I had to check a couple of times because I was sure this story had to be taking place in either Manhattan or San Francisco. But no… it’s in Toronto. Kathy Witterick and David Stocker are the proud parents of a new, healthy baby. Nothing unusual so far, right? They’ve sent out notifications to all the people you’d expect announcing the blessed event. There’s one piece of information conspicuously missing from the note, though.

But the email sent recently by Kathy Witterick and David Stocker of Toronto, Canada to announce the birth of their baby, Storm, was missing one important piece of information. “We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now–a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …),” it said.

There’s nothing ambiguous about the baby’s genitals. But as Stocker puts it: “If you really want to get to know someone, you don’t ask what’s between their legs.” So only the parents, their two other children (both boys), a close friend, and the two midwives who helped deliver the now 4-month-old baby know its gender. Even the grandparents have been left in the dark.

Stocker and Witterick say the decision gives Storm the freedom to choose who he or she wants to be. “What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” adds Stocker, a teacher at an alternative school.

If we were on Twitter this one would have the #headdesk hashtag. So they’re going to let the child choose his or her own gender, eh? Oh… by the way, do you folks have any other kids that you’re raising with these amazing parenting skills?

How did Stocker and Witterick decide to keep Storm’s gender under wraps? During Witterick’s pregnancy, her son Jazz was having “intense” experiences with his own gender. “I was feeling like I needed some good parenting skills to support him through that,” Witterick said.

Oh, that’s just terrific. You had to name one of your other kids Jazz? Thanks, guys. Well, at the very least I’m sure you raised the previous two boys more normally, right?

Both boys are “unschooled,” a version of homeschooling, which promotes putting a child’s curiosity at the center of his or her education. As Witterick puts it, it’s “not something that happens by rote from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in a building with a group of same-age people, planned, implemented and assessed by someone else.”

Because Jazz and Kio wear pink and have long hair, they’re frequently assumed to be girls, according to Stocker. He said he and Witterick don’t correct people–they leave it to the kids to do it if they want to.

For once I leave it to the Hot Air community to do the rest of the commentary on this story. I’d write more, but I need to go flush my eyes out with vodka.