Opinion:
Natasha
I don't deny that there are actual transgender children out there, but I have to ask: how do parents truly know whether their 5-year-old child is truly transgender? It's strictly psychological. There isn't a physical test that can be run that would objectively indicate that an individual is transgender.
At 5, I thought my older brother was the coolest person ever. I wanted to be just like him. If you asked me at that age whether I liked girly things such as dolls or wearing dresses, I would've said "no" and looked horrified at the thought. I wore my brother's old clothes and stayed far away from anything remotely feminine for quite a while until I reached puberty.
I don't know what would've happened if my parents automatically labeled me as "transgender" at the tender age of 5. Heck, many 5 year olds think they are dinosaurs or tigers. How do you know your kid is actually transgender and not just repeating something they read or heard in order to get attention?
Transgender youngsters identify as much with their genders as do non-transgender children, a new study says.
The findings indicate that transgender children are not confused or delayed in their understanding of gender, as some have suggested, write the researchers in Psychological Science.
"People didn't know how to conceptualize these kids and their experiences," said Nicholas Eaton, the study's senior author from Stony Brook University in New York. "People in the scientific community, the society at large and the media didn't know how to talk about these kids."
