Minnesota’s New Initiative Introduces Transgender Dolls to Foster Inclusivity in Early Education

This fall, school kids in Minnesota aged four to 10 will be introduced to transgender dolls, thanks to a development initiative funded by taxpayers and backed by Governor Tim Walz, as reported.

The New York Post revealed that these MyGenderDolls, partly developed through the University of Minnesota’s Early Innovation Fund, will be made available for use by educators and clinical professionals starting this year, according to their website.

As detailed on the MyGenderDolls website, the dolls are specially crafted for young children aged 4 to 10 who are exploring gender diversity.

These dolls include removable and interchangeable parts, allowing children to understand the various possibilities for their identity beyond just physical attributes, explained Ben Parchem, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the University, in an article which has since been removed from the University of Minnesota Foundation’s magazine.

The dolls began as a research program in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, spearheaded by two members of the school’s faculty, Dianne Berg, PhD, and G. Nic Rider, PhD, both educators in the school’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.

“It’s really important to address the belief, ‘I’m not a ‘real’ boy because I don’t have these private parts,’ versus, ‘I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like,’” Berg told the Foundation’s magazine in the now-deleted article.

“It’s about helping children develop tools to cope with messages in society that could lead to shame,” she added.

“MyGender Dolls began as an idea of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health psychologist, Rachel Becker-Warner, PsyD. NCGSH Co-Director, Dianne Berg, PhD, and Communications Specialist, Ashley Finch, have been hard at work developing the dolls to be used as a therapeutic tool for transgender and gender diverse children. The concept is similar to classic paper dolls; kids can select bodies, genitals, clothes, and other accessories as a way to visualize their anatomy and genders,” a now deleted 2024 summary of the project from the University of Minnesota’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health read. 

The project is one of many pro-transgender state-funded efforts under Walz, according to the Post.

In 2023, the University of Minnesota’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (ISGH) presented Walz with the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Champion Award “for his outstanding efforts in protecting sexual and reproductive health care (PRO Act, HF 1) and gender-affirming health care (Executive Order 23-03) in Minnesota,” the school wrote in its annual report in 2023.

Of the three faculty members presenting him his award, one was Rider, a co-creator of MyGenderDolls.

News Media contacted Walz’s office, MyGenderDolls, Rider, the University of Minnesota and the school’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health for added comment.