Teach Our Children Well…

More and more doctors are realizing that when a child tells their parents that they believe that they should have been born the other gender, that we should listen to the child. In the old days, the child was forced to live in their birth gender. That process is called conversion therapy or reparative therapy. However, reparative therapy is know to worsening of internalized transphobia, depression, anxiety, self-hatred, and self-destructive behaviors. While on the other hand affirming therapy, the process where the child explores their gender identity. If you look at both course of therapy, they both have about the same outcomes, about 25% of the children are identified as transsexual. However, I think it is obvious which treatment has less stress on the child and is better for the emotional wellbeing of the child.

Here is an article in the Huffington Post that discusses this topic…

New-Age Parenting for Transgender Youth
By: Joanne Herman
Posted: May 4, 2010 05:27 PM

Parents have a new and welcome option this summer for their transgender or gender non-conforming child -- a weeklong, overnight summer camp called Camp Aranu'tiq. Its organizers recently held a reception in the Boston area to introduce the program. In attendance were several new-age parents who, instead of rejecting their child's persistent gender non-conformity, are seeking ways to be understanding and helpful.

Parents have traditionally been told gender non-conformity is "just a phase," and psychiatric studies back that up assessment. Yet the research comes in part from the work of Dr. Kenneth Zucker, whose Toronto clinic provides treatments that encourage the child to accept their natal sex and associated gender. One has to wonder if Zucker's research is truly without bias.

New-age parents, frustrated at seeing their child become even more miserable after trying this approach, have begun looking elsewhere for help. And they have good reason to. Dr. Caitlin Ryan, head of the Family Acceptance Project, says that gay and transgender children rejected by their families were three times more likely to use illegal drugs, six times more likely to report high levels of depression and eight times more likely to have attempted suicide. No parent wants this for their child.
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Transgender people have had a tough time being recognized as ordinary citizens. The presence of supportive parents changes everything. These parents lend critical third-party credibility to our quest for basic human rights and dignity. With them leading the way, there is no doubt that we'll see social advances for transgender people at what feels like warp speed compared to what we have seen so far.