{"id":1825,"date":"2009-09-28T02:51:01","date_gmt":"2009-09-28T07:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2009-09-28T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2009-09-28T16:14:07","slug":"u-k-s-crossdressing-children-cause-a-stir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/09\/28\/u-k-s-crossdressing-children-cause-a-stir\/","title":{"rendered":"U.K.’s Crossdressing Children Cause a Stir"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old English schoolboy recently returned to school after summer holiday\u00a0as a 12-year-old schoolgirl<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Unable to undergo surgery or horomone therapy\u00a0until age 18, his parents instead changed his name and\u00a0dressed him in a dress and pigtails.\u00a0\u00a0The child’s classmates were reportedly “confused and tearful,” and the teachers held an\u00a0emergency assembly in which they told the entire school to\u00a0henceforth treat the child as a girl.\u00a0 Parents were most upset\u00a0(at least, publicly) at the fact that this gender bomb was dropped on them without warning and some lead-in time\u00a0 to\u00a0discuss the issue with their own children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I had just started\u00a0thinking over the implications of that<\/em> incident when it apparently happened again – this time, with a 9-year-old child<\/a>\u00a0(some parents just won’t<\/em>\u00a0be outdone).\u00a0 This is one of those rare cases (ha!) where I don’t know exactly where my opinion lies before I\u00a0begin writing.\u00a0 On the one hand, I am of the belief that gender identity is not a choice, and would support my son or daughter if they came to realize they identified with the dystonic gender.\u00a0 On the other hand, this is a pretty adult decision for a child to be making, and without knowing the family personally, I begin to wonder how much of this is a hurting and adamant child and how much is the parent (speaking of hurting children, both gender-switched youths are now apparently now suffering from – prepare to be unsurprised – being horrendously bullied and jeered at).<\/p>\n

While overeducated louts such as myself wander around ruminating ponderously over the issue as though it were complex or something, less tentative folks have already started chiming in on the message boards:<\/p>\n

“Our society is sick to allow this to happen. I suppose we can’t say anything for fear of not being ‘politically correct’. ”<\/p>\n

“There are proably very few experts in this field when it comes to children i just hope the very best were available not some local pc correct psuedo experts.”<\/p>\n

Nitpicky English language-related errors aside, I note the citation of political correctness as the reason why no one is apparently in an uproar over the actual gender-changing portion of our story (remember, parents were ostensibly upset because they weren’t given sufficient time to discuss it with their kids)… what do you<\/em> think?<\/p>\n

Is\u00a0twelve old enough to know that you would rather be a woman for the rest of your life than a man? (my personal answer, is yeah, probably.\u00a0 But this might be the least controversial part of this).<\/p>\n

Is\u00a0nine<\/strong> old enough?<\/p>\n

What would you do if it were YOUR child?<\/p>\n

In what way do you think the second incident might be related to the first?\u00a0 (it might be\u00a0similar to the way\u00a0rape victims sometimes come forward in pairs – the first paves the way for the second, comfort-wise.\u00a0 My colleague sees it more like a spreading virus).<\/p>\n

Did these parents handle the situation poorly by not giving the rest of the school enough time to work out the complexities of the issue with their<\/em> children?<\/p>\n

As a psychologist, I realize I’m supposed to have some deep insights into this topic rather than more questions.\u00a0 But firstly, I’m not that <\/em>kind of psychologist.\u00a0 And anyway, I’m not always\u00a0(or ever, for that matter) particularly insightful.\u00a0 With issues like this, I’m almost mistrustful of anyone who shows up with all the right answers immediately.\u00a0 But don’t let me deter you if you’ve got ’em!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old English schoolboy recently returned to school after summer holiday\u00a0as a 12-year-old schoolgirl.\u00a0\u00a0Unable to undergo surgery or horomone therapy\u00a0until age 18, his parents instead changed his name and\u00a0dressed him in a dress and pigtails.\u00a0\u00a0The child’s classmates were reportedly “confused and tearful,” and the teachers held an\u00a0emergency assembly in which they told the entire school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1825\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}