Couple Reveals Sex Of Sasha, Child Raised Gender Neutral

It's a boy!

After five years of raising their child gender neutral, English couple Beck Laxton, and her partner Kieran Cooper have revealed the sex of their boy Sasha, according to The Telegraph.

"I wanted to avoid all that stereotyping," Laxton told the Telegraph. "Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?"

Laxton said the couple decided to reveal Sasha's sex after it became tougher to conceal once he started primary school.

The couple didn't ask the midwife who delivered Sasha what his sex was until 30 minutes after he was born, according to the Sun.

"I think finding out the sex at the scan is awful. I'd ban it," Laxton told the Sun. "It's like opening your presents before Christmas, and I worry that people start making all these presumptions about what the child's going to be like."

The Herald Sun notes that Laxton and Cooper are not the only couple to make headlines by not revealing the sex of their child. In May a Toronto couple refused to reveal their child Storm's sex so the infant could be "free of societal norms regarding gender."

Comments

[wrh452]

12:36 PM on 03/13/2013

I don't like the video on the bottom. The reporter called the children "its". "It" is an object, not a person.

[As in]

06:35 PM on 02/02/2012

Wow. What is wrong with everyone here? I know so many parents that are frustrated by society forcing gender norms on their children. The parents of this child should be celebrated for taking this problem on, not attacked for being 'weird'. This comment thread reads like something you would expect from an ignorant mob.

[ruanee]

10:20 PM on 01/24/2012

I said it before and I will say it again... There are approximately 1-5% of children who are transgende­r, “gender variant”, or gender “non-confo­rming”, whose internal sense of gender does not accord with the gender assigned to them based on their genitals, who may not fit neatly into the genders “boy” or “girl”, or whose gender performanc­e preferences do not conform to their assigned or declared gender; being raised in an environmen­t, with inflexible gender assignment­s and rigid gender expectatio­ns, is highly damaging for many of these children. Being trans* is not inherently­, unbearably stressful; being trans* in a culture that rarely even acknowledg­es the existence of people like you and mocks you when it does acknowledge you often is, and is also much more confusing for children. But there also is no evidence that children raised with gender freedom and a celebratio­n of diversity of gender expression­s are damaged or confused at all. The key here is the difference between coercion — which can happen both toward strict traditiona­l gender norms or toward gender-eli­mination or “androgyny­” — and freedom. Coercion around gender is harmful for children; freedom is not and cannot be.... This couple is not the 1st nor will they be the last in attempting to raise children gender neutral.

[carmelcone]

03:02 PM on 01/24/2012

These parents are just ridiculous at best. Gender neutral? seriously? We are born male or female and all the lunacy we can come up with won't change a thing.

[BeninOakland]

12:21 PM on 01/24/2012

Yoohoo, everyone. This article is FACTUALLY INCORRECT, sloppy journalism at its best.

This is not a lesbian couple AT ALL. They are a heteroseuxal couple.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089474/Beck-Laxton-Kieran-Cooper-reveal-sex-gender-neutral-child-Sasha.html

So, all of you who are using this as an excuse to bash gay people, please post your apologies immediately.

[Bronco-fromtheBronx]

09:33 AM on 01/24/2012

Regardless of his parents' five year experiment, I hope this child grows to a healthy and well-adjusted young man. So many individuals are able to get past questionable upbringing. Who knows he might just be healthy enough not to have to make crude and dumb comments about people he doesn't know on huffpost. Now wouldn't that would be remarkable!

[AnJalyn]

12:15 AM on 01/24/2012

Weirdos.

[bbomb187]

12:10 AM on 01/24/2012

These parents are nuts and don't deserve children. No wonder so many kids are ...... up.

[Svana]

11:42 PM on 01/23/2012

i think people are just too bored so they have nothing better to do. Automation has made the human race too idle. Im getting a headache just reading this article.
Just be good to your kids and provide them with purposeful activity.. A little embracing of the natural inclinations that gender provides is good for everyone. When a girl grows up and pops out a baby,,, the natural inclination would be for the girl to nurture her young. IF THERE IS NO MODELING, AND THE YOUNG MOTHER HAS VIDEO GAMES OR TV OR TO GO OUT WITH FRIENDS skateboarding as opposed to some modeling that a child needs to be breastfed and feel attachment to a caregiver right away,,, then what happens when a young mother feels no need to nurture her young and prefers dodging out to partake in some other options?

[Leah Perrino]

01:05 PM on 02/28/2012

ummm....what? so you are saying that girls playing video games is a bad thing? why? it makes absolutely no sense. your argument is stupid.

[Tspoon1218]

11:28 PM on 01/23/2012

Sick people. Where is England's version of DCFS on this? That is child abuse.

[Frank Wunder]

10:45 PM on 01/23/2012

Santa Claus is real.

I suggest you just get over it.

[scandaliciousreserve]

09:30 PM on 01/23/2012

"I wanted to avoid all that stereotyping," Laxton told the Telegraph. "Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?"

*******

A child having its sexual identity at birth - redirected by his adult parents to be gender neutral?

What a fantastic "experiment" - playing with a kid's life - at the time of his early development.

Why didn't they just get a stuffed toy? Oh, that's right - toys are not living things.

[KadyFox]

11:20 PM on 01/23/2012

People like them should just stick to owning a dog. You can treat them with gender neutrality and it doesn't screw them up.

[Rubix41]

09:07 PM on 01/23/2012

WTF !?!

[Felicia Dale]

08:58 PM on 01/23/2012

That kid will be fine, at least as regards to gender.

[elsquibbs]

08:31 PM on 01/23/2012

"I wanted to avoid all that stereotyping,"

This person is out of touch with reality. When the kid turns out to be emotionally damaged years down the road, the parents will have no idea why.