Transgender Youth and Resilience  April 9, 2010
Posted by Geekgirl

http://lgbtlatestscience.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/transgender-youth-and-resilience/

Development, Risk, and Resilience of Transgender Youth

Kimberly A. Stieglitz, PhD, RN, PNP-BC
(Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care,
-, 1-15) Copyright  2010 Association of Nurses in AIDS Care

Transgender youth are a group of people who are interesting, curious, passionate, and self-motivated. Like their peers, transgender youth strive for independence and take risks. However, they experience some unique challenges in figuring out who they are and who they are attracted to in a society that does not understand them.

The stigma they face because of different gender identity expression places them at high risk for becoming victims of discrimination,verbal harassment, and physical violence.The purpose of this article is to explore and describe the literature on the childhood developmentof gender identity and social reactions to nonconforming gender behavior, which in part explain behaviors that place transgender youth at high risk for HIV infection.