Transgender Children

Alexandria Hines
4-21-14
Human Growth and Development

Transgender Children
In the past couple of years The LGBT community has become more public and have let America know, they’re no longer scared of who they are. Everyday more and more people are “coming out saying that they’re gay. Often times we may forget about transgender men and women and what daily struggles they may face. We often wonder why someone would want to completely change their appearance, their gender and normal everyday life, we can ask why why every day until we’re blue in the face but we can never fully understand the mind state of a transgender male or female.
Personally, I have no idea how I feel about Transgender children. It honestly makes me feel uncomfortable for the simple fact that these are little kids who don’t want their “Special Parts” anymore. The fact that most parents are allowing their children to become the opposite sex make me feel very uncomfortable. I know as a parent you want to see your children happy, but sometimes you need to tell them it’s not okay.
An entire different part of me also feels like that what most parents did was ok, in soe situations you have to do what you have to do as a parent. In some situations such as the little boy in the video who wanted to cut off her penis is when the parents should take a look at their options and see what they can do to prevent another problem. If I were to ever see my son try to cut his penis off I would be very overwhelmed with all types of emotions. Confusion, anger, sad and hurt. I would be mad at first, than I’d begin to cry at the realization that something is wrong with my son. I think most parents wouldn’t know what to do if they were put at this particular situation with their child. I think anyone would be sad, hurt, and confused if their son ssaid “mommy I’m a girl.” That would mess up any parent’s head, especially if you don’t believe in someone being a transgender male or female. I guess the real question is what would you do? What would any parent do?
As I’m writing this essay, I ask my parents, roommate, and friends “What would you do if your child was transgender?” Most say I don’t know, while others say they would disown their child, but my dad said he would love all five of us regardless of what we ever decided to do. My mom always said that if myself or my if any of brothers decided to be gay and or transgender she would disown us and never talk to us again. “I would need to take time to process it. Pray pray and pray to god on how to best handle the situation. Keep praying. Then try to come to terms of the new change. I don’t like change of any kind so it would take me awhile to adjust to something that serious and life changing.” I think it all depends on the person and their very own perception on transgender. I think most of the time when people don’t accept transgender men, women, and children is because they’re confused about everything. I think that maybe if most people in our country would take time to listen to most peoples stories and how they are as a person then they would understand them more, rather than hate them or not like them because of what they are they can understand them now.
If any of my children under the age of ten told myself or my husband that they were the opposite sex than I would simply tell them otherwise, because they don’t know any better. I think that kids under the age of ten have no idea what being transgender is. Every little kid goes through stages when they think that they’re the opposite sex. It’s normal for little kids to go through stages of playing with dolls, dressing like boys, and rolling around in dirt. Everything is natural, and all little kids go through it, it’s all a matter of parents knowing the difference between a stage and something serious. It honestly all depends on the parent and their type of parenting style. If my children decide that they want to be transgender wants they’re older than I’d accept more because they’re grown adults and know what they want. I honestly would never allow my child to legally become the opposite sex or allow them to have surgery at a young age. Kids at young age don’t know how serious something of that matter could be and how life changing the situation can be. Even if I did allow my child to become transgender at a young age, I would honestly be so scared for them to live a normal everyday life. Children now a days are horribly evil and will bullying any kid that is different, kids are being bullied now a day because they don’t have on a certain pair of retro Jordan’s. Allowing your little six old boy dress like a little girl in public is not okay, especially in the society we’re living in now. Sometimes what your child wants isn’t always in their best interest, as a parent we need to protect them from anything possible and guide them in the right direction so they can live a happy normal life.
“I would need to take time to process it. Pray pray and pray to god on how to best handle the situation. Keep praying. Then try to come to terms of the new change. I don’t like change of any kind so it would take me awhile to adjust to something that serious and life changing.”
If my child wanted to dress up in the opposite sex clothes, I would allow them with the permission of their father to dress up like that but only in the house. There would never be any dressing like a girl outside of the house for my son if he wanted to do that. I could not bare the fact of any of my children being bullied if they have “Gender Identity Disorder.” I know I’ll be a sucker for my kids when it came to things like that. Gender identity disorder is not anything to play with and little kids will be very very confused on what’s right and what is wrong when they have that type of disorder. I honestly think it’s wrong to allow tour six year old son or 10 year old daughter to take hormonal pills to begin to alter their appearance and sexual orientation. What if it was just a stage they were going through at that point and time and you made a life altering decision for your child and when they got older they decided that that is not what they actually wanted. I know in some situations there are children who legitimately want to and need to make that huge life change in order to feel normal and in their eyes finally love themselves and live a normal life.
As parents we need to know what’s right and what’s not in order to teach our children the same so they can grow up to be successful adults in this society. I think a lot of things that are wrong now in society is the parenting skills we give off to our children. Children repeat the same behavior that they see us doing. If our children see us being rude to someone who is different, that’s why we have bullies now. We need to as parents, as leaders to all of young children be an example and again show them how to treat people. If everyone had a heart of gold and be nice, than there would be no problems at all.
As a parent I would unconditionally love my child, weather or not they decide to be a transgender male or female or not. I don’t agree with my child being like that when they’re younger because I feel like someone was around them and telling them it was okay for them to think at a young age to dress like a little boy or girl and thinking they’re the opposite sex. Now if they really had “Gender Identity Disorder”, than that would be a different story. That would be my job as a parent to make sure that is exactly what they have, rather than having them go through a stage or trying to be like someone else and guide them in the right direction and be able to make a life altering decisions for them if they’re at a certain age where they won’t be able to do that on their own.
A mother will always have unconditional love for their child, no matter what they do or who they are.