Link: Let's support trans children

[sonia]

Kids Deserve a New Gender Paradigm by Kai Cheng Thom.

[I]n the trenches of trans health care, there is a growing idea that pushes back against the “one true gender for each individual” framing altogether—one that could allow us to resolve the bitterly divisive culture war over the psychological and medical care of transgender children. What if, instead of viewing gender as a fixed trait, we started to think of it as something that could evolve over the course of a lifetime? Or if detransitioning wasn’t considered a sign of failure and was instead regarded as a natural and healthy part of the gender development process?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Oh that is an excellent essay!

Perhaps this is what the new gender universe is all about: letting go of the illusion that we can be completely sure of anything, releasing the idea of certainty in order to embrace the complex truth of being alive, messy, complicated.

I came to understand this when I began to accept my disabled identity. "Normal" is an impossible standard--it's for populations, not individuals.

[sonia]

That is a great pull-quote. And a great quote from you, too. Good reminder that "normal" is impossible. It makes me think of Dave Hingsburger - I miss his writing.

[sheafrotherdon]

This is how I try and talk about gender with my students, especially because it's best representation of how people have navigated gender in recent (400+ years) history.

[sonia]

That is so good to hear. Thank you for bringing that into your students' world.

[silveradept]

That would be a lovely world, one where we could get rid of the idea of gender as a fixed point, a destination, or something immutable. We're slowly moving in the direction of getting to see gender presentation as mutable and dependent, and so I can hope that we can all do the same to the underlying concept. Because I'd rather someone feel exploratory and then be able to retreat or change direction rather than thinking they have to be absolutely correct and set off on a path they can't deviate from.

[sonia]

Yes, exploratory paths for gender, and for everything. I thought I had to pick a college major and that would set my path immutably for life. I would have been less stressed if I had realized we keep making choices all the way along.