Walking down the street, Skylar seems like an ordinary man going about his daily business, but looks can be deceiving. Skylar was originally born as a female, and feeling he was supposed to be a male, started transitioning to male at the age of 16. “He’d just been burdened with a body that needed medical and surgical adjustments so that it could reflect the gender he knew himself to be,” writes Margaret Talbot (2013). Skylar’s family was very accepting, as they had already expected this from the time he was quite young. They gave Skylar time to think over whether he really wanted to transition or not, and when he decided he did, they were extremely happy for him and helped him through the transition. Skylar’s testimony shows the positive influence that having a transsexual family member can have on a family. Having a transsexual person in a family will positively influence that family and educate them on more conservative issues dealing with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. While some families are just as accepting as Skylar’s family was, not all families will like one of their members identifying as transsexual. According to Anita J. Catlin and Bethany Gibson (2011) , there are two kinds of responses towards transsexual teens and children from their families. One response is “acceptance using mental and physical health measures to ease the transition, and waiting to see what develops in the future.” This benefits the child and family more by the family accepting the child as they are which then in turn opens up the eyes of the family. The other possible response is for the family to “consider feelings as a treatable disease and attempt to treat the child by reprogramming.” This response hurts the child a... ... middle of paper ... ...to Transsexualism. Other families however reject their children and become cold and distant. Transsexuals need constant support from their families in order to function correctly and to have less anxiety and depression. Their anxiety and depression affect every aspect of their lives and every aspect of their families lives. Many families will not accept that their children are transsexual and want to change them, which cause major issues in the child’s life. Works Cited Gibson, B., & Catlin, A.J. (2011). Care of the Child with the Desire to Change Gender-Part 1. Urologic Nursing, 31(4), 222-229. Rankin, S., & Beemyn, G. (2012). Beyond a Binary: The Lives of Gender- non conforming youth. About Campus, 17(4), 2-10. Staley, R. (2011). When Boys Would Rather Not Be Boys. Maclearls, 124(32), 44-49. Talbot, M. (2013). About a Boy. New Yorker, 89(5), 1-65.
Many transgender people lived in dysfunctional families when they were young. The support becomes vital for the wellbeing of kids. In her book Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, recaps the importance of support from Michelle his cousin, who kept in secrets of gender dysphoria of Charles (Keisha) by saying “‘Pinkie –swear you won’t tell your mom’…She’d keep the secret my secret because I was her favorite cousin” (Mook 76). Michelle, kept Keisha’s secret by allowing her to use her swimming clothes. Michelle shows the importance of support from relatives. This is a fundamental factor that might help with the development of her gender identity. Many transgender people may feel a relief at the time to disclose their identity. When transition is in progress the support from friends and families becomes important because, many transgender people might suffer if they lack support. Many transgender people seem depressed because they are rejected by society. Janet Mock, relates how Wendi, support Charles, by making him feel comfortable, saying “Wendi and I grew inseparable trough middle school, a bond that would link us for the rest of our lives. Through association, my class –mates learned that I was like Wendi-who hadn’t yet adopted any labels to describe her shifting self” (Mook 107). In most cases transgender people’s acquaintances can be referred as transgender people just by friendship. The association makes transgender people to gain confidence about their gender identity. The support from groups or friends makes transgender people feel that they are accepted and not alone. Support from friends might urge transgender people to come out the “closet” and reveal their gender identity to gain respect among society. The support from friends is important, but family support seems to be the most important. When families do not support transgender people it causes a hostile environment that may suppress
Part of the issue that transgenders face is living in a puritanical society that is ignorant, judgmental, and afraid of their sexual choices. This resulted in how her family ultimately related to her, like Jenner’s and the lecturer’s families did. My patient felt alone because she had little contact with her family, mainly her mother and sister. Her father had not talked to her in a couple of years because of his son being transgender. Perhaps, just the thought of his son wanting to be a woman threatened his sense of his own masculinity. The father may have dealt with his own conflicts by ignoring his
In the year 2012, an individual by the name of Victoria Ramirez was transitioning from a male to a female using hormones and also switching up her appearance to match more of a female’s. Victoria, who at the time used to go by Tyson, is a transgender person. She has worked at Barnes and Noble from the years 2007 to 2013. During her most recent years while she was struggling with the transition, she felt absolutely humiliated by her employer. Her manager would tell her that her makeup or appearance was upsetting the customers and would also make other employees lose respect for her. Then, the final blow was denying Victoria of using the women’s restroom, or even wearing a skirt. (NY Daily) She was later fired for calling off too many times for
Although intersex people only account for 1 out of 1500 to 2000 births, 1 out of 100 people have bodies that do not fit the standard for male or female bodies (Intersex Society of North America). Sex and gender play a significant role in society for potential relationships, family dynamics, and classification and understanding of personality traits and expectations (Strong and Cohen, 2014). Many parents do not want their children aggravated by a society so concerned with gender roles and gender as a binary, that people are largely distraught by non gender binary individuals. By nature, parents want to protect their children from physical and emotional harm. Intersexuality or unclear genitalia jeopardizes individual’s ability to have healthy relationships, especially intimate or romantic relationships due to a lack of education and
In the stage of gender stability children are able to indicate that a gender remains the same throughout time and therefore, children start to realise that they will be male or female for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, their understanding of gender i...
Allowing a child to identify with who they feel they are (meaning transgender) is fine as long as the child is taught about the pain they may experience in a loving way of course. I have seen several 20/20 specials on transgender children and my heart aches for them. I did not like the fact that an early age the parents were taking the children for hormone shots. I think the children our too young to make a life changing decisions and the parents should just love/support them until they are truly old enough to understand the impact on their life. My thoughts were what if the child changes his/her mind. What if the female child grows out of being a tomboy and wants to be a frilly girl. What if the boy is actually bisexual and wants to stay a boy? There were follow-up specials when the child became a teenager as well as specials on transgender adults. I believe the older the child gets the more it is about the child’s sexuality and this is why the parents should wait before starting the sex change
However, a parent 's unconditional love goes beyond textbook definition or my personal experience for that matter. Therefore, I cannot fathom any other unconditional love other than that of a parent for a transgendered child. There is much to be learned from parents who not only stand up for their child but for themselves as well. Tenacity alone is not enough to survive in this fickle world. What I have learned from this experience is one needs to be stronger than you give yourself credit for. The topic of transgender people is still not completely openly addressed, take my initial reservation about asking my friend about his experiences for an
Puberty is a difficult time for any child, but for transgender teens, it can be the difference between becoming who they want to be or remaining in the wrong body. In June of this year, PBS Frontline released a documentary, entitled Growing Up Trans, which chronicled the lives of eight transgender and nonbinary children, from the ages of 9 to 19, as they navigated through the process of transitioning to their prefered genders. Some of the kids took hormone blockers to slow down their puberty, others were going through puberty at the time and wanted to transition before it was complete, and one had already gone through puberty and was still taking hormones to transition. The controversy revolving around the documentary focused on whether or
Seventy-three transgender children who were allowed to express their gender identity freely, forty-nine of their siblings and seventy-three non-transgender children were involved in the study. None of the transgender children had taken hormone, but they lived freely to express their gender identity. The study measured anxiety and depression levels. For depression levels all the numbers were almost all the same. Anxiety levels for all the children varied. Transgender children had higher levels of depression and anxiety than the siblings or non-transgender children, but the variables were only one or two numbers more. These transgender children were relatively happy with their lives as they were able to live with the gender identity they wanted. Letting transgender live the identity they feel comfortable can improve their mental health in the long run. (“Transgender
Suicide is the leading cause of death among LGBT+ people (“LGBTQ”). Much of this depends on the amount of support that the person received when they came out. The National Alliance of Mental Illness writes, “Someone who faced rejection after coming out to their families were more than 8 times more likely to have attempted suicide than someone who was accepted by their family after revealing their sexual orientation” (“LGBTQ”). It obviously can be very traumatic for someone to be rejected for coming out. Imagine if this person was a child. Children depend on the support of their family, and without this support it can cause extremely dangerous behavior. It is no surprise that if a child is accepted by their family they will be better off mentally that those who are rejected. A study done by the psychology department at the University of Washington compared the rates of anxiety of seventy three transgender children and seventy three cisgender children. All of the transgender children’s parents were members of a support group. Not all of the parents supported their children when they initially came out, but have since changed their views. The study found that the anxiety rates were only slightly higher than the anxiety rates of cisgender children (Tanner). This is most likely caused by the rejection that transgender children most likely face every day from strangers. By finding that transgender
In today's world there are many different sexual identities a person can adhere to, instead of just being heterosexual or homosexual. What a sexual identity is, is how one refers to think of oneself in terms of whom one is romantically or sexually attracted to. A type of sexual identity is when a person both male or female feel like they are inside the wrong body and they wish to have a sex change. Individuals who identify themselves as transgender aren’t usually adults, in some cases it is children who go through the stages of feeling out of place with there bodies and wish to change it. Some people in today's society would find it very odd that children would wish to be in a different body, in order to understand why this is happening you would have to know what exactly is transgender and transsexual, what causes transgenderism, and the early signs of transgenderism. This phenomenon has been around for a very long time and due to the fact that there is a large misunderstanding there is much confusion when faced with it. In order for one to understand how children become transgender or transsexual one must know what transgender and transsexual mean, what causes transgenderism, and the early signs of it and be mentally prepared for what is to come. Most of the responsibility in understanding transgender children falls on the parents of transgender children.
About the video “How I Help Transgender Teen Become Who to be” is talking about when a child born, the first question that we asking to the doctor it’s a girl or boy. After that, the parents get confused when their on first years of the baby acting weir as how they play or the way that is confusing for the parents. Sometimes the parents know when a girl plays with dolls and she like to wear dress and when a boy play with cars. When a child grows up, they know that something is not normal. The child know that he/she is feeling different because the child is in the wrong body. So the child certain to be transgender and these feeling from a child any therapy cannot change. Also, Norman Spack say that he saw someone genetically female and the person
For most people, the idea of Transgenders is new and complicated. Because the idea is so fresh, many adults struggle with how to address this topic to the children because they lack knowledge
Gender identity is considered to be a spectrum of beliefs and emotions rather than the traditional sense of a dichotomy of male and female (Eagly, 2013). Identifying with a specific gender does not happen at birth. Children up to age four often do not identify with a specific gender. Toddlers do not identify themselves as a boy or girl at this stage of their lives; being a male or female does not matter to them at this stage of their lives. This indifference gives way to gender rigidity in early childhood (about ages 4–7), when both boys and girls strictly enforce gender rules (Kerr, & Multon, 2015).
Laidlaw, Liz. "Gender Bender." Relational Child & Youth Care Practice 23.3 (2010): 14-15. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.