How do you tell children what trans means?

[VeeringTowardsMuff1ns]

My son is nearly 10 and the other day was flicking through Netflix and came across a cartoon with a trans character as the lead and so asked me what trans meant. I answered his question but I don’t think it was particularly balanced as it was based on my own GC point of view. Any advice on how I can tackle this question fairly and objectively?

This is the show in question. He’s not watched it yet and I don’t know if he will but if it’s a good show he might (he wasn’t sure from the trailer, which he just found confusing).

www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a40300139/dead-end-netflix-musical-queer-lgbtq/

My son was also left quite confused as I said that Barney was born a girl and now identifies as a boy and my son thought it was the other way round - “I thought it was a boy pretending to be a girl” to quote him directly - and I don’t think was convinced that I had it the right way round!

Obviously this is an issue that is going to come up more as he gets older and I want to be able to talk to him about it properly.

This.

I say when a boy wants to dress and pretend to be a girl and wear makeup or a girl likes to dress and pretend to be a boy. But I also say that sometimes they change their minds when they grow older then they swop back again. I have known 3 trans children switch back to birth sex again once out of education.

I mean simply on the logical side of it if the proportion in the uk who are not ok with same sex relationships has recently doubled from 5% to 10% then clearly the statements 'people are pretty live and let live' and 'homophobia is on the rise' would both be perfectly reasonable reflections of reality so they can both be true. this is made up as an example - I don't have good statistics on whether they are both true, but it fits with my experience and it is absolutely possible for them to both be true.