A new generation of parents are refusing to assign a gender at birth to their children, dismissing the growing trend as a ‘scary experiment’.
The parents instead let their children decide whether they are a boy or a girl, regardless of their physical anatomy.
They avoid using gendered pronouns when their child is born and refer to them as “she” or “she” with the genderless babies being known as “they.”
Some parents have opened up to the new trend, while experts have warned of the fallout in an upcoming 60-minute segment airing on Sunday.
The trend comes after it was revealed that Australian taxpayers are spending money on a new education program that teaches children that doctors ‘decide’ the sex at birth.
A new generation of parents are refusing to assign their children a gender at birth, with experts dismissing the growing trend as a “scary experiment” (pictured one of the parents in the upcoming 60 Minutes segment)
One mother explained that they wanted to give their child the freedom to choose his own identity.
“We didn’t assign a gender at birth… We’re not trying to banish gender, we’re just helping kids find their own way to it,” she said.
Another parent added, “I let this little person be who they want to be.”
The parent revealed that they had received some backlash from the public with strangers on the street confronting them about it.
Sky News presenter Erin Molan described the trend as a ‘bit scary’.
“You don’t want to tell parents how to parent,” she said.
“But I mean, even to the extent that it’s an experiment, which was just a direct quote right there — I don’t think kids should be used that way. This stuff goes too far.
“If your child, through the stage and the time they get into a position where they’re mature enough and think they’re not the sex they were assigned at birth, treat it.” Do whatever needs to be done to ensure that the child is happy and fulfilled.
“I just think it’s unnecessary and actually kind of scary, the experimentation, because when your kid leaves your house and goes into the real world, they’re going to be confused.”
Development experts have warned that the parenting trend could backfire once children are exposed to the wider community.
Lise Eliot, a professor of neuroscience at Chicago Medical School, told NBC News the kids would struggle to fit in.
“Once your child encounters the outside world, such as daycare, kindergarten, or grandparents, it’s virtually impossible to maintain a gender-free state,” she said.
“And depending on how conventional your community is, you could accuse your child of bullying or ostracism.”
The growing trend comes after it was revealed in December that an Australian taxpayer-funded campaign is telling pediatricians to ‘decide’ about gender at birth.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has produced Let’s Talk About Bodies, Identity and Sexuality, aimed at schoolchildren aged 8 to 12.
The parents instead let their children decide whether they are a boy or a girl, regardless of their physical anatomy (pictured one of the children from the 60 Minutes segment)
The AHRC says the video and an accompanying workbook teach children about “gender, sexual identity and diversity.”
But it has come under fire from detractors who have called it “queer utopia” and “gender awakening ideology.”
“It is bizarre that the AHRC is introducing sexual orientation concepts to children aged three to six years,” said researcher Kit Kowalski to the Daily Telegraph.
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“Inappropriate sexualized imagery is used throughout the video, especially in the Mardi Gras section.”
The video opens with footage of Sydney’s annual Mardi Gras parade, which sees cross-dressing revelers dance through the streets in flamboyant costumes.
Children are told in the video that the march is a celebration of the “diversity of people’s bodies, gender identities and sexual orientation.”
The young people are told about intersex and transgender people, and define gender identity as ‘how you feel inside’.
It also says that some people have a different gender identity than the “gender the doctor decided at birth.”
Critics of the video say that the sex of a fetus is observed in the womb during pregnancy and is not determined by doctors after birth.
The video also explains that some people are “pansexual” and can be sexually or romantically attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or sex.