In our continuing quest to become better informed about transgender issues, we're offering links to two stories on families facing gender identity issues.
These stories are especially poignant, because they deal with families where the children express their gender identity preferences when they are very young.
The first story deals with two families, one on the east coast, one on the west coast, where their sons expressed their gender identity preferences when they were two years old. The two families found two therapists who recommended two very different approaches. You can read the story here. This story has a set of questions and answers with the two therapists involved, where each discusses their very different approach.
The second story talks about the use of hormone treatments to help delay puberty in cases of gender identity, to give the child involved more time to work with their treatment teams to make the choice on gender identity. This story also had a related set of questions and answers.
My personal take - I found both stories interesting, uplifting, and disturbing. In the end, I'm glad I read both, and they helped me see the oh-so-many shades of gray in a very important issue. I'm happy and proud that NPR ran this series of stories.
The most telling quote came from the therapist who was explaining how families react to their transgender children. She said "Parents come to me and say, "I don't have a problem with him being gay, but I hope he's not transgender. A generation ago, they were saying "I don't have a problem with him being effeminate, but I hope he's not transgender."
My hope is that it won't take a generation to help families accept the reality of this gender identity issue.
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