LGBTQ activist group demands 'gender affirmation' for 2-year-olds

Stonewall, an LGBTQ activist group from the United Kingdom, said Friday that "Research suggests that children as young as 2 recognise their trans identity."

The group wrote on Twitter that "many nurseries and schools teach a binary understanding of pre-assigned gender. LGBTQ-inclusive and affirming education is crucial for the wellbeing of all young people!" They linked to a Metro UK article written by an anonymous parent who claimed "My 4-year-old is gender nonconforming – but her nursery doesn’t respect that."

Neither the tweet nor the article linked to any research or evidence that 2-year-olds, or children of any age, can "recognise their trans identity."

In the Metro article, the anonymous parent, who self-identifies as a mother, wrote, "In the months before she started nursery, my four-year-old daughter would often say she was a boy. It came unprompted, bubbling up from somewhere pure and certain inside her."

"I marvel at how self-assured she already is," the mother said, "For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled to assert myself with others, even my own family. I’m beyond relieved she feels comfortable being herself around me, and keeps growing all the more confident and adventurous for it."

"I suspect her teachers don’t think she’s ‘old enough’ for gender nonconformity, despite published research confirming that children as young as two to three recognise their gender, and can identify their own transness," the mother says without naming or indicating the published research.

The mother noted that on one occasion her daughter "looked troubled and added that her teacher told her she’s a girl, that she’s always a girl," but that the mother and father will, depending on the day, ask their daughter "whether she felt like a boy or girl, or neither, to let her know we were listening and keeping tabs on any progression either way."

The notion that children can give adequate consent to the physiological changes that come with "gender affirming care" has been debunked, but a slew of mental health professionals across the United States, Canada, and the UK continue to advocate for the contrary.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has adopted a policy that fully endorses "gender-affirmation" care but that has been met with rebuke and backlash by advocacy groups like Genspect.

The Genspect organization strives for an evidence-based approach to gender distress and said, "We are very concerned that the AAP is currently representing only one set of views on how best to help our children thrive - namely both social (names, pronouns, etc.) and medical transition (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries), which the AAP refers to as 'affirmative care.'"

In the U.S, a federal court blocked the Biden administration from conflating gender identity and biological sex in a civil rights law. California lawmakers are currently considering a bill, SB 107, that would make the state a safe haven for children seeking gender-affirming procedures.