The Sun 'is changing gender the new anorexia?'

[HandsOffMyRights]

www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/7362652/changing-gender-new-anorexia/

@Pumpkin

The refusal to take pre-existing mental health conditions and trauma into account when evaluating desire to transition is one of the things that worries me most. A friend of mine decided to transition FTM directly after being raped and the rapist telling her that he did it to turn her straight. Did that put a halt on things while that immediate source of trauma was looked into? No, unfortunately it did not. And I suspect things have gotten a lot worse in the time since that happened.

I’m pleased to see a good article on this - finally! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Pumpkin, there's some incredibly good advice there. I shall point people at your post should it come up.
I've followed you on Twitter and wish you all the best for the future.

Pumkin, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions and explaining how and why you felt the way you did.

I have absolutely no doubt I would have went down that route, even right through my early 20s. I was the flat chested, plain looking, tomboy that was bullied at school and felt that I was a failure as a girl. I was happier racing my brothers on motor bikes and climbing trees. Girls were second class citizens, in my family. There were so many things that happened that made being a girl, including being abused, then into a violent relationship, that If I was given the opportunity to become trans, I would have thrown myself into it. I would have seen it as being saved from the weight of womanhood.

I now love being a woman and realise that it wasn’t being a girl/woman that was wrong, it was the way I was made to feel because I was a girl, that was the problem.

Pumpkin your advice is very sound. There are lots of parents struggling with this (I am one of them). I feel with my kid, you are right - there is no "talking them out of it" - she needs to make her own good decisions and go through her own experiences to come to them, and we will support her no matter what the outcome is. What I worry about is that the climate we are in makes good decision making (for a young adult with ASD in particular) very hard.

Really good article which brings the discussion into focus with a real person with real experiences. Pumpkin, you come across very well in the article and on here, as you have insight and understanding.

I worry a lot about girls thinking they are trans, as if it's an easy answer to feeling like a misfit.

I've come across trans people who look and act like misfits - society inc workplaces and schools can be difficult places for people who are like this. The answer is to embrace everyone's differences without judgment. It's the world that needs changing, not bodies.

They have added a link to Transgender Trend now (although the have called it Gender Trend the link goes to the right place!)

Excellent to see that extra link added (if mis-named!) - so good to find journalists with integrity who are listening.

Oh I dare say the misspelling was no mistake.

Really thought provoking article. Absolutely excellent journalism.

Pumpkin thanks for joining us and providing us with extra insight. My mum has BPD (among other things) so my heart goes out to you. What a lot for to have gone through. Glad you are out the other side as it were.