Transgender Children & Youth

Parents and schools are seeing increasing numbers of children, some as young as kindergartners, who are challenging the gender into which they were born. By Lornet Turnbull Seattle Times staff reporter Every few weeks, Aidan Key might get a call: a little boy in school is dressing as a girl — in frilly tops or pink skirts. A girl in first-grade will be returning from a holiday break as a boy. Public- and private-school administrators and the parents of these kids want guidance navigating such sensitive terrain; they want to help children become comfortable calling a classmate by a new name, or know how and when to refer to another student as he or she. Ther…

I think this is so cool. The boy is 4 years old and loves to wear dresses. The parents are okay with it and the mother wrote a children's book about her son to help the other kids and their parents understand it. There is a box of clothes in the class for the kids to play dress up. The mother came to pick up her son after school and he was always wearing dresses from the box. She thought that maybe there wasn't enough boy's stuff in the box so she brought a bunch and put them in the box. Each day she came to pick him up he would be wearing a dress or something feminine. She asked him about it and he said he just really liked wearing them. She talked to her husband…

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/parenting/the-controversial-costume-that-outraged-moms-made-boy-happy-blog-46-shine.html This mother has the right idea. She will be supporting her son no matter what his choices are in the future. I know that identity and orientation are not 'choices' but this Mom will be supportive of her son. The others are representative of society in general at the moment. The replies are good even though they don't mention the possibility of the boy being transgender and that it is just a one day thing. The main point though that they seem to be getting is the support of the mother and not only for this one day but for the rest of the boy's life. …

"A German teenage boy who always wanted to be a girl underwent a sex-change operation last month, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper. At age 16, Kim Petras -- born Tim Petras -- is believed to be the world's youngest transsexual. She began undergoing hormone therapy when she was 12" Read the article and see photos at http://news.aol.com/health/article/teen-se...m-petras/331320

"REEDSBURG, Wis. (AP) - An elementary-school event in which kids were encouraged to dress as members of the opposite gender drew the ire of a Christian radio group, whose angry broadcast prompted outraged calls to the district office..." "..."I can assure you we will not be having this day (again)," Hayes said." Killjoys. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080407/D8VSOJOG0.html

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=58245

TransYouth Family Advocates has released a thought-provoking video titled "Transgender Children - Out of the Shadows." The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LPs8sE4M0 I wish I could have benefited from such public awareness when I was a child. During my childhood, I was thoroughly traumatized by adult reactions to some of my displays of gender incongruity. The effect of the negative reactions shamed me into 25 years of repression, and all the awful internal fighting and turmoil that naturally accompanies. I would add one more item to their "top ten" list; Never to scold the child or make them feel as if they are doing something wrong when expr…