BDBoop
Platinum Member
- Banned
- #301
Dr. Johanna Olson runs the Transgender Youth Clinic at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, one of the most highly regarded centers in the country for kids like Jackie. It has treated approximately 600 transgender kids.
"We often ask parents, Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter? … These kids have a suicide rate that is astronomical compared to any other group," she said.
Olson says you can't force kids to be a gender they don't think they are. Gender identity isn't a choice; it's set at birth. Kids know whether they're a boy or a girl on the inside by the age of three or four.
Transgender Kids Pioneer Early Changes to Identity, Body - ABC News
Okay - what about a middle of the road approach? Let the child live as the gender they identify with, as much as possible, without any medical treatment. Like Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. She identifies as male. So she has the short hair, the boys clothes (including swim trunks), wants to be called by a boy name ... so why not? Love and accept them as they are, and promise you'll be there for them no matter what, but it's better for them to actually make that decision as an adult.
Thats fine, depending on the reasons the child wants it done.
But it's not the same thing as medically altering a child's body for the rest of their life.
I know. That's why I referred to it as "middle of the road."