Recently and for the past year or so, the topic of transgender children has become more and more popular among pop-media. As i've began to do minimal research and discussion on the topic myself, I'll share what i've been finding!
Here's a few podcasts to listen to that really express and paint what its like for a parent who's child has discovered they are transgender, and also for the child.
Podcasts:
From He To She In First Grade | Modern Love Episode: 104
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/469516571/modern-love
How To Be A Girl Podcast – Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=2WCLouQT9fs
I've done some reflection and supportive research on these podcasts as an assignment for a Human Sexuality course, however i feel as if this is predominantly important to recongize, no matter how boring the literature review portion of it may be
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gender Identity
Introduction
While discussing the vulnerable topic of gender identity in my Sex, Love, and Human Development course, two different podcasts were discussed and watched to give some further insight to the topic, at least more than what is typically thought of by the general public when discussing gender identity. Gender identity in my own simplest definition, is thought to be part of a whole. The whole being an entire person and their own self, while their gender identity falls within a part of their individual and identified self. Imagine a multiple layered cake – the cake being the individual, and the different layers (one layer being gender identity) creating different pieces and flavors of the cake, yet still remaining part of a whole. This concept can be confusing for people who have not truly explored the idea of gender identity, especially their own, so when other people in the world begin to express feelings, ideas and personality traits that reflects different gender identities that stray from the social norms, society begins to take this subject quite vulnerably. In some cases, people never explore other gender identities, as they feel like theirs meets the societal standard and they do not feel like exploring others’ is necessarily important. However, in other cases, people as young as age 4 or 5 have discovered their “different” or “nonstandard” gender identity and are not afraid to speak about it.
Reflection
In the podcast, From He to She in First Grade, from the New York Times series Modern Love, a big question that modern day parents may face or had been experiencing was brought to light for the general public to listen to. In this story, a narrator describes a mother’s experience as her young son would continually dress in sparkly play dresses and began wearing it everywhere that he went. The parents found themselves at a crossroads when their son became old enough to go to school and felt conflicted about whether they should tell him what to where to school or if they should just let him happily be himself. As the parents finally decided to let him choose for himself, he chose to wear the dress and continually wearing the dress wherever he wanted to go. It seemed as though the child already knew that he would be out casted simply because of his outfit choices, however, it was also clear that he was determined to show the world who he really was. From my own personal reflection, I feel absolutely magical and inspired recognizing the strength and determination of this child to portray his real self to his family and the outside world. As this is such a difficult concept for many adults in the world today, seeing a first-grade child so freely express themselves is nothing but warmly inspirational. The way the mother prepared him for the world he was about to enter as a girl, seemed to me like one of the most morally correct ways to go about doing so, (planning responses to others negative comments, reminding him that it does not matter what others say, etc.) Her choice to respect and support him unconditionally to help her now daughter be who she really was, shows nothing but pure love—love that is ultimately accepting and grounding, rather than quiet and sheltering. After just three short days of freely expressing oneself as a girl to the world, she was extremely confident in the person she chose to be. She told her mother that she no longer even thought about whether she wanted to be a boy or a girl, and this confidence that she portrayed to not only her family members but also her social peers, says all there is that needs to be said, (“From He to She in First Grade,” 2018). Even at six or seven years of age, when a person has discovered their true identity, I believe that through bravery and courage one can fully embrace this true identity of theirs. I believe that this story sets a prime example for other parents who may be experiencing situations like these with their own children and can hopefully be reminded that love is not about protection from societal standards, but rather it is more about breaking down those walls and hierarchies and equaling out the intersections. By allowing one’s child to live freely, I think that parents themselves can also begin to live in such a way—alive, free, and simply happy.
In the next podcast our sexuality class listened to and reflected on, How to Be a Girl, from the website gendermom.com, a similar situation between a mother and her child occurs like in the previous podcast. In this situation however, the process of a child wanting to change genders began as early as age two. In this situation, as the child is a significant amount younger than the girl in the previous podcast, it seemed as if there was a little bit more of a struggle for the family to determine and accept the child’s gender identity. As the mother struggled for about a year to work with the child in wearing girl clothes but still remaining a boy or trying to understand why he wanted to be one so eagerly, her and her family finally began to let go of the little boy that they once knew and began to accept her as the girl she knew that she was. In my opinion, it seemed that recognizing her gender identity came so easily and so clearly to this child at only age two, and it makes me wonder truly how many grown adults are out living in this world still in pure confusion of who they really are. I think that this podcast is also very powerful for those families who are struggling with a member being transgender and feeling as if they have lost the person they were once born as, almost as if a death had occurred. The podcast sheds light on what it is like to be not only a person who is transgender, but also family members and how they deal and cope with the transition these people must go through to become their true selves, (“How To Be A Girl,” 2015). Again, I admire the strength and confidence that these young people have and their willingness to show the world their spirits, no matter if it goes against the social norm. I have hope that future generations will have it easier than previous ones when dealing with such vulnerable scenarios like these, and I also have hope that examples like these can inspire the older generations to fully accept and embrace their real identities for what they are. This world is simply missing the uniqueness that each and every individual holds within them, and it truly disgusts me how social standards set the bar for what is generally accepted and what is not. If we can all learn as one giant human race to shed our lights and embrace what makes us different, I think this world would be nothing but a happier, brighter, more peaceful place.
Literature Review
The topic of transgender children and individuals has become such a significant topic and debate, as it involves a group of individuals who have in the past been simply unrecognized or seen as a deviant member of society. In a community practitioner’s journal written in 2015, it had been recognized that “child transgender referrals” had quadrupled in the past five years. For children under 10, “gender identity services had risen by more than 400 percent,” (“Child Transgender Referrals Quadruple,” 2015). With such a surplus of children coming out earlier and earlier as transgender, it makes me wonder (and hopeful) if it is because our society is becoming generally more aware and acceptant of the transgender community.
As the discussion of transgender children has become such a prominent debate in our current societal culture, much research has begun in order to fully and better understand the situations these children are experiencing in the early stages of life. In a study done by Kristina Olson, Aidan Key, and Nicolas Eaton in 2015, they began to research gender cognition in transgender children through a series of self-reports with implicit measures. In their sample of children, they included children who appeared to be their desired gender, and not their biological gender. They compared this group to two different control groups, one being cisgender children, and also the cisgender siblings of the transgender participants. Through many questions that were carefully thought out to not confused any children about the way that they feel, it was found that the group of transgender children showed very clearly that they knew and thought of themselves as their expressed gender identity. As the researchers acknowledged that future research in this area will consistently need to be done, this research study supports the idea that transgender children are not just confused, but actually more confident than even some adults, (Olson, Key, & Eaton, 2015).
With that being said, that transgender children are not just confused and truly embracing their felt identities, I believe it is important to recognize the research behind supporting a child who is transgender, and the mental health related to said child. In a study done by Kristina Olson, Lily Durwood, Madeleine DeMeules, and Katie McLaughlin, transgender children who have socially transitioned were examined on their general levels of anxiety and depression levels. One implication of this study that I found to be implicating was the fact that the results from these group of children were measured based off of a survey done by their parents. The parents were asked a serious of questions to determine their child’s overall anxiety and depression levels. I think this study would have been more accurate and powerful if the survey was done by the children themselves, or perhaps both the child and the parents. However, the study is still impactful, as parents do tend to spend a lot of time with their children, and I would expect that they have a good general sense of how their feeling at such a young age. These results were compared to those of two different control groups, one group being the transgender child’s siblings, and one being a group of cisgender children. The results show that when compared to cisgender children, depression rates were almost identical to one another, showing no real significance between depression of transgender children and cisgender children. However, it was found that transgender children had much higher rates of anxiety when compared to their control groups, (Olson, Durwood, Demeules, & Mclaughlin, 2016). I believe that the findings from this study show the importance of support with transgender children from their families and loved ones, as even in an already supportive family their anxiety tends to much larger than their general surrounding community. As this study also shows that accepted transgender children have the same levels of depression as cisgender children, I believe it is important to recognize that a slight non-acceptance might change these rates of depression dramatically.
Conclusion
The transgender community has fought for their rights just as long as the gay/lesbian/bisexual community has, if not longer. They have faced just as much hate, crime, discrimination, and violence, which is why they are recognized as a part of the LGBTQ+ community altogether. I think that in a world that used to be so hateful towards what is different in society, coming out as being transgender had to have been one of the hardest, most courageous things an individual could accomplish, and still is to this day. However, based on much research described in this paper, I am beginning to believe that being transgender is much more common than the general public ever thought it was, and as I see our society progressing forward in the way we treat others based on their sole differences from ours, I believe we as a society are beginning to see children naturally become more willing to embrace their true identities from the beginning of life. Perhaps we are slowly eliminating that pre-existing stigma that some of us seem to be born with.
References
Child Transgender Referrals Quadruple. (2015). Community Practitioner: The Journal of the Community Practitioners’ & Health Visitors’ Association, 88(6), 5. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
GenderMom. (2015). How To Be A Girl. Wordpress.com. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://gendermom.wordpress.com/podcast
Modern Love. (2018). From He to She in First Grade. WBR – New York Times. (2018). Retrieved April, 2, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/podcasts/469516571/moden-love
Olson, K. R., Key, A. C., & Eaton, N. R. (2015). Gender Cognition in Transgender Children. Psychological Science, 26(4), 467-474. Retrieved April 2, 2018, from https://doi-org.aurarialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0956797614568156
Olson, K., R., Durwood, L., Demeules, M., & Mclaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental Health of Transgender Children Who Are Supported in Their Identities. Pediatrics, 137(3). Doi:10.1542/peds.2015-3233