How old before you know you're a boy or a girl?Follow

I don't have a problem with it. However, if this was my child, I'd have a huge problem with a judge telling me I had to let my daughter get a sex change.

Not because I'd be personally against it, just not at that age. A 12 year old probably hasn't even had a sexual experience yet & having to go through life at that age with a mutilated psuedo-***** is just cruel.

Hormone therapy? Perhaps. But most likely It'd be a decision, I would support, that they would have to make themselves when they're 18.

Edited, May 20th 2009 1:50am by Omegavegeta

Did you notice where I already asked these exact same questions?

I don't have to comprehend what trans-people feel like to respect their agency and desire to be a different sex, or gender, or whatever the hell weird middle ground they are reporting about between the two. It would be nice to comprehend, but it's anything but necessary. Now, until I'm at the stage of comprehension as opposed to the stage of making money and getting laid (hahahahaha yeah right) I'm going to give trans-people the benefit of the doubt.

And that wasn't clear to me. It said "Sex Change" & I thought the whole shebang.

(Pun intended)

This sort of thing always confuses me.

When I was a kid, for several years I disdained all "girly" things. I was interested mainly in dinosaurs, volcanoes, and model rocketry, and a little bit after that, Pokemon. I would have nothing to do with the color pink, and I would freak out if anyone tried to use a "cute" version of my name. I did play house, since most of my friends were girls, but I was always the daddy, and I wanted to grow up and marry my best friend (another girl). Little girls acting like little boys seem to get a lot more acceptance than the other way around, though--no one seemed to care, and certainly no one gave me a hard time for "acting like a boy". My parents encouraged my interests (well, except for the wanting to marry my best friend part--they just kind of rolled their eyes at that one), never classified anything I did as a "boy" or "girl" activity, and eventually I grew out of it (can't really think of a better way to describe it).

While it seems like the parents in the article are being very accepting, I can't help but feel like they might have been responsible for the child wanting to be a girl. The article said that they restricted some of his activities to the home, and he had to dress differently when he went outside. If the kid hadn't been taught that some things were "girl" things and some things were "boy" things, and that it wasn't okay for a boy to enjoy "girl" stuff in public, maybe he wouldn't feel that he had to be a girl to keep enjoying his hobbies.

He made a Monday thread and a single inoffensive post about his garden. Apparently that's enough to get you rated to scholar when you've set the bar that low for yourself.

Gender identification involves much more than "sex designated" items. I think the confusion for some posters like yourself is "sex" and "gender". Sex is an ascribed status that we are all born with and doesn't change regardless of our achieved status of "gender". (if you are born XY, you remain so even if your plumbing changes, your DNA does not.)

Being a tomboy isn't the same as being a trans-man.

Kyla,

I've been at this site for years now and am probably the only one to never rate anyone at all. If people don't want to read my posts that's fine.

Oh and if this,



isn't whining I don't know what is.



Edited, May 20th 2009 11:27am by publiusvarus

What I would like to know is how a child knows the difference. If I'd been told to either stop playing with rockets or identify myself as male, I would have decided to be a boy simply because things that go whoosh are fun.

Anna is the clinician with Nexa as our Resident Sociologist. My knowledge in the matter is that what there is a larger portion of our personalities and gender roles that is genetic as opposed to being conditioned.

Think about sexuality. A child knows pretty early on what "flavor" is to their preference. What seems to be changing is our antiquated conservative based belief system that is easily offended at the mere idea that homosexuality is normal and gender is fluid.

sex, sexual preference and gender roles can be confusing. I liken it to trying to remember algebra formulas for factoring. Unfortunately, sexual preference and gender roles are more fluid than Algebra :/

I think it may more be the way we were raised and educated (or uneducated) that may contribute to our lack of understanding. The American culture is still quite conservative.

/edit
I have to say that I appreciate that lysis (sp?) and ash are at least asking and want to understand "why".

Edited, May 20th 2009 9:11am by niobia