WEST ROXBURY, MA - Most expectant couples can't wait to find out the sex of their unborn baby at around 18 - 20 weeks gestation. But they're in for a surprise if they visit the OB/GYN office where Marianne Wynne is an ultrasound technician.
Wynne, a self-described "hyper-progressive ally," steadfastly refuses to tell anxious couples whether their child is a boy or a girl when they come in for their ultrasound appointment, choosing instead to lecture her patients about the dangers of forcing their child into a binary system and carelessly gendering them before they have a say in the matter.
"Who are we to make this decision for them?" she told one young couple Tuesday after they came in for a prenatal checkup, according to the patients.
"It was so weird - she was really aggressive," Melinda Harper, the expectant mother, told reporters after her appointment. "I was begging her to tell me whether I was having a boy or a girl and she just kept repeating 'I refuse to force a gender on this potential human.'"
"She told me to do the responsible, loving thing and wait five or six years and then ask my child how they would like to identify," she added.