Daycare Workers Fired For Refusing To Acknowledge Toddler As Transgender

Attorneys are now filing a lawsuit on behalf of two women who claim that they were wrongfully fired from a daycare center which demanded that they refer to a six-year-old girl as a transgendered boy.

Madeline Kirksey, a Christian author, says that she was terminated as the manager of the Children’s Lighthouse Learning Center because she would not go along with parents who’d decided to recognize their daughter as a boy. Her co-worker, Akesha Wyatt, was also let go for the same reason.

Houston, TX, attorney, Andy Taylor, who is most famous for his victory after challenging Houston’s HERO issue, is now taking a stance against their termination.

“This case involves a little 6-year-old girl who has been attending a private school in Katy, Texas for the last four months as a little girl.  She has parents who are a same-sex couple, two men, who decided that she was transgender,” Taylor said Tuesday afternoon at a news conference. “On Friday, that little girl left school. I’m not going to use names, but (she was) known to everybody as ‘Sally,’ and on Monday, this little girl returns to school calling herself ‘Johnny.'”

The former employees of the daycare claimed that the parents sent the little girl to school with a shortened haircut, which would be considered as the typical style for a little boy, and demanded that they change her name from ‘Sally’ to ‘Johnny.’ Taylor says that the change had been “dumped” on them without warning.

Kirksey disapproved of the change because of her religious beliefs and she also said that she wanted to protect the little girl from possible bullying from the other children and their parents, who she felt deserved to be told about the change that their children would be exposed to. Needless to say, those beliefs are what caused her to lose her job.

The firing of the two women sparked up an important conversation about young children who believe that they are transgender, as well as their parents who allow them to make these choices.

“The folks who are on the front line – the administrators, the bus driver, the teachers – they had a real issue on their hands.  Transgenderism is a major and controversial issue for anyone, even adults.  This is a little, innocent, 6-year-old child,” Taylor said.

Taylor said most psychiatrists would agree that young children are not ready to make that type of decision.

“At that age, they are still trying to decide what kind of ice cream and what kind of breakfast cereal they enjoy. And their opinions about things change, not only on a daily basis, but on an hourly basis,” the attorney said.  “To inflict upon a little 6-year-old girl the heavy decision of her sexual identity is nothing short of child abuse.”

So, what are your thoughts on this situation? Do you feel that the daycare workers was well within her rights to continue referring to the child as ‘Sally?’ Or should they have followed through with the wishes of the parents by calling the girl ‘Johnny?’