XX Factor: the blog

Is It Normal To Be Transgender?

Judy Berman writes a great story today in Salon's Broadsheet about transgender activists fighting to remove "gender identity disorder" as a category in the DSM, the Bible of psychiatric diseases. The activists argue that they are making the same case gay activists made in the 1970s, when they fought successfully to get "homosexuality" removed as a mental illness. Only, as I wrote in a story earlier this year in the Atlantic, it's not quite so simple.

For adults, the activists' case seems fairly straightforward. Strong feelings of identification with the opposite gender recur throughout history and across cultures. Many transgendered adults suffer a lifetime of shame and heartache before they finally get a sex change. More social acceptance would do them a world of good.

The real controversy centers around children. Many children identify with the opposite gender at a very young age, sometimes as soon as they can speak. And a growing group of parents are taking their kids at their word and letting them live as the other gender as early as kindergarten. I met many of these parents. They are in an impossible situation, and doing what they think is best for their kids. I started out totally sympathetic, until I began to look at the research, both sociological and biological. Existing studies—almost all done on boys—show that the great majority of boys who identify strongly as girls when they are young turn out to be gay men, not transgendered. Since I wrote the story, I've heard from many older gay men who swear that when they were little they insisted they were girls. Does this mean gender confusion should be pathologized? Probably not. But it does mean that gender identity might be like all other identities: fluid, confusing, and not meant for a tidy box, of any kind.

Tags: DSM, transgender

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Hanna Rosin Double X co- editor, reporter, prefer my friends live.

Comments

good post,I think

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I know of no cases where this

By: dundonjustin | Sat, 08/29/2009 - 01:04

I know of no cases where this has actually happened though, if the child insists on cross-gendered living at such an early age, it's pretty acute.

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I really dont think it

By: Marlet | Mon, 08/17/2009 - 06:24

I really dont think it is
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What we think we know....

By: Zoe Brain | Thu, 05/21/2009 - 21:57

About 2 in 3 children exhibiting a considerable degree of cross-gendered behaviour end up being merely gay or lesbian rather than transsexual.

But when the situation is acute, and lasts till age 10, then it's pretty close to 100%. Certainly the Dutch clinics, with stringent diagnostic criteria, have shown a 100.0% rate.

Basically, if the kid is merely gay, that will become obvious long before puberty, and probably no harm will be done by a period of cross-gendered living. I know of no cases where this has actually happened though, if the child insists on cross-gendered living at such an early age, it's pretty acute.

I picked my new name at 10, by the way. And had no desire to be anything other than the boy I appeared to be. But it's something you are or are not, regardless of wishes.

Hanna.....I'm inclined to

By: laurataylor | Thu, 05/21/2009 - 08:32

Hanna.....I'm inclined to believe as well, that without specific intervention, that many, if not the majority of female-identifying children will eventually adopt a male gender identity with a homosexual orientation. However, you make the implication that this is a "preferred" outcome to developing a cross-gendered identification, which I think is a bit of a premature supposition....

I think the key issue is what will allow these children to be optimally well-adjusted and happy while they are children. Though the evidence is scant and mainly anecdotal, it does appear that these children are genuinely more comfortable when they are allowed to fully express themselves in their preferred gender....

This all having been said, I don't think we'll ever truely know the "right" answer here, and for that, I defintiely sympathize for all parents who are struggling with making the best choices for their child.....

Laura