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It gets worse. New GIDS article states no social transition till 10. Wren 'fears' harm with no evidence. She is working on cisnormative instinct. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
My daughter is enjoying a happy carefree childhood. I cannot imagine what state she would be in if we had rejected her for her whole childhood til she was 10.
I feel like only ten people on twitter will care, but this really is devastating. Some trans kids have a strong need to assert their identity at a young age, being mis-seen, being rejected for who they are, is a huge deal.
Advice that tells families to reject their own child until age ten, condemns children like my daughter to a childhood of rejection, of shame. There is nothing wrong with being trans. Kids don't decide to be trans. Being trans is not a decision to be postponed to age ten.
Advice like this also leaves families like mine in a very vulnerable position. Makes it more likely for schools to refuse to support a trans child. Reinforced the existing bigotry of wider families and communities
My daughter came to life when we stopped rejecting her identity. She suddenly had space in her mind to learn, to play, to make friends, to have dreams. She was able to have a normal childhood. Gender stopped being an issue as soon as we accepted her identity
Before we accepted and understood, she was stuck. Every conversation was about gender identity ('but I am a girl'). She had no space to be a child whilst she felt rejected in something that really really mattered to her.
I know hundreds of families who report the same experience, of deeply sad kids who have the weight of the world taken off their shoulders from a simple change in pronoun. Knowing your parents see you, support you, love you, is so important to any child
The comment from wren about how before age ten kids should be allowed to experiment with clothes and 'behaviour' (wtf) but not be respected in their gender identity, completely misses the point and shows GIDS ignorance of kids like my daughter
She doesn't particularly like dresses. She doesn't gravitate towards 'girls toys'. She wants to be acknowledged as a girl. Denial of her identity is rejection, there is no middle ground here.
Why should children like my daughter be denied a happy childhood? Why should they be taught to be ashamed of who they are? Why should they be taught that who they are is so 'wrong' that they cannot be accepted until age ten?
There is precisely zero evidence to back up the GIDS position. There are hundreds of families who are evidence of the value of young social transition, but no one bothers to collect this evidence. Because no one in the establishment really cares for trans kids.
But you know what? Parents and carers all over the UK and world have had enough. We will not leave our trans kids sad and depressed and ashamed. We are not taking cisnormative unevidenced guidance from clinicians who pathologise gender diversity
Support trans kids. Love trans kids. Let them know they are perfect. Let them know there is space for them in this world. Let them know we have their back. #SomeKidsAreTrans #ProtectTransKids
