According to our doctors, medically speaking, a person’s anatomical’ sex' and their gender are two separate things. Whether a person has certain body shapes doesn’t determine whether that person is male or female, both, neither or fluid. Gender is pre-determined by genetic makeup of the brain. This is to say that this is not a psychological condition, but a genetic one—like being left-handed. The genetic variation of transgender people has existed since ancient times. Exact stats are hard to gather—but something like 1 in 500 (or, another study says, 1 in 3000) people in any population are transgender. Three to five years of age is sometimes a time of ‘coming out’ for trans kids. More come out at around 10. Another wave late in puberty. And another wave in adulthood. Generally, the earlier a child transitions, the better they tend to do socially, so this is a great thing.
Research shows that encouraging or forcing a child not to display their gender identity is almost always disastrous. The frightening thing about trans-kids and youth is that about 45% of them attempt suicide. This is absurdly high given that the attempted suicide rate in the general population of kids and youth is less than 2%. This high rate of suicide is seen as directly connected with the difficulty in being accepted—by family and community—for who you are. The number one thing that doctors recommend in a situation of gender nonconformity is acceptance and love. There is a very recent study showing that trans kids who are supported to live their affirmed identity have mental health stats on par with their cisgendered peers.
And it is for this that we come to you. We can’t change our children, but we can change the world, and build a place of acceptance and inclusion that allow all our kids to simply be themselves.