And now that I do know what they are I am glad that I didn't know. I am glad I do not know of any such ridiculous (and in this case really stupid) people.

And with all due respect to transgender people, we have always assigned gender based on genitalia. Some people simply don't conform to that assigning, which I understand. However, I'm not sure we should withhold all gender assignment based on the relatively small number who simply don't find their physical genitals to be in concert with their mental gender. But that's a different discussion completely.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not dismissing transgender at all. I personally know a small number of transgender people (and the fact that I know any at all is wonderful, given my age, 72, and my having most of my life lived in what I'll call gender-normative life) and I more or less get it, insofar as someone like me can possibly get it.

All that aside, even if the world really were one of what I will again call gender normative, meaning either a boy or a girl, this gender reveal stuff is dumb.

You can just call up your friends and say, "We're having a boy!" or "We're having a girl" and delight in that. Much the same as in the semi distant past you got the news after the baby was born. Really. A gender reveal party?

These parties reinforce the notion that sex and gender are the same thing by just the name. That's what's ultimately harmful. Oh, and some people get DSD which I suspect could just get a different color than blue and pink, but I haven't seen that happen. I met a woman who was born with both sets of genitalia and they performed surgery on her as a baby and assigned her with male genitalia. The parents guessed wrong about her gender, and she was always told she was going to hell because of how she was born and was shunned by her family for saying she was a she. I think that is ultimately what reinforced to me that sex and gender are definitely separate.

In general I think it's weird to tell everybody what genitals a baby has. I don't think it's a horrible thing to do. Just... weird. If you want to tell people through a piñata, that's even more weird. If you want to tell people by blowing things up and causing a wild fire that displaces tens of thousands of people? Maybe don't do that.

But it needs to go away, at least the pyrotechnics stuff. That's just stupid, for obvious reasons. I mean, it's kind of... I don't know what what the word is that I'm trying to find.

SMH.

You got some who just have to make a big show of things. I don't get all the hoopla over it. And what about the stuff the colored whateveritis that makes the smoke? And These people don't seem to know much about fire.

My grandmother told me about that. But now, there aren't too many professions that aren't open to both genders, so I don't think it makes the difference that it once may have.

And you're right, as are the other posts on the thread, who is too concerned except the parents? Maybe they want to make it a big deal since it's more common to only have one or two kids, but it strikes me as a misguided attempt for attention, let alone a foolish lack of research into what the results could be...

My mom was all about that and to her dismay she had many female children and one male. Guess who got all the benefits, and it is so for four generations. And there are many female relatives.

This is why education is crucial for a democracy to succeed, if people don't learn anything but a belief system that doesn't acknowledge fact and truth, you have primitive factionalism and constant strife. Critical thinking appears to be a skill and it needs to be taught appropriately. I don't know how to deal with those who reject knowledge.

And I figure only about half of them give a shit either.

There are more Republicans in California than Alabama.