Being Transgender Is Not a Rare Disorder

Filed By Davina Kotulski | April 29, 2012 3:30 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2012/04/being_transgender_is_not_a_rare_disorder.php

This week I spoke with a parent of a transgender child. Frankly, this is nothing new. I often speak to parents with transgender children, both professionally and personally. I often speak to transgender people and have several transgender bigstock-Psychology-session-sign-vector-23230688.jpgpeople in various stages of transition in my therapy and coaching practice and in my personal life. Being transgender is not a "rare disorder."

However, this week while speaking to a mother of a transgender child, I was shocked to hear her say that she had looked extensively for therapists who had experience working with transgender clients and was unsuccessful in her search. To her - and my - dismay, she said she interviewed dozens of therapists and only one or two had any experience counseling transgender clients and in these cases, they'd only worked with one client and told her that being transgender is a rare disorder. This experience has caused her to doubt her child's desire to transition and reifies the belief that transgender people are confused or mentally ill.

Now, multiple personality disorder that's a "rare disorder," yet, I have worked with this condition at least once before. People transitioning from male to female or female to male, is totally common.

The point of the blog is well-taken, however, the question remains ho does one quantify "rare"?

Is 0.3% of the population (from the recent UCLA study) "rare" or is it "totally common," as claimed by the blogger?