The Oregon Department of Human Services is under fire after describing three missing children by their pronouns instead of their sex. The three kids, who went missing in Bend, Oregon, are reported to have been found as of today.
According to KTVL 10, Brantley Hinson, age 7, Logan Hinson, age 4, and River Hinson, age 3, went missing on June 17 along with their mother, Stephanie Lloyd, and a man named Kyle McMullen.
Concerned about the children’s safety, the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) Child Welfare Division asked the public to help locate the missing family, who they speculated could be in Oregon, Idaho, or Alaska, and provided descriptions of the children.
ODHS noted that they had reason to believe that the children may have been at risk, and appealed for more information from the public during their search. But, in the identiying descriptions they provided of the children, ODHS chose to list them by their preferred pronouns rather than their birth sex.
The descriptions of the boys, which included their birth dates, hair colors, case number with the sheriff’s office, as well as their identification number for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, also included “he/him” pronouns for two of the boys. The youngest child, River, initially had “he/him” pronouns, but they were curiously removed in updated coverage.
While the children have now been located 10 full days after going missing, many social media users have taken to Twitter to condemn ODHS for failing to include the children’s birth sex.
“These 3 little boys are missing, and instead of listing their gender as part of their description, their preferred pronouns are listed instead. Unbelievable,” user @Kriscilicious wrote.
Adding to her commentary on Twitter, @Kriscilicious expressed more disdain for the inclusion of pronouns, adding that asking people to look for children based on their preferred pronouns is normalizing gender self-identification.
“Like people are supposed to be looking for preferred pronouns. No, they’re going to be looking for little boys. It’s just another way for them to try and normalize this, but at the expense of helping find these kids.”
In response, other users replied to her on Twitter, expressing similar shock as to why ODHS would list the pronouns of three minors:
In the state of Oregon, the law protects individuals from discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation, including gender identity. According to the government website, which lists definitions they refer to as “helpful terms,” for the terms sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, transgender, gender fluid, cisgender, and gender roles, a gender identity is “a person’s deeply-felt sense of being male, female, non-binary, third gender or two-spirit, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth.” Adding that it “is about who you are.”
Although details regarding the missing children’s condition are not yet available, the Child Welfare Division of ODHS has stated it is “thankful for the community support” which assisted in locating the boys.
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