One might think she's the most fearsome creature in America

 photo Lucy_zpss1gjege0.jpgYou should meet Lucy Tidd. She is 8. It is unusual for such a young child to be scaring the bejeezus out of adults across the land.

Because looking at the behavior of those adults...adults who enough people judged to be sufficiently mentally competent that they elected them to public office, you'd think she was a serial killer.

It was the first day of third grade and 8-year-old Lucy was sitting in the principal’s office with her parents, crying her heart out. She was terrified. Mark and I sat with her and said: ‘This is your journey. We will go and do whatever you want.’ She had this blue bunny and she just held onto that and sobbed and sobbed. And then Mark carried her to the classroom.

--Briget Tidd

The scariest thing is that nobody knew except for the teachers. The kids saw Benjamin walk into school dressed like a girl, and they were like, ‘Hey, Benji.’ They were confused, but there was no malicious intent.

--Mark Tidd

Lucy didn’t relax until recess, when her mother helped a group of curious girls understand what was happening.

I said to them, ‘This is the same person you played with last year, that you played four square with, that you played jump rope with, that you ran around and played ball with. This is the same exact person.’ Only now, Benji wants to be just like you...like a girl.

--Briget Tidd

“I said, ‘Do you think that we can let her be herself and do this?’ ” Bridget asked the girls, who nodded in agreement. “Then the next thing I know they took her hand and they ran and that was it.”

I stood there with tears in my eyes, trusting that the rest of the day would be OK, and I let her go. And at that moment she was completely free, and we’ve never turned back.

Briget and Mark Tidd have backgrounds in special education. Mark has worked at a behavioral health care agency for 15 years and both parents work as ed techs in the public school system in Porland, ME.

I remember finding her journal. And it had one of those questions: If you could be anything, what would you be? And she’d written, ‘I want to be a girl so much.’

--Briget Tidd

I don’t like to see you this sad. It breaks Mommy’s heart. What can I do?' And she said: ‘Some days I just wish I could die and God could bring me back as a girl.'

--Briget Tidd

That was the linchpin for me.

It's hard to believe that this 8-year-old is a budding serial rapist putting qall their women and children in so much danger that all around the country, laws need to be passed to control her behavior.

It is clear that this has nothing to do with "special rights." It is rather all about "special restrictions."

Because clearly, if children like Lucy are not kept in check, the house of cards that is our society will come tumbling down.

The medical professionals confirmed through questions what the Tidds were experiencing: Some kids are born one gender but deeply believe they are in the “wrong” gendered body – known medically as gender dysphoria, when they have a persistent, deeply held belief they have the wrong body parts, and can understand this about themselves as early as 3 or 4 years old.

To be transgender has nothing to do with getting surgery, has nothing to do with getting hormones, has nothing to do with how you look. It’s how you identify yourself. Period.

--Jerry Olshan, pediatric endocrinologist, Maine Medical Center>

Psychiatrists look for three factors – the child’s insistence, persistence and consistence – to determine gender.

It has nothing to do with sexual identity, but with the gender one feels internally.

It’s not ‘I want to be a girl’ or ‘I wish I was a girl.’ It’s ‘I am a girl.’ Gender identity is such a core part of who we are and it’s established in toddlerhood. It’s not a choice. It’s not a lifestyle.

--Dr. Erin Belfort, child psychiatrist

For some kids, it’s a no-brainer. I haven’t seen any kids like Lucy change back.

--Olshan

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

enhydra lutris's picture

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

up
0 users have voted.

...Conservatives are trying to pass laws forcing trans kids to live as the gender on their birth certificates.

up
0 users have voted.
LapsedLawyer's picture

classism, caste-ism, and theocratic orthodox ideology.

No surprise they can't take the whole notion of "tolerance", let alone acceptance.

Which is why Lucy is a much feared "creature" in their eyes; her courage, and the love and acceptance of her classmates, creates panic that their orthodoxies might be subject to debate and question -- they can't withstand the scrutiny.

up
0 users have voted.

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon

LapsedLawyer's picture

Congrats on making the rec list with this lovely story!

up
0 users have voted.

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon