| StriderKiwi said: This is a very serious and multi-faceted topic that I will try my best to explain my current stance on it. Apologies in advance if it comes across as scattered. I'm not a parent, but from talking with and observing many parents and child psychologists, I'm of the opinion that pre-teens (and even in some cases teenage) gender swapping/transitioning, especially when encouraged by the parents is poor parenting and yes child abuse. Some children identify as fire trucks and other non gendered objects in early ages. Sexuality in general is an odd and oft debated topic, especially in the contemporary. The data suggests that people's sexual identity and preferences are dependent on their parenting and how their male/female parental role models behaved with each other and towards the child. For the record, Charlize Theron, is a single mother with two adopted children, divorced from her husband, living in a specific area of the US that comes of a great deal of scrutiny for it's controversial opinions. Take of all of that whatever you will. One last point, transitioned individuals (adults, teens and children) often suffer from extreme depression, regret of their decision, and are at high risk of suicide. |
First of all, as many individuals have already said, gender identity is not sexuality. The two things should not be conflated.
Second, while some very young children may claim to be non-human things, simply saying you are something isn't really the requirements that we are speaking about here. The general guideline asks if a child is "consistent, insistent, and persistent about their transgender identity". This is typically not the case with children claiming to be firetrucks. They might claim to be a firetruck when playing with their Legos, but if you come back to them three months later there is pretty good chance that they aren't going to honestly claim to be. There is more than that, but simply saying "I heard a child say that they were a truck once so this is all invalid" is a fairly poor argument. Further, the children tend to grow out of that when they age past, like, five years old, yet you make the claim that even teens in some cases should not be allowed to express their transgender identity.
Third, you lastly point out that transitioned individuals often suffer from certain psychological issues. First of all, I would like to say that the rate of regret tends to be fairly low, especially when transitioning is done in tandem with psychological counseling and recommendation. Second, I would like to again argue that a large part of the reason that transgendered individuals have a high suicide rate is their societal treatment, including difficulty with people allowing or accepting their transition. Studies have shown that the negative psychological trends associated with transgender identity largely subside when an individual is in an accepting environment and further subside when allowed to begin transitioning before adulthood. Finally, I would again like to argue that bringing up the suicide rate as an argument against transgenderism is a very poor argument because it asserts that we should value the abuser over the abused. It is saying that the abused should stop living the way that they wish to live because society cannot help but abuse them. I argue that anyone honestly concerned with the health of transgendered individuals should allow them to transition and treat them with respect instead of telling them that they shouldn't live the way they want to.
Here is a link to an earlier post detailing some of the research indicating that quality of life increases for transgendered individuals after being allowed to transition:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9001101
