'Genderless' Baby Raises a Storm of Controversy

Trying too be gender nuetral.....are you kidding...their other child, a son, in the picture has long braids like a girl would wear. How does that make sense? I feel sorry for these kids whose parents seem to feel that their children should be an experiment. Why do some people have such a hard time finding individuality within culture which seem to have worked pretty well for thousands of years and have had room for some pretty unique people without being bizarre? I think the parents are having an attention crisis.

They re not raising this child in "freedom." They are raising (it) in a prison of secrets! How stressful! How awful! And the kid's a boy -- it is apparent from his face. Just sayin'.

My first thought was the child might be a hermaphrodite. There have been controversies that parents chose the wrong sex before the child was able to choose.

I think it's hilarious that so many people care about this story and are going so far as to say that these parents have mental issues, and that they can't believe that these are the kinds of people that will someday run our country.
In America, we grow up socialized to believe that genders should act one way or another. Gender is a SOCIAL concept. In a study done once, a baby was put in a blue outfit and people automatically talked to the baby different (with a lowered voice and using words such as "you're such a big boy", etc) compared to when the baby was put in a pink outfit (e.g. their voice was raised and they commented on cuteness). I think it's great that these parents don't want their child to be socialized into thinking a certain way. Storm can grow up to feel however he or she wants to.

this aint even worth being news these are the type of parents that are not going to disapline there child and sadly there white i didnt see that coming wink wink !!!

To the parents:
If you don't want to share the baby's gender with the world . . . keep it to yourself instead of broadcasting it! How much have you cashed in on this pathetic attempt at your "15 minutes of fame" at your child's expense?

Did anyone stop to think for a moment that maybe this child was born a hermaphrodite? Maybe the child was born with both sexual organs. Maybe the parents don't want to assign a gener role to the child because they are afraid of making the wrong decision! There are so many instances when hermaphrodite's are "assigned" a gender role by their family only to turn out the complete opposite as they grow up. Whatever the reason is that the parents have decided not to announce the gender of the child is nobody's business.

When this article mentions studies that show what people do, it does not list this entire range of what people do, but only general trends. Example: "Other studies have shown that when people observe a crying baby and are told it is a girl, the child is labeled 'sad.' When told the baby is a boy, however, observers find the baby 'angry.'" This does not mean that ALL people had that response. This does not list all the variety of responses given by the observers in interpreting the cries. Hence, we cannot assume Storm's parents will behave with some gender specific response. Who writes these stories which attempt to lead readers to conclusions that cannot be reached based on the cited studies?
Anyway, I'm sure Storm has a wonderful loving family, capable of making the right decisions for their own family at the right times. Better than those who masquerade their repression of women under the guise of "Family Values".

Why in the world does anyone care?

When our daughter was born, we tried to be gender neutral with her in the sense that we didn't encourage her to play with "girl" toys, or discourage her from playing with "boy" toys, and none of it seemed to matter. She wasn't, like, "dress all in pink and play with nothing but dolls", or any other stereotype, but she definitely played and behaved in a completely different manner from our son, born 5 years later. She didn't dig action figures, and was more apt to play in a more "constructive" fashion, while the boy has always liked to blow stuff up. We didn't do anything extreme, like try to hide gender identity, but what little we did didn't really seem to matter much or have any real effect.

Still, who cares what these parents do? They're not tying the kid down and beating it, they're not mutilating its body (doing some kind of surgery, or something), they're just not telling the kid or anyone else what gender the kid is. Obviously, that ain't gonna last forever, and as soon as the kid can walk, talk, and play with / be around other kids, that kid is gonna know what (s)he is.

So, what's the big deal? Are we so lacking in things to deal with at home, we need to take an interest in the lives of other people now?

Native Americans used to do the same thing to their children. Except when the child was old enough, about three, when they felt a gender would be taken, the decision was up to the child. The way they would have them decide would be to put a toy hammer/hatchet and a doll in a teepee with the child then cause the teepee to be "on fire". The child was never in any real danger mind you, just a lil smoke and mirrors if you will, the child reacting to the "fire" would grab what they felt was more of value to them and retreat. It didn't matter if the child's sex was boy or girl, it matter what they took. If they took a doll, they would be given roles in the tribe that was female gender specific and vice versa. I think it is clever in our current society to try such a move because it is allowing the child to decide. Often we confuse sex with gender but in reality, both are different. Perhaps if more parents would be willing to be this vague about gender, letting the child decide, perhaps then less children who are different in sex from their gender roles will feel more comfortable in their own skin instead of hiding from it. God Bless.

Why is this crazy? I think it's a GREAT idea!!!! I'm doing the same thing when I have kids! I've been planning on it for years!! Personally, I'm sick and tired of people judging others simply by what's between their legs!!!!

I don't see anything wrong with it, I actually find it a fascinating social experiment. Imagine how different you may have been had you not had dolls thrown in your face if you were a girl and a football if you were a boy?

Just when you though people where smarter, they go and complain about a family doing a good thing.

People need to get up and realize gender is far more complicated than xy/xx

Granted:::: just when you think people can't gtet any crazier, just book in here and read some of these comments...lol

I love this!! Grow up to be who you are without socialized gender constraint. Love dolls, hate cooking, love mechanical things but hate math. BE what and who you are without the influence of commercialization, gender socialization or a "color scheme" that defines you. Kudos to the parents who OBVIOUSLY love the child as she/he is born, not what society says they should be. I love the baby already!

They're all kooks especially that Cheryl Kilodavis that are further encouraging their kid's confusion by trying to appear as the most tolerant people. That kind of so called tolerance does not equal intelligense and lacks common sense

My grandmother bought me dolls. I preferred to play with my cousins' toy cars and my uncle's electric trains. End result, a perfectly normal hetero woman, with sufficient mechanical skills to do my own home repairs.

The family should be evaluated before they mess up three children. Social Services......

Not really possible to drastically change the child's outlook on life considering people, whether they mean to or not, do gender stereotype and since his/her own family know his/her gender, they are going to do this whether they mean to or not, to some extent. Also, the child will have hormones and gender body parts to contend with. I'm all for open mindedness and accepting people for who they are, but this could also backfire and create identity problems where there needn't be any.

These people are nuts! Really, who are they kidding...