(Chris Parker, Headline USA) A pair of concerned parents who reached out to Washington Post parenting columnist Meghan Leahy for advice were instead berated by the “expert.”
The parents were particularly concerned about their daughter’s decision to change her identify four times over the course of a few months, reported The Federalist. They feared that it might be stemming from confusion or social pressures.
“I want her to become whomever she is destined to be, and I would be happy with that,” the mother wrote.
“Is it possible for a teen to identify as something different every month? How much influence do a teen’s friends have on each other to identify? How do we find a therapist, counselor or pastor who can gently ask questions while respecting that perhaps a 16-year-old doesn’t know everything?”
The mother also mentioned the school counselors’ refusal to get involved in matters involving teens’ self-identity “for fear of a lawsuit.” She was given similar answers by other psychologists and even clergy members.
The mother made it clear that she was actually willing to accept her daughter’s choice, as long as she knew that it was authentic.
Still, WaPo‘s snowflake Leahy berated the parents in parts of her response. First, she was condescending of parents, suggesting that teens actually know better.
“Our culture has made a huge shift toward openness and acceptance in this domain, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for parents to ‘get it’ the way our teens do,” she wrote in her reply.
“I want to be clear around the dangers of denying, shaming or trying to change your daughter when it comes to sexual and gender identity,” she continued. “It is a matter of life and death to accept LGBTQ+ teens for who they are.”
Leahy then instructed the parents to simply accept their daughter for who she claimed she is rather than seek help: “It is time to stop throwing out lines to find an adult to shame your child into a hetero lifestyle.”
This incident isn’t an isolated one. A growing number of parents have found that schools will affirm a child’s sudden gender-dysphoria without alerting the parents.
Often, they will impede the parents’ ability to get help for their children – even if the child has a history of mental health challenges.
USA Today recently covered one such incident involving an autistic teen. The girl had never shown signs of gender dysphoria or a desire to be a boy, until she was approached by a transgender student at her high school.
“At her high school, my daughter was approached by a girl who had recently come out at school as transgender. Shortly after meeting her, my daughter declared that she, too, was a boy trapped in a girl’s body and picked out a new masculine name,” the parent recalled.
“I told the school that our wishes are to call her by her legal name at all times. The social worker present at the meeting stated that we have that right to make that request, so I assumed school staff would follow our directive,” the parent said.
“I followed up that meeting with an email, but later learned that my request was ignored and school staff continued to refer to her by the male name.”
