Apparently children as young as 4 are not too young to be told that gender and sex are different and that their genitals don’t indicate their gender, according to new Planned Parenthood guidelines for parents.
On a page of its website titled “How do I talk with my preschooler about their body?” the abortion provider says if a child inquires why boys and girls have different bodies, a parent should introduce the concept of transgender identity.
“While the most simple answer is that girls have vulvas and boys have penises/testicles, that answer isn’t true for every boy and girl,” the organization says. “Boy, girl, man and woman are words that describe gender identity, and some people with the gender identities ‘boy’ or ‘man’ have vulvas, and some with the gender identity ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ have penises/testicles. Your genitals don’t make you a boy or a girl.”
Parents should then point out to their child, the page continues, that genitals do not definitively establish gender, and that their children “can make that decision based on your values and how you plan to talk with your kid about gender as they grow up.”