TORONTO - A Toronto couple has raised the ire of friends and strangers alike by announcing their intention to withhold the gender of their latest child.

Kathy Witterick and David Stocker say their baby should be able to develop its own sexual identity without having to conform to social stereotypes or bow to pre-determined expectations associated with gender.

The Toronto Star reported that the couple has chosen to keep four-month-old Storm's sex a secret from everyone but the baby's two older brothers, midwives present at the child's birth and one close family friend.

"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," the couple wrote in an email to friends and family shortly after Storm's birth.

Their decision was widely criticized by even the closest family members.

The grandparents were supportive, but resented explaining the gender-free baby to friends and co-workers. They worried the children would be ridiculed.

Friends said they were imposing their political and ideological values on a newborn. Most of all, people said they were setting their kids up for a life of bullying in a world that can be cruel to outsiders.

Friends also began questioning the way Witterick and Stocker have raised their other two children. Sons Jazz and Kio are well aware that they're boys, but have long been encouraged to shun gender norms and express themselves in whatever way they wished.

Witterick says five-year-old Jazz has loved the colour pink since infancy, is drawn to flared dresses and currently opts to wear his hair in braids. Kio favours purple and prefers to sport pyjama pants.

Witterick educates her children through a system dubbed unschooling, an offshoot of home-schooling centred on the belief that learning should be driven by a child's curiosity. There are no report cards, no textbooks and no tests. For unschoolers, learning is about exploring and asking questions, and allowing children to set their own agendas based on their interests.

Witterick says she and her husband are often called upon to defend their unconventional parenting techniques.

"We spend more time than we should providing explanations for why we do things this way," she told the Star. "I regret that (Jazz) has to discuss his gender before people ask him meaningful questions about what he does and sees in this world, but I don't think I am responsible for that -- the culture that narrowly defines what he should do, wear and look like is."

The couple's decision to withhold Storm's identity is an even more pronounced effort to combat society's assumptions that girls must wear pink and play with dolls, leaving trucks and shades of blue to the boys, they said.

Witterick and Stocker, however, are facing even broader backlash now that their methods have received media attention. A follow-up article published Tuesday documented furious reader feedback criticizing the parents for turning child-rearing into a social science exercise.

"Never has an article left me so upset," one reader said. "These parents are turning their children into a bizarre lab experiment."

"The world around us has been set by thousands of years of social evolution. To try to undo this evolution through your child is very selfish and very inconsiderate to the child," wrote another.

The approach has received support in some circles, however, with one twitter user describing it as a "really interesting idea" and a Star reader arguing that breaking social norms should not be confused with bad parenting.

Despite the increased scrutiny and condemnation of their parenting practices, Witterick and Stocker continue to defend the way they have chosen to raise their family.

"If sex is what is 'between the legs" and gender is what is `between the ears,' neither is confused for any of our children," Witterick said.