Some ‘Progressive’ Parents Are Trying To Raise Genderless Kids And Calling Them ‘Theybies’

I weep for future generations, because this is completely WACK.

There’s an article on The Cut right now titled, “It’s a Theyby! Is it possible to raise your child entirely without gender from birth? Some parents are trying.”

Why is this even a question being asked? Why on EARTH would you try to screw with your innocent child’s mental state before he or she even has the chance to talk?

For months leading up to the birth of his child, Bobby McCullough was nervous. His partner, Lesley Fleishman, had enjoyed an easy and uncomplicated pregnancy. The couple’s sunny Brooklyn apartment was now stocked with a crib and diapers and soft, tiny clothes. They were as ready to enter parenthood as any two people could be, and they welcomed it. But still, McCullough worried that the first few seconds of his child’s life would unfurl like some Hollywood script, the wriggling newborn lifted up into the air while “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl” rang out across the hospital room — both pronouncement and fate. “It just would have fucked us up,” he says now, eight weeks later, as, nuzzled against his chest, his tiny baby sleeps, a sweetly mewing black-haired dollop of a human. And so he told hospital staff, “ ‘At minimum, do not describe the anatomy, or what you think the anatomy means, when this baby’s born.’ We definitely wanted to prevent them being gendered in any intense moment. And everybody was aware of that.”

How completely insane do those parents sound? I’m sure they believe they’re doing the best thing for their child, but acknowledging your child’s biological gender isn’t akin to brainwashing or abuse. It’s stating a fact. Right off the bat, you’re conditioning your child to be offended by those who state facts that may make them feel uncomfortable.

Long story short, this couple eventually found a community of parents raising genderless kids and decided to give it a go. Apparently, these people try to avoid talk of gender altogether. They refer to their babies as “theybies” and use the pronouns “they/them.”

Gender is an intentional mystery.

One parent said, “I’m very tired of the heteronormative and cisnormative model. I’m very tired of the patriarchy. A part of why we are parenting this way is because intersex people exist, and transgender people exist, and queer people exist, and sex and gender occur on a spectrum, yet our culture loves to think people, all 7 billion of them, can and should be reduced to either/or.”

Here’s the thing: No one is denying that those people exist. No one is denying their humanity. We’re simply stating fact and acknowledging that those behaviors and identities are abnormal. The left is desperately trying to make these identities just as normal as being a female or male, and that’s where the issue lies. Deny it all you want, but all people are uniquely male or uniquely female– there are no other options. Any case of an “intersex” individual is what you’d call an abnormality. As in, not normal.

This really isn’t complicated. Why are people desperately trying to screw up these precious, pliable minds?

For McCullough, who is black and describes himself as an “outspoken ally” of the trans community, it was a sort of utopia come to life. “This specific group really empowered the hell out of us to do this,” he says. “It was my favorite place to go on the internet. It was just like, ‘Wow, there’s something that we can do parenting-wise that completely goes with our value system.’ ”

A value system that involves ignoring biological facts. Neat!

The couple crafted an email to friends and family explaining their decision and asking them to disregard any sex revelations they’d shared. They set up dinners with their parents to answer questions and try to allay concerns. They looked for a midwife who would be willing to not register a gender and began researching how and if they could apply for a birth certificate without one listed. Before their baby shower, Fleishman sent an email saying, “The greatest gift you could give me would be practicing the pronouns.” How could she say whether the fetus growing inside her was a boy or a girl (or neither or both)? It was clear to her that sex (which is medically assigned) and gender (which is how someone identifies) were two different things. “We wouldn’t tell somebody else how they should identify or who they should be or what they are,” McCullough points out. The baby stirs, and he pats their tiny back. “I’ve definitely had thoughts like, Why isn’t everybody doing this?”

Because pretending that gender is nothing more than a social construct is ridiculous, and raising our kids as “genderless” beings is actually the complete opposite of progress. That’s why. It’s not cute or amusing. Don’t even get me started on the mental toll this will take on those sweet, developing minds. You’re willing setting them up to have mental issues. You’re setting them up to question one of the most basic facts of their existence: Their biological gender.

I don’t care how it feels or sounds. Males and females are uniquely different and play different roles. We compliment each other, and that’s a good thing. This is a fact of life.

Still, the family’s day-to-day routine does not revolve solely around gender; it revolves around the minor catastrophes of keeping a tiny newborn human alive. The few times they’ve ventured out in the winter cold have been mainly uneventful. If people ask if Sojourner is a boy or a girl, Fleishman explains, they say something to the effect of: “We’re going to let them decide how they identify when they’re ready.” In their Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush, that often does the trick, though a neighbor initially thought they were joking. “She thought we were pulling a fast one on her,” says McCullough. “I was like, ‘No, this is what we’re doing.’ ” Friends and acquaintances usually just roll with it. “But I don’t know if our parents are onboard,” says Fleishman, describing their stance as “tolerating.” Most accepting by far was McCullough’s mom, but, he says, “she still has some reservations about what we’re doing.”

McCullough and Fleishman don’t. “Our baby is going to be whatever they want to be,” he says. “And then we’re going to send somebody out into the world who is in turn not going to project their own opinions or stereotypes onto who someone else should be. I’m happy for our kid to be the vehicle in which our parents and friends get up to speed with what’s going on. Change has to happen, and we’re doing it.”

It’s so sad that liberals truly see this as a sign of “progress.” Raising kids to question their biological gender…isn’t that the completely OPPOSITE of progress and good parenting? Parents are supposed to steer their kids. Kids need direction. They don’t need to be entrusted with deciding what sex they identify as. I can’t even believe this is a conversation that needs to take place. It’s almost beyond parody.

This is NOT progress. I refuse to acknowledge it as such.