THREAD: I wanted to share a personal experience pertaining to the notion of "transing children" (convincing children they are trans when they're not). My son is 9 and has 2 moms, one cis and one trans. We have always raised him so that he has no gender boundaries on...

...what he is or isn't allowed to like. Now, he does mostly migrate towards interests that are traditionally coded masculine, but there are a few feminine-coded things he likes. One is painting his nails. In fact, he likes painting his nails more than either of his moms...

...does. And we've always let him paint his nails (with supervision) because it's a harmless interest that shouldn't be cause for alarm, right? Well, his grandmother didn't see it that way. When she found out he liked painting his nails she told him that "painting your...

...nails is for girls; boys don't do that." (SIDEBAR: Yes, we put a stop to her sending him that message as soon as we were aware) Her intention was obviously to dissuade him from wanting to paint his nails, but that's not what happened. My son started worrying that he was...

..."turning into a girl." He didn't WANT to turn into a girl; he's perfectly happy being a boy. But since he likes painting his nails and grandma told him only girls like doing that, he thought that meant he was turning into one. My partner and I had to explain to him...

...that it's okay for boys to like painting their nails and that liking it wasn't going to change who he was. I found all of this fascinating because it was the exact opposite outcome of what those who force strict gender roles on kids hope to achieve. I get accused of...

...trying to make my kid trans by letting him engage in interests he picked up all on his own, but he was already secure in being a boy who paints his nails. Since he couldn't be talked out of liking a thing he likes, he got it in his head that his identity would change...

...against his will because of his interests. His grandmother almost "transed" him by accident, and he didn't want it! So stop trying to make kids fit into pre-determined roles. Just let kids be kids. My son is living proof that being trans is not tied to your material...

...interests and that steering kids to be what you want them to be may have the opposite effect you were hoping for.

Also, my son is autistic, and I know a lot of trans autistic kids are said to be "tricked" into thinking they're trans, so this debunks that nonsense at the same time.