One of the main issues our detractors seem to have against us is the thought that because transition surgery involves genitalia, transgender people must be all about the act of sex.
While there are many reasons people might think transition is appropriate for them...and sex may be one, sex is undoubtedly not first and foremost. How do we know this?
All one has to do is look at the children. CBS news recently published an article about three of them: Born this way: Stories of young transgender children introduces us to Zoey, Venice, and Mati.
There is coding error in the video that appeared on CBS's Sunday Morning which I did not know how to repair, so it may be viewed at the above link.
Zoey is now 13. Her family lives near Los Angeles.
So how did you handle it when people related to you as a boy?
--Rita Braver, who wrote the story
Yeah, I always get upset. I would be like, 'No, I'm not a boy. I'm a girl. You know, like, I like the color pink, I scream like a girl. I act like a girl. I breathe like a girl. I'm not a boy.
--Zoey
Zoey's single mother, Ofelia, reacted with fear when Zoey decided two-years ago to live openly as a girl.
Not because of who she's presenting to be, but of those around us. What are other people going to say? How are they going to treat her? You know, those are the scary things: What kind of life is she going to have?
--Ofelia
GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) has released a survey of approximately 300 transgender youth, called
Harsh Realities: The Experiences of Transgender Youth in Our Nation's Schools. The found that 89% of these kids were being harassed at school.
Even the kids that do seem like they're good kids, they even make fun of me. They'll be, like, 'Yeah, we're your friends, tell us more about your stuff and how you're going through life.' And then they'll just turn on you and they'll be talking about what you told them.
--Zoey
Dr. Johanna Olson at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles says she sees between one and five new trans kids a week.
So the growth is tremendous. We've had something like a 330 percent increase over the year of 2013. It's just phenomenal.
--Dr. Olson
Estimates are that as much as half a percent of the adult population of American adults identify as transgender.
Braver asked if there were more transgender children.
It's not so much that there are more transgendered kids; it's that trans people are coming out earlier," replied Dr. Olson. .
We also know that among trans people, there are high rates of depression, anxiety, social isolation, [and] suicide attempts. All of these things we see dramatically increased in trans youth. But young people that I've seen, who socially transition in childhood and have support of their families, they have a very different experience.
--Dr. Olson
There is a somewhat new medical treatment for trans youth like Zoey. Doctors are able to block puberty by administering drugs, to prevent the development of unwanted adult characteristics...like facial hair for trans girls and breasts for trans boys.
That treatment is reversible. The affects of hormone treatment are less so. That treatment is usually delayed until Dr. Olson's patients have had more time to consider their options.
Venice, who also lives in California, started taking hormone blockers and testosterone when he was 13. He says he has always felt like a boy.
In terms of making these changes so that you can go through life as a boy, what's the upside of that for you?
--Braver
The upside is that I'll actually get to have part of the body I do want.
--Venice
Venice acknowledges that it being trans not an easy.
It's been a difficult process because, well, no one really would want to be trans. No one would actually really enjoy it.
--Venice
Venice sys that he has trepidation about the pain that may be involved with future bottom surgery.
California has a law which dictates how transgender kids will be treated in school.
You're saying under this law that a 13-year-old or 14-year-old girl in a locker room has to change and dress and be naked in front of, say, a 16-year-old boy simply because a 16-year-old boy who's a biological boy, but inside has a mental condition called gender identity dysphoria and thinks that he's a girl,. This is ludicrous, and really unreasonable.
--Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute
Dacus, you see, has no concept of the fact that Zoey has never felt nor behaved like a boy. And Dacus seems not to have any inkling that Venice even exists. Dacus thinks transgender kids should use separate facilities.
Venice's response?
You can use a separate bathroom, too.
The hardest thing for Venice is that his parents separated because while his mother and brother were supportive, his father was not.
It said pretty much, you're on board with this or you can't be in our lives, because a child that's not supported doesn't flourish. And dad looked at that and decided, 'Well, I can either have a son or I can have nothing.'
--Trish, Venice's mother
Venice's father, Mike, has since joined Trish at a support group for the parents of transgender youth.
I was in a lot of fear and anxiety, especially when my kid came out.
--Mike
Mike tried to find therapists who would convince Venice to live as a girl rather than as a boy.
So I was totally in the wrong area. Spending lots of money trying to fix a kid that, you know, wasn't really broken.
--Mike
Mati is 6. She says that when she was born, everyone thought she was a boy except her.
Braver asked Mati how she knew she was a girl. That's a tough philosophical question for transgender adults, let alone a 6-year-old.
I just figured it out.
--Mati
Mati's parents, Cristy and Enrique say that when Mati was younger than two and they went clothes shopping, Mati immediately went to the girl's section. They say Mati was miserable when she was treated as a boy. When Mati reached kindergarten age, they enrolled her as a girl.
You know that some people are going to see this story on television and say, 'Oh my gosh, they should have waited. They should have insisted on waiting longer. Why didn't you wait longer?
--Braver
She was in pain. I don't see that there was another option. She was uncomfortable, she was unhappy. You can't see your child suffer like that.
Nothing's been done that can't be undone. So people that would say, 'Maybe it's too early, we should have waited' -- what did we have to lose at this point? She's happier.
--Cristy
Cristy says she and Enrique have gone public because...
I also want for Mati to know that it's nothing that can't be talked about. I also want her to know that she shouldn't be ashamed or afraid to be who she is.
While doctors say that some children do change how they identify as they get older, there is no data on how often that occurs.
Braver: Have you ever thought maybe sometimes, 'Gee, it might be fun to go back and dress like a boy and be more like a boy'?
Mati: I don't want to. Uh uh.
Braver: You know that what -- how do you feel?
Mati: Like a girl.
Braver: Is there anything you'd like to say for maybe other children who people say, 'Oh, you're a boy,' but they know that they're a girl?
Mati: Maybe let them choose.
And there are people think that these kids must be sex fiends? That children younger than two are thinking about sex?