It's a boy! Couple reveal sex of their 'gender neutral' kid after five years

[MadrasT]

177. They referred to me by my gender neutral name

Not as their anything

They avoided gendered pronouns

I had no siblings until I was 5

They did somewhat shame mindless *femaleness* (things that are female stereotyped) but I did not get the message that I should feel ashamed to have a girl body or be ashamed that I was female born

I was literally not allowed to have a Barbie doll (although they did not interest me much anyway) or other things like that or frilly girl clothes (did not much want them either but any minimal interest I expressed in girly things was scoffed at) (they eventually broke down and allowed me to have some girly *costumes* for playing dress up) (but I had boys costumes and mostly animal costumes too) and it was clear that girly clothes were literally costuming

In retrospect - what a great message

The message I got was that I was a person first - and the fact that I was also female was *so what*

I love that my parents raised me that way

(sorry my punctuation keys literally do not work on this device)

I am not trying to convince you that you are wrong just saying I see this totally differently because I lived this to some degree and I love that I did

I do not think shame is an automatic takeaway for this boy (though it is a possible takeaway)

As you may know - as an adult I identify as a nongendered female bodied human - my gender just does not matter to me