How do children even start to have these thoughts in the first place? They must be getting the information that you can change your gender from somewhere and I don't think it's something that spontaneously arises. If you raised children on a desert island I'm almost certain at no point would they ever suggest they feel like a boy trapped in a girls body and vice versa or certainly that they'd want to change their sex. It's like this whole gender fluid/non-binary thing that has become very popular over the last five years or so. If it wasn't for the internet and special snowflakes finding tumblrs and twitter users where people claim they're a different gender to what they obviously are or are non-binary slash gender fluid then I don't think it would be a prevalent thing today. It's getting ridiculous to me now. The amount of times I'll look at someone's twitter or Instagram and they literally state their pronouns in their bios. To me it's just them screaming for attention. Look at me, I'm not what you think I am. Every-time I see someone and they claim they're gender-fluid or non-binary it's usually just white snowflakes who seemingly have nothing to be oppressed about so they invent something to be discriminated against and they throw a hissy fit when you accidentally 'misgender' them. I understand that gender dysphoria is a real thing but I genuinely don't think the majority of these people have it and I'm really not going to refer to a guy or a girl as them/they or the opposite of what they actually are just because they insist so.
But how biased are the TransYouth project? When I was five years old I wanted to be Batman. If someone told me I could identify as batman and wear the little suit I had everyday I probably would have (and I wore it as much as I could much to the chagrin of my parents). Imagine if my parents said to me, no it's okay, you can be batman your entire life if you want. That would probably be more damaging if I was wearing the costume into my teens and running around thinking I was batman. In todays society it's seemingly ok if someone wants to identify as Batman even though most people would find it ridiculous. I personally wouldn't care if my children were gay or transgender (I would just want them to be happy and safe), but I certainly wouldn't be letting them have sex or change their gender until they were an adult regardless of their gender or sexuality but I'd support them as much as I could either way.
Just another case of a father who can't accept that HIS SON is trans. He probably sees it as a verdict of his own manhood. /toxicmasculinity
I really used to hate the phrase 'political correctness has gone mad' because it used to be used by racists and homophobes after not being able to get away with abusing people for being gay or a minority, but this stuff is going to far now, especially when anyone who speaks out on it is labeled a homophobe or transphobe etc. I'm all for gay rights and even transgender rights but the way certain people are trying to force children to play by the same rules as adults or others to comply with whatever it is they want to be referred to is starting to infringe on free speech and others rights in my opinion.
IMO it's unwise with current technology and culture to substantially modify your body in this way, but I also believe in individual sovereignty, so if you want to do it, that should be up to you. There are obvious problems when dealing with children, though, since children tend to be highly ignorant, and pre-puberty children are biologically programmed to believe what authority figures tell them to believe. In this case, he probably agrees with his mother when he's with his mother, and with his father when he's with his father.
If you're not old enough to vote or have sex then you shouldn't be able to change your sex in my opinion. I am also for individual rights, but you couldn't let a child make all their own decisions in life. If you let them chose their own meals they'd probably eat junk food everyday and use mountain dew as mouthwash. I'm a big believer in saying no to a child as little as you can, but I wouldn't let my child play with a gun or smoke cigarettes if they wanted to just like I wouldn't want or let them change gender in their childhood because they don't know any better. Let kids be kids, and if they still feel the same way at 16-18+ then it's time to discuss things.
Taking care of this now is the best option because on one hand the child is old enough to know she is a girl. Being trans is not just a "phase". We're talking about someone who has likely felt like a girl everyday for as long as she can remember. She isn't old enough to have been physically abused or lost will to live so there is still time left to save her from that trauma. Mothers want whats best for their children. It is fathers who often seek some sort of legacy affirmation through their sons.
Male fragility is so rampant that you guys actually think this entire trend is aimed at emasculating you.
Is it the best option though? How do you know they're old enough? I would agree that for most transgenderism is not a phase, but for some it is and there are many trans people who regret transitioning or are glad they never went thought with it and that's why it something that should take years to do and not something you can decide on a whim and certainly not when you're a child. Transitioning is also a huge mental and physical thing to go through and we also probably don't have the data on how transitioning so early is going to affect people later in life. What if this becomes acceptable and common for children to start transitioning and then the suicide rates of people who transition in their childhood goes through the roof? Who knows what damage will be done longterm. To me this isn't about me being scared of emasculation but protecting life and the quality of it no matter whether you're gay, straight or truly trans or not.