{"id":32555,"date":"2026-07-30T11:04:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=32555"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:04:30","slug":"dolls-with-swappable-genitals-for-children-as-young-as-4-spark-national-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/07\/dolls-with-swappable-genitals-for-children-as-young-as-4-spark-national-outrage","title":{"rendered":"Dolls With Swappable Genitals For Children as Young as 4 Spark National Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock | Inset: @UMNews \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Social media outrage ran wild after a report from Moms for Liberty claimed a new Minnesota law would permit dolls with swappable genitals to be handed out in public schools to children as young as 4. \u201cGender Dolls are to be used by teachers & counselors in K-12 schools,\u201d Moms for Liberty claimed<\/a>, sharing a post by Scarlett Johnson, which featured \u201cMyGender Dolls<\/a>,\u201d a \u201ctherapeutic\u201d doll line for \u201cgender diverse children ages 4\u201310.\u201d The dolls feature \u201cpaper dolls with swappable\/removable internal and external genitals, gender-neutral names, and 100+ interchangeable pieces.\u201d The dolls are part of a research program at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. Dianne Berg, one of the faculty members leading the initiative, spoke with the University of Minnesota Foundation’s magazine in an article that has since been deleted<\/a> about the initiative. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s really important to address the belief, \u2018I\u2019m not a ‘real’ boy because I don\u2019t have these private parts,\u2019 versus, \u2018I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like.\u2019 It\u2019s about helping children develop tools to cope with messages in society that could lead to shame,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Conservatives immediately expressed their concerns over the dolls. \u201cTim Walz is using your tax dollars to put transgender dolls with swappable genitalia in classrooms for children as young as 4 years old. This isn’t a joke. It’s happening in Minnesota this fall,\u201d wrote New York Representative Nancy Mace on X<\/a>. \u201cThe dolls come with removable, interchangeable body parts to help children \u2018realize all the different options that exist for who they can be, regardless of their body parts.\u2019 For FOUR YEAR OLDS. Your tax dollars.\u201d Mace called on parents to be \u201cfurious\u201d and warned that leftists are \u201ccoming for your children.\u201d It is currently unclear if tax dollars were used<\/a> to fund any part of MyGender\u2019s research. Dr. Quentin Van Meter, immediate past president of the American College of Pediatricians, called the dolls \u201cjust a grooming tool\u201d that \u201chave no place in an ethical medical care world.\u201d He said children are capable of knowing their biological sex by age three but don\u2019t understand until about age 7 the \u201cimmutability of the sexes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberal fact checkers like Snopes<\/a> were quick to debunk the claims, with Lead Stories<\/em><\/a> releasing a statement from the Minnesota Department of Education calling the claims \u201cpatently false.\u201d \u201cThe paper-cutout dolls will not be implemented in Minnesota K-12 public schools. They are intended for use by licensed professionals and clinicians,\u201d the department claimed. The statement did not address, however, that the MyGender website lists that the dolls would be used \u201cin clinical and educational settings\u201d by \u201cschool counselors & educators.\u201d The conservative group, Defending Education, has filed a complaint with the Department of Education and the Justice Department over the program. \u201cAlthough MyGender Dolls are reportedly the result of \u2018state-funded efforts\u2019 and intended for use Minnesota schools, there is no indication in news reports or on the MyGender Dolls website that Minnesota parents have been informed about MyGender Dolls\u2019 forthcoming launch,\u201d the group wrote<\/a>. \u201cDE urges your departments to investigate Minnesota\u2019s MyGender Dolls program and take appropriate corrective action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social media outrage ran wild after a report from Moms for Liberty claimed a new Minnesota law would permit dolls with swappable genitals to be handed out in public schools to children as young as 4. \u201cGender Dolls are to be used by teachers & counselors in K-12 schools,\u201d Moms for Liberty claimed, sharing a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":32557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDolls With Swappable Genitals For Children as Young as 4 Spark National Outrage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dolls with swappable genitals for kids as young as 4 spark outrage. 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