The DeMita Fletcher Family: What We Learned From Our Transgender Son
By People, Steve Helling, Jan. 7th 2015
http://www.people.com/article/fletcher-family-discusses-transgender-teen
Julia Fletcher vividly remembers the day her child, Elliot, came out as transgender. "It was August 21, 2013," she says. "It was the second day of his senior year of high school. He was 17."
Elliot had been designated a female at birth, but identified as male. And on that August day in 2013, he told his family that he wanted to begin living as a boy.
Alas, another story of a trans kid that knew at an early age, reinforcing the public perception that if you didn't feel trans as a young kid, then it's just a phase.
I yearn for the day when we won't need to legitimize our identity in this way.
Public perception or not we can't invalidate the feelings of younger transitioners. What we do need to do is stop holding them up as paragons and being envious of them.