Conservative group American Family Association has criticized National Geographic after the magazine announced it will feature a 9-year-old transgender child on its January cover.
According to USA Today, the upcoming magazine cover will feature Avery Jackson, a 9-year-old child who was born male but is transitioning to look like a girl, along with the caption: "The best thing about being a girl is, now I don't have to pretend to be a boy."
"We devoted our entire January 2017 Special Issue to an exploration of gender," the magazine announced on Twitter.
An accompanying broadcast documentary, "Gender Revolution, A Journey with Katie Couric," will air Feb. 6 on National Geographic Channel.
"It seems that the discussion about gender is really at the center of our national conversation," explained Susan Goldberg, the magazine's editor in chief. "It is playing out in our education system, legal system, the military. Everywhere you look there is this conversation."
She added that the Kansas City fourth-grader was a "natural choice" for the magazine cover: "We thought Avery was so strong, so proud ... and confident about her decisions that she was a good person to symbolize the new discussions about gender. She seems to sum up the complexity of the issue. "
However, the move isn't sitting well with conservatives, including The American Family Association, which slammed the magazine's decision to promote transgenderism.
"BE WARNED PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS!!! National Geographic shakes a fist at God and biblical authority on their radical mission to advocate gender confusion in upcoming issues. The biblical teaching of the truth about gender identity is confirmed by biological science," the group said on its Facebook page.
"Human sexuality is binary by design. Binary means there are two and only two options according to medical science - a child either has an XY chromosomal pattern or an XX. These are genetic markers which indicate God's master design for humanity and create the capacity for human reproduction," it added. "This Scripture verse comes to mind, 'But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.' Matthew 8:16 NIV."
In an article explaining the reasoning behind the upcoming cover, Goldberg admitted that not all readers were happy with National Geographic's decision to feature a transgender child, and some have said they plan to cancel their subscriptions. Others took to social media, criticizing the publication for promoting child abuse and the left-wing agenda.
"I used to love National Geographic," one person wrote on Twitter. "Unfortunately it has become nothing but a cesspool of Left-wing insanity."
"National Geographic is trying to brainwash young people into thinking this kind of degeneracy is normal," wrote another.
The "Gender Revolution" issue, which hits newsstands nationwide on Dec. 27, examines the "cultural, social, biological and personal" aspects of gender identity, according to a press release.
