Transgender children and gender dysphoria
theguardian.com
Transgender children and gender dysphoria
1–10 of 56 posts
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#2I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues.
My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#3I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
IYHO, what do you suggest to do with a child that cries when dressed as their apparent gender, or called by their apparent gender's pronoun?
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#4I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
I think the issue is one and the same, actually, and it's not really their problem, whether children or adult; it's ours and the way that we see them. Regardless of their age, if someone decides to act or dress like someone not of their physiological sex, who are we to judge them?
The parent in this article did the humane, considerate, and respectful thing in accepting Tom's decision, not only in the moment that the decision was made, but also in perpetuity. And if Tom were to make a different decision in the future, I think the lesson his mother would learn (has already learned) was that she would love him regardless.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#5I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
Just my experience: My wife worked in contact with a child that, years later, happend to be one of the earliest officialy recognized trangender of the country at the age of nine.
My wife realized this child was a transgender, very probably earlier than their parents. She saw it clearly in the behaviour, preferences, movements. Is not that someone asked the child about it, but that the child acts and strongly feels so.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#6I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
At 5, one of my kids loved to flirt with the girls. My other son played with a girl who was a tomboy because they liked rough and tumble and both gave as good as they got.
There are so many ways that young kids can identify strong characteristics, even at 5 years old. I can't guarantee they won't change (although my kids haven't changed as far as I can recall).
The first incident I remember (while not gender related) was my son when he was 6 months old. He HATED scratchy fabric from the scarf from a bear. We had to cut the scarf and the tag off this bear. Over a decade later, he still has that same fussiness with fabrics. This tells me that some preferences are there from a very young age.
I could very well imagine some kids feeling at odds with their birth gender from a very young age.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#7I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
> much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life
But why are you assuming it's necessarily the rest of the child's life?
The whole point of the current legal and medical structure using hormone blockers is to delay actually-permanent decisions to the point where (a) the child is legally competent to make a life decision like that and (b) the child has shown to the satisfaction of parents and medical professionals that they won't regret the decision.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#8Some users flagged this submission, but the article is substantive, so we're going to try turning flags off.
Since the topic is controversial, please keep this thread a thoughtful one.
Edit: thank you all for keeping this thread a thoughtful one.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#9I feel like we are confusing children with people that have actual gender identity issues. My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is, much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her life.
> My 5 year old can decide what her favorite color is,
> much less what gender she wants to be the rest of her
> life.
Re: Transgender children and gender dysphoria
#10I think the fact that our society is being more thoughtful towards gender identity is a good thing. But is it possible in our attempt to be thoughtful we sometimes will over analyze individual situations and change our environments, interactions, and treatment, towards those we are trying to help in such a way that it is actually detrimental to them?
In the case of allowing children to choose their identity in the way this article describes, is it possible that a parent might misunderstand their child and enable a short-term change that could be detrimental to a child's development (socially, academically, etc)?
I feel like gender identity is a hot issue right now, and people in general get caught up in the rhetoric and forget about the actual people.