PA State Government Form Asks if Your Baby Is ‘Nonbinary’
Is your baby nonbinary? And if so, how would you know? Doesn’t matter. The inquiring minds at the Pennsylvania state Office of Child Development and Early Learning still want to know.
They require social workers fill to out a form that designates infants as male, female, or gender nonbinary. The form is part of a Department of Health and Human Services program that provides services to parents of newborns.
“Non-binary people feel their gender identity cannot be defined within the margins of gender binary,” according to the LGBT Foundation. “Instead, they understand their gender in a way that goes beyond simply identifying as either a man or woman.”
Setting aside the debate over whether sex is a fixed biological fact or a fluid cultural norm, critics say the question is ludicrous either way. How, they ask, does an infant “understand” its gender?
“The bureaucrats at the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning have adopted the radical ideology of the doctors and psychologists at the Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital who claimed that babies know their gender identity in the womb,” said Lower Merion resident Elana Fishbein, founder of No Left Turn in Education.
“These people have been watching too much ‘Family Guy,’ ‘Boss Baby’ or, ‘Look Who’s Talking’ and think babies can talk. This is government absurdity at its finest, but with ominous implications.”
The state DHS blamed federal requirements for the form because the program is paid for through federal grants.
“State programs and related forms must follow federal reporting requirements for demographics data collection for federally funded programs like these,” said spokesperson Ali Fogarty. “In 2021, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration updated gender identity reporting for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. Under the Wolf administration, Pennsylvania subsequently updated its forms in 2022 to align with the new reporting guidance.
“This is simply a field for data collection on the forms, in much the same way age or ethnicity are tracked. There is not a directive that parents be verbally or explicitly asked if their children are non-binary,” she added.
But why would the government ask the question if they don’t expect an answer, critics say?
“The fact that the option of ‘nonbinary’ appears on an official government form implies that it is actually a scientifically viable option at birth, the same as ‘male’ and ‘female.’ As a social worker specializing in child welfare services, I’m horrified at the thought of where this insanity could lead,” said Fishbein.
“We already witnessed cases around the country where Child Protective Services removed minors from parents who didn’t ‘affirm’ their child’s transgender identity. Will we witness infants taken away from their ‘birthing parent’ because the infant disagrees with their gender designation? Will obstetricians be sanctioned for revealing the sex of a fetus to its parents? The people behind this are radical ideologues who need mental health intervention,” said Fishbein.
The existence of these forms was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon. They quote an anonymous Pennsylvania social worker employed by the agency.
“I have to ask clients, ‘Is your 10-day-old male, female, or nonbinary?’” the worker said.
Bruce Chambers, former president of the Great Valley School Board, believes this policy is “just another parallel program to what the public schools are doing to minor children. It is a ‘recruitment’ tool … to groom parents to think this is all a normal process to assign a non-binary gender to a newborn.
“This quote explains what is currently happening in Pennsylvania: The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Chambers said.
And Chalfont parent, Jamie Walker, wondered whether the form was real.
“ As a parent you can look at your child and determine the biological sex. I am not sure why our tax money is being used for unnecessary forms for wasteful purposes. I don’t understand what the government hopes to gain from these forms.”
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