lovely articles on yahoo "news" about transgender children/gender megathread

[SetGaming]

Being 5 years old is probably too early to say whether someone is actually transgendered.

However, they won't be starting HRT until puberty from what I understand, so effectively you're just letting your child experiment with their gender identity, which is fine.

I've read stories of trans people feeling dysphoric even around this age.

Yeah, but with most articles stating "multiple trans kids in a class" or "5 yr old transgender clubs" seems so unrealistic. Kids can experiement at a young age, in my opinion, but going all out with the parents telling them "you're not really the gender you are" can get confusing and weird.

I remember a story about this kid who was going insane at a very young age and acting really strangely. His parents noticed he preferred to dress effeminately and play with girl toys, but took that as a normal deviation. They took him to a doctor for years, but couldn't find anything wrong, until they saw him trying to breastfeed a doll in the doctor's office. They recognized this as a solid case of gender dysphoria, and after surgery and hormone treatment, the kid is to this day indistinguishable from any 15 year old girl and she has been perfectly happy for at least a decade now. I can't find the source, but it was a TV documentary.

I know there are people who have it as a "phase." One girl at my school has changed gender identities and names numerous times and is very draconian about having people use impersonal-sounding pronouns for herself. It got so annoying I quit my job at the LGBT student services department. But there are real cases of gender dysphoria out there, that can only be solved by science, and need to be respected.

These are normal cases, and that's fine. I don't think anyone in this thread is inherently against transgender people, but the concept of having it forced on everyone. (Especially from a really young age).

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[Narkro555]

These are normal cases, and that's fine. I don't think anyone in this thread is inherently against transgender people, but the concept of having it forced on everyone. (Especially from a really young age).

What do you mean "forced on everyone?"

[ultimamax]

Yeah, but with most articles stating "multiple trans kids in a class" or "5 yr old transgender clubs" seems so unrealistic. Kids can experiement at a young age, in my opinion, but going all out with the parents telling them "you're not really the gender you are" can get confusing and weird.

Yeah putting a label on it and trying to define it for the kid may influence how their gender develops. You should honestly just let them figure it out.

In some cases it's not even actual replacement therapy that they perform (at least in the case of male to female transitions).
It's possible now for treatments to prevent male puberty, so that the boys don't develop a male body, instead remaining skinny and mostly androgynous as pre-pubescent children are.

My qualm with it though is that boys start puberty anywhere around 10-13, and that's a very young age to make big decisions regarding your body.
It's a difficult thing for me to comment or judge upon however, as I've never felt gender dysphoric at any age, nor had a young child who did. I would imagine that in the future if I had a child who felt dysphoric at a young age (or simply just preferred being a girl to a boy), I would probably be against them having those sorts of treatments until they're 18+. But I couldn't say unless I was in that position.
Anyone interested in this topic can find a rather interesting documentary by Louis Theroux which came out this year.
It's not available on iPlayer at the moment, but I'm sure you can find a copy of it somewhere online with a bit of googling.

Yeah this is definitely a strange predicament.. from what I understand, the earlier you begin transitioning, the better you develop into your desired love. But it's hard to say whether kids can make this kind of decision.

[SetGaming]

What do you mean "forced on everyone?"

The way I see it, the media is really pushing the idea of transgender towards everyone. Kids, adults, teenagers. I personally think that if you're transgender, good for you and all, but I don't need to hear it all the time. The media keeps calling transgender people "heroes" and kids/teens are starting to pick up on that.

In theory, it should be a very uncommon thing, but why are we starting to see so many people do it? People are making it out to be a fad, not a disorder like it actually is.

Sure, be proud of your disablilities, but I'm not going to think of someone any different regardless of condition. It doesn't make you special or cool.

[Narkro555]

-snip-

The media should certainly portray it well, because kids need to know that it's okay. Many kids have commit Self Delete because they feared society would not accept them. Sure, maybe there's the off chance a kid is dumb enough to try and be trans as a fad. But which is worse? A few hipsters, or Self Delete?
If you think this is unreasonable, or unthinkable, think about what happened with homoloveuality. This is the same thing. It has to be portrayed in the media, and portrayed positively. Maybe not "heroes," but still make it seem brave to come out.

[SetGaming]

The media should certainly portray it well, because kids need to know that it's okay. Many kids have commit Self Delete because they feared society would not accept them. Sure, maybe there's the off chance a kid is dumb enough to try and be trans as a fad. But which is worse? A few hipsters, or Self Delete?
If you think this is unreasonable, or unthinkable, think about what happened with homoloveuality. This is the same thing. It has to be portrayed in the media, and portrayed positively. Maybe not "heroes," but still make it seem brave to come out.

If we consider them all brave, however, aren't we considering them as better than everyone else?

My problem is that I don't believe being LGBT makes you different in any way. To me, you have the same personality, and you're practically the same person. Instead of putting people on pedestals, we should have complete apathy for these problems. To not care about them in the first place. Sure, we need to work up with that, but if we constantly rant about "how brave gay people are" or how "transgender people are heroes" then it still won't be equal.

[Narkro555]

If we consider them all brave, however, aren't we considering them as better than everyone else?

No, its just the action of coming out requires a lot of grit and is super stressful for some, and to do so can easily be considered a brave action. Once they're out of the closet, then sure, you can stop calling them brave. But society still is hard on gay and transgender kids.

Personally, I'm gay, but I feel like pushing myself as far away from the stereotype as possible, and as you said, not have it make me different. But no matter what, you have to make sure society has a positive view about it, even if it does end up making some stupid hipsters think they're transgender.

On a side note, gender dysphoria isn't something you can just self-diagnose. My best friend is transgender, and had to go to a therapist for a year to determine if she legitimately had gender dysphoria, or if it was just a "phase." After a year, there was proof enough it wasn't, and she's currently doing male-to-female gender changing processes.

[SetGaming]

No, its just the action of coming out requires a lot of grit and is super stressful for some, and to do so can easily be considered a brave action. Once they're out of the closet, then sure, you can stop calling them brave. But society still is hard on gay and transgender kids.

Personally, I'm gay, but I feel like pushing myself as far away from the stereotype as possible, and as you said, not have it make me different. But no matter what, you have to make sure society has a positive view about it, even if it does end up making some stupid hipsters think they're transgender.

On a side note, gender dysphoria isn't something you can just self-diagnose. My best friend is transgender, and had to go to a therapist for a year to determine if she legitimately had gender dysphoria, or if it was just a "phase." After a year, there was proof enough it wasn't, and she's currently doing male-to-female gender changing processes.

Well okay then, sorry for saying some things that could be considered harmful to the LGBT community.

[Narkro555]

Well okay then, sorry for saying some things that could be considered harmful to the LGBT community.

Whether or not that's sarcasm, if you understand, there's no need to be sorry. All you have to do is build a society that looks positively on coming out, not too much though, but also not with apathy.

[SetGaming]

Whether or not that's sarcasm, if you understand, there's no need to be sorry. All you have to do is build a society that looks positively on coming out, not too much though, but also not with apathy.

No, it wasn't sarcasm. I appriciate hearing other's opinions.

[Harm94]

meanwhile the media continues to pump out pointless stories of "Caitlyn" Jenner. Like yeah, he became a she. How's about writing about something new for once?