Oprah yesterday

Did anyone see it?
The topic was transgender children
If not ...it was about 3,4,5...11 year old kids that feel they were born into the wrong
body...Meaning a born 5 year old boy wants to be a girl...

Do you believe that a 4-5 year old could know they are not supposed
to be the sex they were born?

Yeah but these parents are letting the 10 and 11 year old (born girls)
dress as a boy and change their names to boy names. Do you think that
parents should be allowing this?

that show freaked me out a little. it was so crazy but sad in the same sense. i don't know if these parents are jumping the gun a little. my best friend's little sister was SUCH a tomboy when she was younger, now she is 18 and the most non-tomboy there is--she is so feminine and has a serious bf. i don't know if these parents are taking it too far

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Posted by oct.2004bride

Yeah but these parents are letting the 10 and 11 year old (born girls)
dress as a boy and change their names to boy names. Do you think that
parents should be allowing this?

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It is hard to say. If the parents let them then they are going to be made fun of by other kids and people will talk about the kid/parents like'What are these parents crazy' but on the other hand if the parents don't allow it the child might feel like their own parents don't accpet them and later on hold it against the parents.

They were talking about how some of these kids are suicidal. I feel so badly for them. Did you see the one at the end - the adult who was married (divorced now) and has 2 sets of twins? He is a woman now, when he was talking about how it was for him growing up - he brought tears to my eyes.
I don't know how a child of 5 could know - but somehow I believe they might. I wouldn't let them do a sex change operation but I would support them no matter what.

I read a very good book once called 'As Nature Made Him' and I would highly recommend it. It is not a straight up transgender story, because the guy was born as a male. But he had a botched circumcision, so the doctors decided to do surgery to make him have female genitals and his parents raised him as a girl, never telling him the truth. Yet, he a always knew from a very early age, that he should be male. He even had the urge to pee standing up! This book is kind of sad and disturbing, but it really will make you think about things.

ETS.......this is a TRUE story!

I thought the one mother with the little black boy was encouraging the behavior though..

As much as i might think some of them do really feel they are traped in the wrong body, i don't think i could have my child dress differently and change their name. By all means, when they are an adult do what you want. But not a 5 year old or 8 year old.

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Posted by oct.2004bride

I thought the one mother with the little black boy was encouraging the behavior though..

As much as i might think some of them do really feel they are traped in the wrong body, i don't think i could have my child dress differently and change their name. By all means, when they are an adult do what you want. But not a 5 year old or 8 year old.

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well put, anything under the age of 18 is too young to understand how this will affect your whole life.

plus all the ridicule of kids these days...I can't believe how cruel kids are today...

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Posted by LovelyL

I read a very good book once called 'As Nature Made Him' and I would highly recommend it. It is not a straight up transgender story, because the guy was born as a male. But he had a botched circumcision, so the doctors decided to do surgery to make him have female genitals and his parents raised him as a girl, never telling him the truth. Yet, he a always knew from a very early age, that he should be male. He even had the urge to pee standing up! This book is kind of sad and disturbing, but it really will make you think about things.

ETS.......this is a TRUE story!

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wow, sounds very interesting! i think i'll check it out.

the topic is very interesting to me, because this essentially suggests, as i see it, God made a mistake -- and i'm not so sure i'm convinced of that ...

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Posted by mrswask

My mom is acquaintances with someone whose husband had the surgery after many years of marriage - he has two adult sons and may even have grandchildren. I don't know the whole story but he is a woman now, still lives with the wife, and I know that he had to leave his synagogue because it is not accepted in the Jewish religion and he was VERY religious!!

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why?

I may be wrong on this, but aren't things like playing with dolls and other 'gender' specific toys learned behaviors? So many of those parents were going by the fact that their child wanted to play with dolls, or girls wanting short hair as PROOF that they really wanted to be the opposite sex. I learned in a psych. class that if you give a child gender specific toys, but don't make a distinction between 'girl' and 'boy' toys, they won't know the difference.
And how do these parents, or children know they aren't just gay?
I bring these two things up only because my mom and I watched it and were talking about those things.

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Posted by 121502

I may be wrong on this, but aren't things like playing with dolls and other 'gender' specific toys learned behaviors? So many of those parents were going by the fact that their child wanted to play with dolls, or girls wanting short hair as PROOF that they really wanted to be the opposite sex. I learned in a psych. class that if you give a child gender specific toys, but don't make a distinction between 'girl' and 'boy' toys, they won't know the difference.
And how do these parents, or children know they aren't just gay?
I bring these two things up only because my mom and I watched it and were talking about those things.

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I think a big difference between these kids wanting to change sexes and being gay/lesbian. Is that Gay/Lesbian people do not want to change their gender. They feel comfortable in their bodies, these children didn't!
But i agree and you are correct, as a child their environment is a huge factor in their evolving personalities! And yes our societal norms assign gender to toys, hobbies, even colors...

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Posted by LovelyL

I read a very good book once called 'As Nature Made Him' and I would highly recommend it. It is not a straight up transgender story, because the guy was born as a male. But he had a botched circumcision, so the doctors decided to do surgery to make him have female genitals and his parents raised him as a girl, never telling him the truth. Yet, he a always knew from a very early age, that he should be male. He even had the urge to pee standing up! This book is kind of sad and disturbing, but it really will make you think about things.

ETS.......this is a TRUE story!

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I heard about this in my class. This also happens when a child is born as a hermaphrodite and the parents choose a sex for the child... what happens when the child grows up and feels that they are the other sex?
This is not totally related but did anyone see the movie 'Boys Don't Cry'? That was a sad movie