Kid (OC)

[u/_just_is_]

Protect trans kids | https://www.instagram.com/is.justis?igsh=NnR0bGF1YTVma3Y%3D&utm_source=qr

[u/Revoltinghades2]

No hate or judgement, but I’m curious as to how someone at 10 can know they are the wrong gender? I don’t have any experience with it so I just don’t understand. Glad you’re who you were meant to be

[u/bleeding-paryl → u/Revoltinghades2]

If someone can know that they're the right gender, they can absolutely know that they are the wrong gender. Gender identity is an innate knowledge and, as the stickied comment states, is known at a very young age. Copying an automod comment that I helped write, read this:

The recent surge of attacks on gender affirming care for trans youth have been condemned by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, and are out of line with the medical recommendations of the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society, the AACE, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

This article has a pretty good overview of why. Psychology Today has one too, and here are the guidelines from the AAP. TL;DR version - yes, young children can identify their own gender, and some of those young kids are trans. A child who is Gender A but who is assumed to be Gender B based on their visible anatomy at birth can suffer debilitating distress over this conflict. The "90% desist" claim is a myth based on debunked studies, and transition is a very long, slow, cautious process for trans youth.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, gender is typically expressed by around age 4. It probably forms much earlier, but it's hard to tell with pre-verbal infants. And sometimes the gender expressed is not the one typically associated with the child's appearance. The genders of trans children are as stable as those of cisgender children.

For preadolescents transition is entirely social, and for adolescents the first line of medical care is temporary, reversible puberty delaying treatment that has no long term effects. Hormone therapy isn't an option until their mid teens, by which point the chances that they will "desist" are close to zero. Reconstructive genital surgery is not an option until their late teens/early 20's at the youngest.

And transition-related medical care is recognized as medically necessary, frequently life saving medical care by every major medical authority.

The only disorders more common among trans people are those associated with abuse and discrimination - mainly anxiety and depression. Early transition virtually eliminates these higher rates of depression and low self-worth, and dramatically improves trans youth's mental health. When prevented from transitioning about 40% of trans kids will attempt suicide. When able to transition that rate drops to the national average. Trans kids who socially transition early, have access to appropriate transition related medical treatment, and who are not subjected to abuse or discrimination are comparable to cisgender children in measures of mental health

Transition vastly reduces risks of suicide attempts, and the farther along in transition someone is the lower that risk gets. The ability to transition, along with family and social acceptance, are the largest factors reducing suicide risk among trans people. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, gender identity is typically expressed by around age 4. It probably forms much earlier than that, but it's hard to tell with pre-verbal infants. And sometimes, the gender identity expressed is not the one typically associated with the child's appearnce. The gender identities of trans children are as stable as those of cisgender children.

Here is a helpful guide for parents of transgender children as well.

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