Nonprofit Works With Transgender Kids—Long Before Puberty
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 12:43 PM
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/12/13/nonprofit-works-with-transgender-kidslong-before-pubertyPortland-based TransActive is the only transgender youth nonprofit in the country with actual office space. I talked with TransActive Executive Director Jenn Burleton last week about how preventing transgender teen suicide means working with kids long before they hit puberty.
MERCURY: At what age do people actually know they're transgender?
JENN BURLETON: Parents have told us that as early as 18 months, when they would say things like, "Good girl," their kid would say, "Nooo, good boy." But the average age kids know their gender is about four and the modal age for kids to recognize that the way they're experiencing their gender identity is different than the way everyone else thinks they are is about seven. All kids have a pretty strong sense of whether they're a boy or a girl or some mix of the two. If the way you experience your gender identity matches your birth assigned gender, then there are no surprises for anybody and when you affirm that, no one says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." But trans kids, what they express at that same time gets a lot of cultural pushback. Especially transfeminine kids. Tomboy is not a dirty word in our culture. Sissy is.
