they are letting him take hormones so he doesn't develop, as well, which I think is really something on the part of the parents

I wonder how long it'll be before someone accuses them of abuse. t the cynic tag never closes.

Are you allowed to have medical intervention in gender development that early, outside of an intersex issue? I thought you needed years of therapy, etc. Or is that only for surgery and not medication?

One of my daughter's BFF's is transgendered (F to M). My daughter said none of their friends thought a thing about it from about 8th grade on. The only backlash was from his parents, who refused to allow even a legal name change and the school district, who forced traditional female dress code for both middle school and high school graduation ceremonies. I was well pleased at the kid's acceptance, nsm with the adults though.

I think the psych eval and all has more to do with surgical sex reassignment, but I would hope with a child that age they're exploring counseling. No matter how certain someone is about doing it, that's young, and it's a huge change even if you want the result.

I think I'd let a kid of mine call themselves a male name and dress male (note how I only give birth to XX), but I don't think I'd be down with medical stuff before 16. Shit's too crazy, man.

Dana, so this kid was living as a boy from eighth grade on and the school made him dress as a girl for his graduation ceremonies?

Why do people FAIL so utterly?

Yup, 'tis true. School district said until he was 18 as long as his parents didn't allow for legal name/gender change then they had to "apply the rules". While he was in the top 10% of his class he elected not to attend his high school graduation because he didn't want to be forced to wear a dress. By that time he was 18 and had legally changed his name and was in the process of gender reassignment, school district wouldn't budge though because they are idiots.

Are you allowed to have medical intervention in gender development that early, outside of an intersex issue? I thought you needed years of therapy, etc. Or is that only for surgery and not medication?

From what I've read about it (I'm sure other people know more), the medication that they give to preteen and teenage kids doesn't make them develop as the sex they identify as, it just prevents puberty of any sort. So the kid goes through the teenage years with the prepubescent body, and doesn't have to go through all the "I'm growing the wrong things" trauma. Then, when they're older and considered old enough to make a permanent decision, they can either start taking the drugs and have the surgery (if they want) to develop as the sex they identify as, or they can decide to just stop taking the drugs, and go through all the physical parts of puberty as a young adult and develop all the adult characteristics of the sex they were born as. I think they still grow taller as teenagers, though, but I can't totally remember. It's a way to hold off the decision until the kid is an adult, without putting the kid's body through anything more than they need to.

They were saying this kid always wore the pants of the female uniform, unlike the rest of the girls in the school, had short hair, etc., so it's not like the visual change was extreme.

I think I'd let a kid of mine call themselves a male name and dress male (note how I only give birth to XX), but I don't think I'd be down with medical stuff before 16. Shit's too crazy, man.

My gut is like that, except then thinking about how much more surgery you'd need later?

My gut is like that, except then thinking about how much more surgery you'd need later?

Yeah, it's much easier as an adult to just get the medical intervention to develop the parts you want without also having to undo the puberty your body went through already.