Diane Ehrensaft, a professor at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, says kids can identify as a number of “gender hybrids,” including a “gender Prius” and a “gender minotaur.”
Ehrensaft is the mental health director and chief psychologist at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital gender development center. She made the comments during a presentation at the San Francisco public library. (RELATED: Young Girl Who Says She Was Forced To Share Locker Room With Biological Male Speak Out)
“Ehrensaft’s research focuses on the development and psychological experiences of transgender, gender-nonbinary, gender-expansive or gender-exploring children and adolescents,” a biography of Ehrensaft on UCSF’s website reads. “She is involved in studies of the developmental pathways of gender-expansive children before they reach puberty and mental health outcomes for youths who choose puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones as part of their pediatric gender care.”
“[Clinician Diane] Ehrensaft made what some may consider fringe claims about gender… including that kids can identify as ‘gender hybrids’ which include a mythology-inspired creature called a ‘gender Minotaur’ & that kids can change genders by season…” https://t.co/2weVEgbese
— Bernard Lane (@Bernard_Lane) August 17, 2023
In a presentation by Ehrensaft at the San Francisco Public Library, she states kids can change their genders by season, and be a, “school year girl, summer boy.” Kids can also, according to Ehrensaft, change genders by location, such as a, “at home, boy; at Grandma’s, girl.” Children can also be a “gender Tesla” or “gender ambidextrous.”
Ehrensaft said in the presentation she first heard of a “gender Prius” when she met a young child who wore a basketball uniform and a long blonde braid with a pink bow.
“I’m boy in the front, and I’m a girl in the back. So I’m a hybrid,” the child told Ehrensaft.
Ehrensaft said she came up with the term “gender minotaur” when children told her they were one gender on the top and another on the bottom. Ehrensaft instructed her audience to have a “lot of mermaid books” on hand for “gender minotaurs.”
Ehrensaft said “children come to us [adults] with their gender creativity,” and “what we owe them in return is exposure to the widest variety of gender expressions and identities and an open pathway for them to explore their own.”
Ehrensaft has authored several books, including “The Gender Creative Child,” “Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children” and “Mommies, Daddies, Donors, Surrogates.”
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital’s gender development center sees patients aged three to 17, but specifies it does not provide any medical treatments before the onset of puberty. The center does offer puberty blockers to teens who have entered puberty. The clinic calls blockers “fully reversible,” despite evidence patients who are given puberty blockers suffer long-term bone maturation issues.