That was disturbing news to Angelica Jadunandan, who moved to New York from Florida with her two young daughters three years ago. Her older daughter, who is eight, is transgender, and Angelica wanted to move them to a safe blue state—somewhere her family’s medical care would not be called into question. New York is a self-declared “sanctuary state” for trans people. It seemed like a good option.
Except we do make this choice as children.
The ones who won’t leave the children alone are the freaks who try to enforce cisnormative gender expression onto children.
Please just leave the kids alone and let them continue to exist as the trans kids they are.
Have you ever met an 8 year-old? They barely know what they want to eat for lunch most days. They have neither the life experience or knowledge to have to make a decision.
Society forces gender norms, and thus binary status, on children when we should just let them be kids. Why is this controversial?
Choosing to present as their assigned gender at birth is also a decision. It is not a neutral choice. Not all but many trans kids know they are trans, know that presenting in ways they would prefer is not safe or accepted, and suffer in silence.
Those are the kids we are trying to protect when we want to preserve trans Healthcare for children.
Look, I’m a trans woman, and I ‘knew’ at that age. Did i know what it was? No!
But I clearly wasnt acting like a boy either. They know.
I agree that the constructs are stupid. Thats not the conterveraal thing you said though.
At that age you know what is appropriate gender affirming care? Calling them whatever random bullshit name they want to be called, and however they want to be referred to. For most children, it could just be a phase. But there’s no harm in indulging age appropriate care.
You absolutely wouldn’t be saying any of this if your 8 year old kept walking into the wrong bathroom. Nobody would say oh, that’s normal because kids just can’t be expected to know which bathroom they go in at that age, or whether they call their mom ‘she’ or ‘he’. You fully expect an eight year old to have a firm grasp on the basics of gender, but not to be able to think about how they feel about how any of it applies to them?
They may not have what you consider deep thoughts, but trying to deny them their own sense of self because it makes you uncomfortable is going to fuck your kid up. Ask me how I know. Maybe they hop around in identities; so fucking what? 8 is the perfect time to be doing that, well before worrying about the irreversible effects of puberty and having to make decisions about blockers.
Further down in this post I have linked to studies showing 97.5% of all 8 year olds remain trans and know by the age of 5.
We understand ourselves as children far better than you give us credit for.
Just leave us alone. Our only problem is not being taught the words to describe ourselves and that we can transition.
Sounds like you haven’t raised your kid to be particularly articulate or willing to share their feelings with you.