Disordered Identities, Disaffirmed Childhood

http://gidreform.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/disordered-identities-disaffirmed-childhood/
Kelley Winters, Ph.D.
10/28/2008

Jazz, a beautiful seven year old girl with long brown hair and poise
beyond her years, explained gender diversity from her porch swing in a
YouTube video this summer:

"If someone asks me why I used to be a boy and now I'm a girl, I would
say that I have a girl brain and a boy body. I think like a girl, but
I just have a boy body and it's different than you."

The American Psychiatric Association might learn a lot from this young
girl. Last year, Jazz and her family appeared with Barbara Walters in
the television news magazine 20/20. They shared how painful her
assigned birth-role had been for her until her family acknowledged her
feminine identity at age five and created safe space for Jazz to be
herself. They shared how her distress was relieved with transition to
a female social role and how she has thrived since.