Britain's youngest trans child

I too do not understand this . My daughter was a tomboy from an early age . We let her play with her brothers toys , she wore jeans and trainers , played football and at 18 went on a plumbing course .

However she has been happily living with her boyfriend for years .

I just don’t get this . A child has no idea of who they will be attracted to at a letter age at 2 or 3 ?

I think it’s actually harmful labelling the child at this age , just let them wear what they want and develop normally .

IMO the parents are not being kind they are actually making their life more difficult 😞 IMO a of course .

And that can be done by letting them be who they are -letting them play with what they want and wear what they want. Basically by parenting them.

Pushing them into medicalised ways of living at the age of 4 is not going to do anything to help anyone.

Now if they still feel the same way when they can come to an age at which they fully understand what they are wanting to do then yes of course a full transition should be supported but a four year old can not possibly even begin to understand the complexities of such a decision and no parent should make that decision for a 4 year old which is what is happening in this case.

The ones who are gender stereotyping are the parents who think because their daughter likes things which are stereotypically boys then she must be a boy

Girls are human children who are female.

If a child's gender identity is so easily influenced, how come he said he felt like a boy after being so heavily "gendered" as a girl since birth?

No child knows what they felt "since birth"

I know - I was one.

Not wanting pig tails or pretty shoes is not a sign that someone is the wrong sex. It's personal taste.

If a child's gender identity is so easily influenced, how come he said he felt like a boy after being so heavily "gendered" as a girl since birth?

The parents are fixing the idea that a little girl who does not want to have pigtails, wear dresses and likes firefighters is infact a boy.

There are legions of women who were little girls with similar preferences. We weren't 'trans boys' or 'Tom boys', we were simply girls able to recognise what we liked/did not like.
It should be no more significant than a child preferring brocolli to biscuits.

You mean like they are doing.

Identifying her as transgender, changing her name, and refering her to the tavi isn't just letting her get on with it though is it. It's actively putting her on a transitioning pathway at 4 years old.

All the science says that affirming a child's gender identity has a positive effect on their mental health.

www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2019/?section=Introduction

www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2020/?section=Introduction

www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567%2816%2931941-4/fulltext

www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(18)30085-5/fulltext

transpulseproject.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Impacts-of-Strong-Parental-Support-for-Trans-Youth-vFINAL.pdf

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/137/3/e20153223

No, they have only done so on the condition that she be referred to as a boy and announced to the outside world as a boy and be "socially transitioned" at the nursery the child attends.

Prior to this they seem, from the self provided evidence, to have heavily "gendered" the twins early childhood.

They didn't include children who don't identify as either cisgender or transgender in that study.

You mean like they are doing.

This kind of sexism is extremely regressive and dangerous for the children. Girls need to be empowered, not transitioned when they are a little more than a toddler because they like fire fighters, police officers and dislike people fussing with their hair. Surely this is SS remit?

These are areas where family resource workers and Sure Start Centres provided valuable support and interventions if needed. Its a great shame these services have been cut back so far.

The opposite - I was a tomboy, not into pink or princesses or anything like that, but I felt I was a girl. Gender identity is not the same thing as gender stereotypes - that's why some trans girls are tomboys. I'm the same now - short-haired lesbian, don't own a pair of heels, never had my nails done (I do quite like make-up though).

www.newsweek.com/transgender-kids-living-identity-develop-cis-children-1471729

"Within both transgender and cisgender children, we find a wide range in the strength of their identity and preferences. For example, we had some 'tomboy' transgender girls in the study, just as we had 'tomboy' cisgender girls."

They lost me at “posting on LinkedIn”. Along with the ostentatious announcing of pronouns.

"Recognised medical condition" .

Daft sexist parents isn't a medical condition.

Jesus wept. I would bet £1000 that the little girl just wanted to be like her twin brother and if the parents had just let them dress the same/cut their hair the same/play with the same toys, she would have been just fine.

Imagine being told at such a young age that no, you had to have hair, clothes and toys you didn't want whilst your twin brother had 'better' stuff, "because you're a girl"

My 5 year old daughter quite passionately wants to be a fire fighter. Do their parents realise women can be firefighters? And police officers too? We have only seen firefighters three times but every time there was a woman....

Their conversation is surely along the lines of, 'You know boys like fire fighters and police officers that's what being a boy means. Girls like princesses and sparkles. Are you a boy or a girl?'.

This kind of sexism is extremely regressive and dangerous for the children. Girls need to be empowered, not transitioned when they are a little more than a toddler because they like fire fighters, police officers and dislike people fussing with their hair. Surely this is SS remit?

"Sounds just like my 11 year old autistic daughter. She doesn't like girls clothes, hair slides, make up, girly toys and culture. Still a girl."

Same, except I wasn't autistic.

I think we are largely agreeing with ourselves here. There are a wide range of reasons why a 4-year old might not want to wear dresses and hair clips:

• maybe they are trans, will experience gender dysphoria throughout their childhood and will want to transition socially or medically when they are older
• maybe they have autism or sensory issues and don't like the feel of clothes or the way hair clips pull at their hair and scalp
• maybe they want to have the same things as a male sibling or friend
• maybe it's part of their personality and they just prefer different things

Shizuku - it sounds like you feel a close relationship between your childhood preferences and your adult gender identity. However, that is not true for everyone here: some of us were gender non-conforming children who grew up to be gender non-conforming adults but without wanting a trans or non-binary identity. How we want to negotiate our identity in a gendered world is something we can address as adults. But, given 4-year olds' rudimentary understanding of gender (see the videos I linked to in my previous post), I don't see how anyone can look at the child in that article and decide that they are a trans boy, rather than just a child who likes fire engines.

This child does not need a GP appointment or referral to GIDS, the parents need some support in understanding child development and language acquisition. Also perhaps, guidance in twin dynamics.

Dr Katie Alcock (Lancaster University developmental psychology)
medium.com/@katieja/young-children-reality-sex-and-gender-3421f4f165f1

Jesus wept. I would bet £1000 that the little girl just wanted to be like her twin brother and if the parents had just let them dress the same/cut their hair the same/play with the same toys, she would have been just fine.

This is all so terribly regressive, sexist and sad.