I've seen little guys who clomped around in Mommy's heels and necklaces grow up to be definitely hetero, happily married men!

I think sometimes society pushes kids to express their "gender orientation" ASAP. If you're 10 and don't have a girlfriend/boyfriend, there's something wrong with you.

I have a theory that some teens who "out" themselves are really just late bloomers who figure that if they're not interested in the opposite sex on the "culturally appropriate" time-table then they must be gay. JMO. I'll get off my soapbox now.