What Would Happen If We Affirmed Every Thought Our Children Have?
During Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on gender transition procedures for minors, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) created a food pyramid after asking his two- and four-year-old daughters what they would prefer to eat for every meal. The entire poster was full of ice cream, in every category. “If my children had their way, we would have ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner.” The room erupted into laughter as the reality of that foolishness sunk in.
“As parents, we have the wisdom to know that ice cream is not in their best interest, particularly their long-term interest,” Hunt continued, explaining why children should not be trusted to make adult decisions that will impact the rest of their life — such as decisions involving transgender surgeries that will permanently alter their lives. The point that Hunt affectively made was that in parents affirming every thought their child has, they are actually causing permanent damage to the child’s life.
A recent study found that most gender dysphoria is established by age seven, right around the age when Kindergarten starts. I don’t know about you, but when I was seven years old, my biggest dream for my future was to become like Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” and live in a castle. Most of my cognitive thoughts that turned into words were out of inspirations of childish dreams, fairytales, and stories. I believed anything anyone told me, because I was a child — gullible and vulnerable.
That is still true. Seven-year-olds still have seven-year-old hopes and dreams, stemming from the stories they hear and fantasies they believe. Research shows that between ages two and seven, children are in the “pre-operational stage,” meaning that the child’s mind is not yet logical, only intuitive. Another study examining intellectual growth found that “absent-mindedness” is a common trait of seven-year-olds. Children at this age literally do not yet possess the ability to make comprehensive and dynamic decisions while taking all factors into consideration.
Even Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas) was quoted in Hunt’s poster, “In essence, the brain doesn’t fully mature until at least 25 years old. Does that tell us about high school students, middle schoolers, and yes, young people who may make rash or irreverent or spontaneous decisions? Should that be their life?” See? We all understand that kids make irrational decisions sometimes, but why does that fact not apply to the decision to undergo an adolescent transgender surgery?
Even with mounds of psychological evidence on the brain development of children, the Left is fighting for children to be able to make their own life-altering decisions about physically impersonating a different gender at such a young age — signing their life away to irreversible physical and emotional destruction.
Hunt said it best in closing, “It is our obligation to protect [children].” So, let us do just that by putting a stop to this so-called “gender-affirming care” that is ruining the lives of many young people in America right now.
