CNN Headline News Backs Transgenderism – For an 8-Year-Old

Viewers must have been scratching their heads deciding whether they were watching a news story or a propaganda video during a February 12 CNN segment about a “transgendered” third grader.

In her CNN Headline News Prime News piece on an 8-year-old boy returning to his school as a girl, co-host Richelle Carey failed to interview any experts on gender identity confusion or critics of transgenderism, as if it's normal for gradeschoolers to declare they want to be treated as the opposite sex – and it's proper for parents and schools to go along. 

Carey deceptively identified principal guest Kim Pearson as a “parent of a transgendered child.” Pearson is also a transgender political activist, the executive director of TransYouth Family Advocates, an organization “dedicated to educating and raising public awareness about the medical and cultural challenges faced by children with gender variant and gender questioning identities.” 

As an officer in an advocacy organization, Pearson is a professional agenda pusher.  Carey left the impression that Pearson is simply an average parent who happens to have a transgendered child.  Pearson's organization is so pleased with the interview, they've linked to it on YouTube and placed it on their Web site [1] next to their “Make a Donation!” button.

The only dissent featured in the piece came from the father of one of the 8-year-old's classmates, who told CNN he sees “this as being a very difficult situation to explain to [his] daughter.”

The father appears intolerant and uneducated in comparison to Pearson, who said “according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children have their gender identity formed between the ages of 3 and 5,” and “a child, by the time they're 5 years old, they understand what their gender is, and they're very clear on what gender they are. And it's not any different for kids like mine.”

According to a statement from the school district, the school “continue[s] to be focused on providing a positive learning environment for this student and all students in the class and school that is free from harassment. As with many other students, this particular student brings a diverse set of circumstances to the school setting. This is a learning process.”

Where's the concern about the effect on the rest of the little kids in the class of seeing a schoolmate switch from boy to girl? 

Carey noted that the school has “packets of information about transgendered people” ready to hand out to parents and students, and that experts will be available to answer any questions.

Parents should examine the school's information packets very carefully.  If those packets are anything like this CNN “news” piece, they're just going to be more propaganda. 

Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute, [2] a division of the Media Research Center.