Children's gives transgender tween new hope
by Melissa Jeltsen on July 21, 2010
http://childrenshospitalblog.org/childrens-gives-transgender-tween-new-hope/Although born identical twins with matching DNA, Tom* and Ryan were two immensely different children. As toddlers, Tom entertained himself with toy trucks while Ryan fawned over his girl cousin's Barbies and Little Mermaid dolls. Photo after photo of them at that age show Ryan with a t-shirt wrapped around his head, mimicking long, flowing hair. At age 4, he asked his mom, Cecelia, a heartbreaking question: When do I get to be a girl? A few months later, while assisting his dad, Dennis, with a plumbing job, he told him that he hated his own penis. Dennis choked up. "I cried and he cried, and then his brother came in and we all hugged and cried," he says.
When he was 6, his parents sought professional advice. A local psychiatrist diagnosed Ryan with gender identity disorder (GID) or ->-bleeped-<-, a rare condition in which a biological male or female feels a strong identification with the opposite sex and is extremely uncomfortable with his or her own gender. Like Ryan, many transgender youth express disgust with their genitals from a young age, and some even believe they'll grow up to become the opposite sex.
