Five-year-old boy opts to become a girl

why make the toilets unisex, last i knew girls didnt use urinals, all the child has to do is go into a stall and close the door- no one will see what a she does.

i just hope they dont operate until he is of age to make an informed decission, what if he decided 10 years down the line he want to be a boy after all??

I was a tomboy as a kid from as young as I can remember. At the age of 3 my favourite outfit was a cowboy with a toy gun. I hated dresses and ribbons and anything pink. I played outside, climbing trees etc, never owned a Barbie, found female friends boring as I hated their girly games. I loved boys, found them so much more fun to be around. Reading this, I am so relieved my parents didn't make me think that I should have been a boy and possibly risk confusing the hell out of me which could have resulted in not going through puberty and changing my gender! I still love boys, so I'd probably have ended up gay. If this kid wants to dress as a girl and have a pink bedroom let him, but don't make him believe he should be a girl, things change, he is only five years old.

Such a shame how obsessed society still is with sex and gender and all these nonsense stereotypes attached. The concept of gender is for those who like to have it the easy way as actually this and related (so-called) terms are like custard to be nailed to a wall.
Apart from that I am amazed that the kid dresses like a girl: what does that include exactly? Or rather: what does the uniform mind of society include in that exactly? How NOT interesting. There should be worse things to worry about, but people still can't get over such clichés and definitions. Sad.

I'm pretty broad minded and would not question this if it was a teenager or an adult. But somehow this sits rather uncomfortably with me. Where do we draw the line? My god-daughter was a tomboy and would never wear a dress or play girlie games, she even had a boyish hairstyle. When she got to the age of 15 she had completely changed and is as girlie as you can get. So I wonder what would have happened if her parents/school had encouraged her to continue being a tomboy?!?

The biggest thing that bothers me about this article are the responses to it. When a little boy wants to wear Mommy's heels, he's probably just playing around. HOWEVER. When a little boy tries to CUT HIS OWN PARTS OFF, there is waaay more to the situation! OBVIOUSLY allowing this boy to live as a girl is IN HIS BENEFIT. Being a parent myself, I would do ANYTHING to prevent my children from harming themselves, and I certainly would not forsake their happiness for fear of media and social ridicule.
As for "What happened to society 25 years ago..." Well you know what, 25 years ago people were saying the same thing. Only their problem was that police and media were spotlighting Sexual Abuse in children. God forbid we actually ADDRESS the problems that are presenting themselves in our society, but no, you closed-minded people would much rather live in your closets and hear nothing of what is truly going on with our children! We would rather ignore the situations and pretend they don't exist. THIS is the problem with our society, NOT the fact that situations like these are happening. When my mother was a child, she was sexually abused, and her parents were of the same "pretend it didn't happen" mindset. She suffered SEVERE mental and psychological trauma and still has to deal with that today. And sorry to say, but this situation is exactly the same in the fact that if we continue to ignore that this is happening, our children are going to suffer irreparable psychological damage that will haunt them for the rest of their lives! And if you think I am over-exaggerating, you just need to wake up and look around you, because the world is out there whether you like it or not.

I just think its very sad the child has had their picture spread over the internet. I'm not sure about whether he would have known about gender as I have no experience so am ignorant to comment further. For people in general who are born into the wrong gender I feel for and wish others could live as they feel they should.

Young humans are complex and they are certainly not mini adults (as basic psychology will teach you). They go through many phases in their development. This child is clearly adamant about her gender (evidenced by the radical behaviour). I'm sure that the parents, school, health pros, have all tried simplistic solutions (eg "there, there, dear - let's be a boy again now"). If this were a simple matter then the child would have complied. As it is, top professionals have worked with this child and s/he is still determined to be a girl. Those who suggest that this is a simple matter have 1) little idea of humans 2) little idea of small humans 3) little idea...

This is collective crime of gross abuse of child's rights. In a society that agrees that children of this age are not capable of sensditive decisions, such as gender. The child was not given sufient time to grow to make further changes of his growing mindset as he did when first admired a male role model. I bet you the child is more confused now than ever befoore. Surely the confused adults are having a field day with their funny gender notions. Every one is born with XY chromozones. male and female genes. We are all capapcble of assertining these traits at different times, without necesarrily changing our biology as were born. We know women who are described as bold and vocal as men, and men who are seen as efffiminate, because of these genes we wear inside. Please revise your biology notes.

#$%$ Watching Dora the explorer doesn't mean you're female. It means he's a kid that likes Cartoons. And he's wearing girls clothes because that's "what mom wears".Rather than explain that to him. We have to label him with a fake disease and parade him in front of the media.Quit trying to proof your kid is something that he's not.He's a boy, He's possibly gay. But he's a boy, a guy and he's f**king male.

when i was a child i wanted to be a boy, insisted on boys clothes and haircut, idolised rocky and he-man and totally rejected barbie dolls. I was absolutly thrilled aged 6 when the department store father christmas mistook me for a boy and i got to pick my toy from the boys box. im now a handbag and heal loving woman and im VERY glad my parents didnt reasign my gender.

Wonders shall never end especially in oyinbo lane.

Dr. Paul McHugh had addressed this ... unfortunate development ... in his article "Surgical Sex" ( http://www.policystudies.ca/documents/Surgical_Sex_Change.pdf ). How, exactly, given the medical advice in that article, does a 5-year old "opt" to "change gender". Dr. McHugh, a Distinguished Service Professor in Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, is forced to come to an astonishing conclusion about homosexuality, transgenderism and Gender Indentity Disorder:" ...We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it… "

.............and this publicity is going to help the boy how exactly???

Usually, when there is any issue with kids, Reasons why all become very clear, when you meet the parents.

Yes its more than what meets the eye . I've met at least two children in my life under the age of five ;boys who acts like girls and people just go on ignoring them .No one believes these things but its a real problem. Now am not saying this problem cannot be fix , how ever you fix the brain would be how you fix this problem . Something happens inside you that just no mater what ,you cannot identify with the gender your parts are . I've also seen kids that play around with girls stuff but you can tell there just playing around and i've seen the case where you just know this is not a game .treat it as mental retardation whatever you like but it is real. and gay men do want to be a girl not your kind of woman but trust they want to be a woman

Is it the same kids that have imaginary friends that would know why they want to be a boy or girl? This thinking might have resulted in the little lad noticing that girls around ''him'' were getting some prefferential treatment and he feels that being a girl would be better for ''him''. A child might go as far as wanting to cut off the willy to become a girl if he feels that would get him something he wants. This child should be managed through counselling and some serious talking to. Then if ''he'' still feels this way when ''he'' is an adult, ''he'' can have ''his'' gender change. I'm sure there have been pple that felt strongly about such things when they were young only to grow out of it. If we always accept the perverse as ok then we remove the need to question why we are having an unnatural feeling. If after a very deep soul search we still feel this way then by all means accept who you are, but accepting it at face value when such feelings are just transient means we are more confused later than when we started off.

sad! he doesn't know what he is wishing, is not good for his future!:( but he still can be helped is kid, so try again don't let him be a girl!:(

Why all these promotions of unnatural things?I can undrstand the parents of this child's fear when he tried to cut his manhood up.They must have gone to seek help .and allowing him to dress as a girl must have been based on the advise they got and their fear . When Black Michael Jackson changed into white most people were disgusted. It is very sick and unnatural to change nature.Why did the school has to change the arrangement of its toilet because of one child? There is more to life than all these gay promotions.The help they could have given this child was to explain to him that if he feels the same way when he grows up he will get their support.As it is the child may grow up and hate changing into a girl.We all know children are capable for changing their minds easily.For example a child would cry and throw tantrums because he/she wants a dog but shows no interest in the dog as soon as he/she got it and the mum is left with looking after it. Too much confusions is being created these days.But when is all these deceptions going to stop?

Here we go again with all the gays saying 'he can't help it he was born that way'..Well he was actually born a boy.