Read on Twitter
Sorry, a longish thread.
I have a daughter who spent 2 years saying that she felt like she was a boy and didn’t want to be a girl. She asked us to use him/they pronouns and changed her name. They school and her friends adopted these requests, as did we, her parents.
I have a daughter who spent 2 years saying that she felt like she was a boy and didn’t want to be a girl. She asked us to use him/they pronouns and changed her name. They school and her friends adopted these requests, as did we, her parents.
She wanted to use a binder which I refused, and for this time, it was very difficult. I knew that she was a girl and had never previously shown any signs that she was not comfortable as a female. I knew this was a phase, but I wanted to support her gender non-conformity.
I guess, for her, encouraging this GNconformity and her first (lesbian) relationship allowed her to just ‘be’ without societal expectations of what it is to be a girl. I knew that this phase was affected by another girl at her school coming out as ‘trans’ but had not heard
of ROGD at that time. We argue about the ‘trans’ debate quite often as she is a bit of a TRA and whenever I remind her of this time in her life when I could have pursued a medical approach, she goes quiet. She *knows* if I had done that she would have been on her pathway to being
a trans man. Also, by her own admission, she cannot really remember this period of time or why she felt at odds with her gender. Around the same time she developed anxiety and panic attacks for which she is still, 4 yrs later, receiving counselling.
Through counselling she has finally been told that she *may* be Autistic and we are waiting for an appointment for a test. It never occurred to me before that she could have ASD but now, I recognise numerous signs that she is. Even going back to things in her early childhood.
I suspect that many of these young girls seeking to transition, are probably like my daughter: sensitive, with sensory, processing and interaction issues that they have learned to mask. Whenever the likes of Owen Jones and Mermaids etc use their platforms to promote gender
