Friday, January 8, 2010
Kindergarten Transgender Transition
What the journey of transitioning from female to male means for a five-year-old in Silverton, and for those around him
By Megan A. Gex
http://destrantalk.blogspot.com/2010/01/kindergarten-transgender-transition.html (http://destrantalk.blogspot.com/2010/01/kindergarten-transgender-transition.html)
At first glance, Oliver is a healthy, jovial seven-year-old boy.
In the schoolyard he's known for his gelled faux-hawk, and his favorite color is blue. His favorite book is The Dangerous Book for Boys. He loves to sprint the 200-meter in track and watch Sponge Bob on the weekends with his best friend. His rambunctious attitude and boyish tendencies belie a core reality: Oliver was born a girl.
With today's prenatal technology, gender identity is often established before birth. It's something parents take for granted, while picking masculine names or painting the child's room pink prior to delivery. During the first years of rearing, the parents often provide their offspring with a gender role, before the child is even aware of their sex. Between the ages of two and three, children start expressing their own gender tendencies, according to specialist B.J. Seymour. Most of the time the child identifies with their assigned sex, but other times their psyche may say something different.
original article here http://www.justout.com/news.aspx?id=176 (http://www.justout.com/news.aspx?id=176)