A few days ago, The Theologian’s Café site referenced a couple in Sweden who were attempting to raise a ‘gender neutral’ child. I submit that there is no such possibility. Gender is hardwired into us, regardless of physical characteristics – if you don’t believe me, then there are many transgendered people whom you might believe that would tell you the same thing.
In 1966, David Reimer was undergoing circumcision at the age of 6 months when the procedure went awry. Penis damaged beyond surgical repair, the 22-month-old David was sexually reassigned to be female by a doctor who was at the forefront of the movement that said gender was primarily a learned behavior. You can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer which will tell you how that experiment failed. John Colapinto has written a book, As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl, further detailing Daid Reimer’s sad story.
There is a vast difference between honoring someone’s gender by trying to instill gender-neutral attitudes towards behaviors, and denying the importance of gender outright. It is a good and joyful thing to have gender, to have a sexuality which is rooted in gender. It is the attitudes and behaviors surrounding genders that can be hurtful, not gender itself. Denying that something so fundamental to humanity that it can transcend the body in which it is housed is not only doomed to failure, but can cause a sick/twisted self-image.
God help that child and that couple…
