How a seemingly innocent gift led to my child becoming "trans"

In 2014, my son started to ask for the popular block-building computer game known as "Minecraft." Later that year, my wife and I decided to get said game for him, and he loved it. He constantly showed us his latest creations and buildings.

Little did we know, this seemingly innocent game was a gateway drug to cross-sex hormones, wrong-gender pronouns, and a replaced name.

You see, while it may seem like a healthy outlet for creative expression, Minecraft is actually a very popular game among so-called "trans-identifying children." The reason for this is because the game allows for expression of dangerous ideas, and has little to no moderation, being primarily singleplayer.

One of the most problematic parts of this horrible game is the ability for players to upload their own "skins" – essentially, each player can create a character for themselves in simple photo editing apps such as photoshop. This means that the selection of characters is limited only by the players' imaginations. On the surface, this seems to be a positive of the game, but it turns out that it is not.

This unlimited customization dangerously blurs the boundaries of gender and sex, and, especially considering the predominantly young player base of Minecraft, can be very confusing in terms of gender. One of these confused young people is my son, now 21 years old, who, it turns out, had been using the default "girl" skin of Minecraft, often shown in marketing alongside a more fitting masculine character. While this is not concerning on its own, having done so since the age of 11 will surely have contributed to his gender confusion.

However, this dangerous, confusing option is not the only element of Minecraft that contributed to my son's gender confusion. You see, while Minecraft is most often single player, or on large-scale "mini-game" type servers – essentially giant online arcades made in the block game, it can also be played in the traditional "survival" mode in multiplayer. While multiplayer games are an excellent way for kids to interact with each other, it can also provide a way for them to communicate dangerous ideas without the guiding hands of their parents.

Ever technically minded, my son set up a multiplayer server to play with his boyfriend when they were 14 years old and just started dating. Unfortunately, due to Minecraft's neglectful failure to include any filters or safeguards against dangerous and confusing ideological statements, it served as a funnel for the two of them to encourage each other in their "transitions." Yes, that's right – my son's boyfriend is also gender confused. What's worse is that these two, who are perhaps the worst possible people for each other, are engaged to get married in a "lesbian" wedding later this fall. I, of course, was not invited. Heaven forbid I try to save my son from his horrible confusion.

This other boy, I suspect, is the reason that my son is so confused as to his gender. And if another confused youth, with no malicious intent, was able to confuse my son through the game of Minecraft, imagine what maliciously intending adults can do to children whose parents are less vigilant about who their children are connecting with online. Not everyone has as much time for supervision as my wife and I had. And even then, we failed to save our son.

So, this is a warning to parents to be very wary of Minecraft, and other such online games without strict parental controls. And if your child already has Minecraft, as it has become much more popular in the past few years, be sure to check what "skin" they are using, and to have a talk about the possible confusion that could arise from using one that does not align with their gender.

Sincerely, a forgotten father.