Transgender Children & Youth

Mother of Transgender Toddler Gets a Lesson in Love Advocate.com My child is now ten. He transitioned at the age of five. By eighteen months I knew that this child, my fourth daughter, was different from the first three. In particular, she was very boyish, a characteristic which I had never thought about much before...

Wayne Maines, 08.06.2012 1:49pm "One of the first decisions is whether to tell others that our children are transgender. This decision is often dynamic, as the environments change, we have to change, too. Not telling our schools and community is called "Going Stealth." Going stealth often starts as early as preschool. It is a simpler time in many ways. No one need's to know except family, doctors and a small inner circle of friends. Later, in elementary school, we often decide to leave stealth mode to inform teachers, staff and sometimes community leaders that we have a transgender child. It is not an easy decision. Doing so creates new challenges and bigger fears." -hu…

Leslie Lagerstrom, 08.01.2012, 4:30pm "As I studied the photo of three young children playing house, a sick feeling began to grow in my stomach. In front of me were two girls engaged in traditional-gender-role play, happily assuming the coveted parts of mother and child, and then there was Sam, complete with a fake beard, sportcoat, top hat, and a grin from ear to ear." -huffingtonpost.com XX vs. XY

Transgender kids get help navigating a difficult path Los Angeles Times Amber is one of an increasing number who are getting specialized care. The 12-year-old takes puberty-blocking drugs and hopes to have gender reassignment...

Bridgette P. LaVictoire on June 13, 2012. "For LGBT youth, the world is full of hostility towards homosexuality and transgenderism. These messages are coming from schools, religious leaders and elected officials. Unlike many others who are the subject of intense bullying, though, there is the other problem that many LGBT youth do not have a safe haven at home." -lezgetreal.com And The Survey Says: LGBT Youth Facing Hostility Everywhere

thesun.co.uk, no doubt, has got to be about as insensative, pompous, judgemental and bigotted as FOXNews. Note the overall demeaning tone of the article. The sub-headline, "story that will shock every parent." Quotations around "he" in a few places. Then there's the caption under a picture of Jake and his sister, Olivia, "Sisters... Olivia with her new little "brother."" "Sisters?" Really? The article also starts out as if Jake's parents are villians. Like there is something wrong with them. As if they are doing something wrong. Some people, like the author of this article, Sarah Arnold, shouldn't be allowed to report news. In fact, media such as thesun.c…

Headmaster bans transgender pupil from exam... so she shows him Equality Act The Sun A TRANSGENDER pupil had to show her headmaster a copy of the Equality Act before he allowed her to sit a GCSE exam while wearing girls' clothes...

Families of Gender Nonconforming and Transgender Kids to Convene in Berkeley SF Weekly (blog) Berkeley will be hosting the 2012 Gender Spectrum Family Conference, a "gathering dedicated solely to the needs of gender nonconforming...

Amazing Women Helping One Dad Help His Daughter Huffington Post As I attended the Transgender Health Conferencein April, it became apparent that "Transyouth parents" are asking for help. As numerous dads struggle with how to communicate and be part of the team, women have often carried the load alone...

Gay and Transgender Homeless Youth Face Huge Obstacles Center For American Progress Researchers fielded the survey in late 2011 and early 2012 to better understand the capacity of organizations serving homeless young people to provide services to gay and transgender youth. The survey also analyzed the prevalence of gay and transgender...

Leslie Lagerstrom 07.09.2012 "With situations like this, we have found that it is good to involve an intermediary -- good for the people we are interacting with, because they do not have to worry about offending us with questions, comments, or concerns, and even better for us, because rejection from an intermediary somehow hurts less than receiving it directly from the source. With that in mind, we enlisted the help of a camp chaperone... "And so we waited. And worried. And obsessed. And wondered if it would be possible for these people to give Sam a much-deserved chance to go to camp just like everyone else." -huffingtonpost.com A Happy Camper

MSNBC Dateline - Transgender children in America encounter new crossroads with medicine (video) NBC -- It's unclear how many children around the world have felt trapped in their own bodies the way 11-year-old Josie Romero has struggled with hers. Born a boy but living socially as a girl since age 6, Josie...

The Unfair Criminalization of Gay and Transgender Youth Center For American Progress Gay, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth are significantly over-represented in the juvenile justice system—approximately 300,000 gay and transgender youth are arrested and/or detained each year, of which more than 60 percent are black or Latino...

Lambda Legal, June 12, 2012 "The Human Rights Law is far more specific and explicitly inclusive than other antidiscrimination laws, and provides remedies and procedures that other laws do not. Without it, New York public school students who are harassed or discriminated against, including LGBT youth, lack adequate state law protection." -Tom Ude, Lambda Legal Sr Staff Atty NY Court Says Human Rights Law Doesn't Cover Students

Invisible Youth: Samantha Box TIME Transgender people comprise the highest proportion of homeless LGBT youth. In particular, they are often denied access to shelter services, particularly in shelters that segregate clients based on birth sex. Discrimination and lack of identification...

Are Progressive Parents Ready for Transgender Kids? Slate Magazine (blog) Jesse Green's feature article in this week's issue of New York Magazine on transgender kids and their parents is the most nuanced, open-minded, and compassionately critical discussion of the subject that I have ever read...

Support for Antibullying Measures Extends Beyond Gay and Transgender Groups Center For American Progress But for many gay and transgender youth, school is a place to be feared because of bullies and an overall hostile environment where they are susceptible to harassment and physical abuse because of their sexual orientation or gender identity...

Transgender At Five Washington Post While autism is more common than transgender issues (or is it?), society is far from embracing those who differ from the norm. To get back on topic, parents who support their children no matter what are to be commended...

Janice D'Arcy, 12:17 PM ET, 05/22/2012 "This is a question I didn’t think much of until about six years ago, when I awaited a sonogram technician’s explanation of what she was tracking on a blurry screen. Girl or boy? It was suddenly a very big question. "Ever since, as I have tried to guide my daughters through the rocky path of gender stereotypes, it has been on my mind, especially in recent days." -washingtonpost.com Transgender children: Learning to listen to their reality Related: TGG thread,

Transgender Teen: From Meghan to Mason NBC Los Angeles Transgender surgeries are becoming more popular, especially among teens. While some people's first reaction may be shock and concern, the fact is the teen years may be the best time to do this, both medically and emotionally, as one local teen learned...

Drug treatments for transgender kids pose difficult choices for parents, doctors Washington Post The puberty blockers are given to transgender girls who are 10 to 12 years old to keep their bodies from maturing and menstruating. Boys receive them from 12 to 14 to stave off a flood of testosterone. Suspending puberty gives the kids more time to...

Raising a Transgender Child: A Star is Born Huffington Post (blog) On the front page of The Boston Globe there was an article about identical twin boys, one of whom had identified as transgender and was now living fully as a girl. I, not surprisingly, was raptly reading the story when George came up behind me...

Leslie Lagerstrom 05.14.2012 5:03pm Huffington Post "I'm not right, " my old-souled 8-year-old child says...These words, simple yet profound, slice through my flesh, piercing a hole in my heart, causing me pain that's greater than I can bear." It's a boy

Posted 05.18.2012 7:01pm, Updated 7:02pm ""It didn't say anywhere in the code of conduct or the dress code that boys can't dress like girls," he said to Stone. "I feel annoyed that they would go out of their way to make a problem just with me wearing a skirt."" -huffingtonpost.com Warren Evans, Skirt-Wearing Maryland Boy, Suspended From Calvert High School (w/Video) Also, Exclusive: Male Student Suspended for Wearing a Skirt

I Was Promised a Pony! Catherine Oliver Posted: 04/19/2012 11:02 am This blog is dedicated to trans*, bigender, and gender-variant youth. "I always knew I wasn't like others. I didn't want a boyfriend, and I wore clothes that the other girls called "boy's clothes," all the time. I played in the mud, ran after soccer balls, and climbed trees. "Tomboy," they said."