Transgender Kids - No Easy Decisions

This piece in the New York Times caught my eye.  It's about kids who identify strongly with the other gender.  Some parents are letting their kids cross-dress, but it's not an easy decision.

In the past, that sort of behaviour was treated as a psychological problem.  Now therapists aren't so sure.  They wonder if the depression and suicides seen in adults who see themselves as transgender could be avoided. 

Given the amount of verbal and physical abuse a transgender pre-teen or teen would get in your average North American community, I'm not sure anyone's going to be able to avoid psychological distress.

About 15-20% of boys who grow up identifying themselves as girls will want to change their sex when they reach adulthood, says a Toronto psychologist.

Transamerica

Speaking of trannies transsexuals, I watched Transamerica recently.  The beauty of the film isn't that Felicity Huffman plays a transgender man.  It's that she plays a messed-up person who happens to be transgender. 

You can catch a good interview with writer-director Duncan Tucker on the Creative Screenwriting Magazine podcasts (February 2006).

The best part of the interview is Tucker talking about meeting Huffman's husband William H. Macy, who asks if there's "anything I can do to help."  It took Tucker several hours to realize that it wasn't one of those empty offers.  Macy became executive producer, and helped get the indie film in wide distribution.

Upate: Check out the comments.  Some good additions to the discussion, including a correction that Huffman plays a transgender woman, not a man.

Tags: transgender, film, psychology, gender, transamerica

Comments

[beth]

The psychological distress "could" be avoided if society at large attempted to become educated and legally responsible for hate, & crimes committed against transgender individuals.

Much like black civil rights, transgender individuals are in need of not only transforming themselves, but transforming society to reduce the social repercussions for feeling the way they do.

[Eric Eggertson]

Definitely, Beth. I guess I was talking about the fact that a 14 year old in that situation today is going to go through a lot of stress, unless they're in a very accepting community.

I'm not saying that it's acceptable for people to emotionally abuse someone else, but it would be a pretty predictable outcome in a lot of communities. There's a lot of work to be done on increasing awareness and understanding, and protecting people from the kind of bullying that goes on.

[Laura]

Eric, there was a really interesting post by Suzanne Reisman on Blogher the other day about this very article. Thought you might be interested to check it out:

http://blogher.org/node/13128

[Terri Morgan]

Hi Eric. I agree with your post save two items. As background, I am a 62 year old woman who was born with transsexualism and had corrective surgery over 30 years ago. I have been married for the last 17 years to a wonderful man and I have 3 children and 2 grandchildren. One point is that calling someone who was born with transsexualism, and who has had it corrected, is tantamount to calling an African-American a n***r or calling a gay person a f****t. It is extremely offensive. The other point is that Felicity Huffman played a "transgender" WOMAN, not a transgender man.

Thanks,
Terri

[Terri Morgan]

Oops.... on the last post after "...One point is that calling someone..." the words "a Tranny" should be inserted. Very sorry for the error.

Thanks,
Terri

[Eric Eggertson]

Terri:

Thanks for the comment. I didn't realize "tranny" was a derogeratory term.

As for your other points, I guess I'm still working on the mindset that sees someone as whatever gender they most identify with, rather than the one they have the equipment for. Thanks for your clarifying comments.

[Wolfgang]

Eric wrote: "I didn't realize "tranny" was a derogeratory term."

Highly understandable. Part of the problem is that some trans people are calling themselves that. It's like blacks who call themselves "n****r."