Posted on 09/15/2011 11:59:10 AM PDT by Brookhaven
The father of a 7-year-old born a girl said the second-grader, prohibited from using the boys bathroom at school in McIntosh County, has never fit traditional gender roles.
At 18 months, the child told Tommy Theollyn, 28, "I'm a boy."
The child's father, who gave birth a year before beginning his own gender transition, said he wants school officials in this rural southeast Georgia county to view his son the way the child has always viewed himself.
"I'm fighting to get a second grader back in school," said Theollyn, who pulled his son out of Todd Grant Elementary after his teacher forced the youth to use the girls bathroom.
The 28-year-old Atlanta native on Thursday will present a petition to the McIntosh Board of Education containing roughly 40,000 signatures supporting Theollyn and his son, nicknamed "D."
"My child is transgender; put simply this means he looks like and identifies as a boy, but has the body parts assigned to girls," Theollyn writes in the petition posted Aug. 24 on Change.org. "Forcing him to use a bathroom that does not match his presentation effectively discloses his status as a transgender child and thus endangers him."
D. effectively came out as a boy last year, Theollyn told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He even began telling classmates he was trans.
"Last year, we reached a very distinct and definite point when [his son] identified as a boy," said Theollyn, adding D. typically dresses as a boy.
There was little controversy at the time because D. was attending a more liberal private school in Atlanta, his father said. Financial problems forced Theollyn and his son south to McIntosh County: population 14,333.
Theollyn met preemptively with his son's teacher, who said she would accommodate D., allowing him to use the boys facility when it was unoccupied.
After D. was told to use the girls bathroom instead, Theollyn arranged a meeting with McIntosh school superintendent William Hunter, who threatened to alert the state's Child Protective Services division about the situation. The superintendent did not return calls for comment from the AJC; Theollyn said CPS was never contacted.
"All I'm asking for is a conversation," said Theollyn, adding he understands why people may have a difficult time accepting his son's situation. "I'm not offended that people are concerned about the welfare of my child. Their questions are valid."
Theollyn said he has taken D. to a child psychologist and pediatricians who verified his son has reached his own conclusions about his gender identity.
"We sought help as a family to find out what we should do, how we should handle this," he said. "People should know I'm not the one who told him he's trans. That came from him."
The American Psychological Association advises parents of "gender-atypical" children to work with schools to address their needs and ensure their safety.
"In most cases it is not helpful to simply force the child to act in a more gender-typical way," the APA said.
Theollyn said he's talked with other parents of trans children who've faced similar problems, though overall more people are understanding of the challenges those kids face.
"Things seem to be changing," Theollyn said. "Kids are coming out younger and they're being heard earlier."
But he acknowledges McIntosh County may not be as open to transgender persons as, say, San Francisco or Atlanta.
"This is Step 1," Theollyn said. "The next step will be to take on issues of bullying that will inevitably arise."
D. understands the situation, said his father.
"I'd say he's pretty well-aware," Theollyn said. "He talks intelligently about it."
Mostly, "he just wants to go to school and be safe," he said.
Station wagons or the rally cars?
Where to begin? This is so wrong, on so many levels. And now, what I would consider a disturbed woman, is dragging a child into her own psychological disfunction.
Along with all the other problems of "transgender-ism" is the problem with language. This article is written by someone who is hell-bent not to be politically incorrect. Also, to make us as confused as possible.
When I was “discussing” the whole idea of “born that way” with a liberal, I asked why people who were “born that way” had a statistically much higher chance of being raised in same sex households or being sexually abused as children.
My lib denied that that was true.
I’m assuming the ‘parent’ took the child to another country for that surgery. Any American doc who’d do that should lose his/her license to practice medicine. Sick beyond revulsion.
Right; but the way it's written is "politically correct", saying the "FATHER" gave birth, as if this is supposed to be quite acceptable and elicit victimhood.
This guy needs a rubber room and straight-jacket, and the child needs serious counseling to right the wrong that has been done to the mental state created by a pervert.
You would be wrong.
They used to sell graham cracker snacks shaped like a bone and called them Scooby Snacks. She would pant with her tongue out and “paws” up and ask for a dog treat.
She was a cute little stinker. Toddlers are the best!
Now I have teenagers.
I get so confused!
If this woman "gave birth" to the child then she is NOT the father of the child. Even if we now call her a "he" it does not make her the father of the child.
Homosexual male molesters of children already have the Psychologists working for them. It is only a matter of time. There is nothing new under the sun. Rome looked like this before Christianity.
sad but true
Neither one looks properly masculine. "Dad" is falling down on "his" job.
Freak....
Leave your kid alone and let her grow up to be well... a girl.
You are messed up in the head and real slow on the uptake.
This parent should be on the CPS list. The damage s/he is doing to that child is the worst example of child abuse. Literally turns my stomach.
Well, with all the probably hormonal and other treatments the "father" got/gets/will get, you can understand he's trying to look the part (IF she looked like Sotomayor, Sostis, or Napolitano, it were be more convincing, or even Bull Dyke Reno).
The bottom line is: "It's not Nice to fool Mother Nature".
A prototypical 'dysfunctional family', without a doubt.
Rally cars! What,? Do you think I’m gay or something?
if there was ever a need for a child to be taken away from a so called adult for abuse then this case is the case.
This woman has some serious mental problem.
A woman has sex with a man,
gets pregnant
then say she is a man
bring her girl up to be a boy
now demands that society should accept her mental disorder and child abuse.
well after seeing Megyn Kelly argue and tell a shrink that cross dressers are normal and that we’re all haters then it goes to show just how out of touch these Manhattan cocktail elitist fools are from the rest of the country.
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