Phuzzy4242 wrote:I wanted to be a dinosaur when I was 7 but my parents were very mean and wouldn't let me transition to one. /sarc
No child can make such a life-changing decision for the same reason they're not allowed to drive a car - they don't have good judgement, they don't know what they're doing, and they're certain to crash. This little boy still has to hold his mommy's hand when he crosses the street, for crying out loud. It's his mother who is pushing him toward what SHE wants and it's nothing less than child abuse, especially if they start giving him hormone blockers to prevent puberty. Such things are usually not reversible, plus he'll be sterile. On top of that, trans people have a suicide rate 8 times the average.
If he still wants to transition to female when he grows up and is mature enough to be able to decide himself, then more power to him/her.
I would say I agree with you that young children shouldn't decide these things, but I never said they should. I just find it strange that some people think children are questioning their gender just for the heck of it. I want more compassion, less condemnation. All this condemnation is the reason why transgender people have higher suicide rates, not because of transgenderism itself. Come on, let's not contribute to the hate. How about getting to know the actual situation of the family before accusations of child abuse.
I would also like to bring up the transgender actress Nicole Maines, who knew she was gender misassigned at three years old.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Maines
"Maines was assigned male at birth and said she knew she was gender misassigned as young as three years old."
So a child CAN know these things. The problem is of course, we don't know if this particular child knows, or is just confused. Again I say, we should get to know the child, the family more before passing judgement. Blanket statements intimating child abuse or that the child must be confused are not helpful and are wrong, because some children were always sure and were never confused and grew up just as sure, like Nicole did.
Here is another person who knew she was female before she could speak:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Jennings
"Jennings made it clear as soon as she could speak that she was female, and, although the family presented her publicly in gender-neutral clothing, she wanted to be presented in feminine clothing."
She is now 20 and still thinks the same way. Yet another child who was never confused and maintained the same view all the way to adulthood.
Sure, some kids could be confused, but remember, some weren't. If we met Nicole or Jazz when they were young, should we accuse their parents of abusing them? Should we accuse them of being confused? If we did, we would have been very, very wrong!