Transsexuality: Encyclopedia II - Transsexuality - Transsexual youth

Transsexuality - Transsexual youth

Different individuals begin to come to terms with their gender identity during many different stages in their life. In most cases, the transsexual condition becomes apparent at some time in childhood, sometimes in very early childhood, where the child may be expressing behaviour incongruent with, and dissatisfaction related to, his or her assigned gender.

Most of the time, though, these children try to hide their being different as soon as they experience rejection resulting from their differences.

Transsexuality - Coming out

Since transsexualism is still not widely accepted in many regions and "circles", transsexual youths may feel they need to remain in the closet until they feel that there is a time appropriate to reveal their gender identity to their parents and others -- understandably so, as parents have a great deal of influence in their children's lives. Some parents can react negatively towards such news. Other parents can be very supportive when such news is broken to them. It is often impossible to predict how parents will react to such news, and the process is fraught with tension for many transsexual youths. Reactions of parents to transsexual children can also change over time. For example, parents who initially reacted with negativity and hostility may eventually come around to support their transsexual children. And parents who were supportive at first may later develop hostility toward their child's gender identity.

Transsexual youths also face many hardships when it comes to obtaining medical treatment for their condition. Psychiatrists and endocrinologists are very reluctant to give hormone treatment to transsexual youths under 16, and getting surgery, prior to the age of 18, is almost completely impossible. The latest revision of the Standards of Care has addressed the needs of transsexual children. According to the SOC, intensely transsexual youths can begin taking puberty-preventing medications as soon as the first signs of puberty become apparent.

Transsexuality - Puberty

Puberty is especially difficult for trans youth. Many people consider puberty to be difficult for everyone in many ways. But unlike their peers, who may be excited about bodily changes and thrilled with growing up, trans youth are put into an extremely bad position in their lives. While everyone around them may seem to be happy about going through puberty, the changes that are happening to them are the opposite of what feels right. The androgyny of childhood melts away, and to their horror, they see changes in their body that only make them more uncomfortable and put them through considerable agony.

And to make it worse, many endocrinologists insist on youths going through the puberty of their genetic sex before they prescribe hormones that could have prevented the masculinization or feminization of an MTF or FTM, respectively. Because of this, transsexual people must often undergo expensive, risky, time-consuming, and painful procedures to reverse pubertal changes that could have been prevented with early intervention. During this time, some MTF trans youth attempt self-castration, but often, they are not successful, and self-castration is widely considered to be extremely dangerous for anyone to attempt.

Transsexuality - Ensuring the child's security

Only in recent years have some transsexual or transgendered children received counseling and, in some cases, medical treatment, as well as the possibility to change their social role.

Families with a young child, who may identify already as a member of "the other" sex, and who chooses to change their gender roles through dress and behaviors, may respect their child's decision, and may even decide to relocate this child's home to another area in order to afford the young person the best opportunity to live in the desired gender role among a novel set of peers and community. This helps to protect trans children from peer rejection, bullying, and harassment.

Choosing to remain and live within an intolerant society where the local community has had previous experience of the child's assigned sex may raise many challenging issues. Gwen Araujo of Newark, California was a young person who had lived as female, a gender opposite to the male gender assigned her at birth. She became the victim of violent crimes that resulted in her death after she attended a party where her birth sex was revealed.

The film Ma Vie en Rose (1997), by Alain Berliner, depicts a similar scenario: Ludovic is a young child who is assigned male but who identifies as a girl and tries to make others agree with this identification. Ludovic's gender play incurs conflict within the family and prejudice from the neighbours; in the end the family has to relocate to a new community.

The 1999 documentary film Creature directed by Parris Patton, tells the story of Stacey "Hollywood" Dean, a young transsexual woman who grew up in rural North Carolina. It follows her through four years and includes interviews with her conservative Christian parents.

The decision to relocate, however, depends very much on the social environment and the handling of the situation by caregivers and other adults. There are also several cases where it was not felt that there was such a need to relocate, particularly in Western Europe.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Transsexual youth", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki