Transgender 9-year-old

[dbgtz]

Kind of stealing this from HFFM but they seem to have no diversity of opinion there and I'm shocked they all seem OK with this...

A mum says her 9-year-old son told her he was transgender - while watching a male X-Factor contestant wearing a dress.

Rachel Armstrong, 38, says her son Sam asked her thoughts on Seann Miley Moore wearing a dress on the ITV talent show, before revealing she was transgender.

Her child, now 10 and called Zoe, had already researched how she was feeling online and discovered there was a name for it.

But the news didn't come as a surprise to Rachel, who says Zoe had always stuck out from her three brothers by wearing pink tutus and a tea towel on her head to resemble hair.

Only weeks later teachers announced that Sam would be returning on the following Monday as Zoe and has been wearing dresses ever since.

Now the family, from Durham, are monitoring Zoe's development and plan to use medication to pause her puberty and will consider giving her female hormones - which will leave her infertile.

Rachel said: "To be honest, it's not been a major shock. She's always been girly. The trickiest thing was changing to the right pronouns and not calling her by her old name.

"I've got a family of boys. She's never been like her brothers. It was from a very early age.

"She was never like them, wasn't into the same things and she had no interest in playing the games they played or the toys they played with.

"Her brothers have been fabulous with it. They just took it in their stride. Everything just fell into place.

"The earliest sign was when she was just a baby. She used to wear a tea towel on her head as hair. She would also wear my heels.

"She would always choose to wear a pink tutu at nursery and would always pick stereotypical girl things over boy things.

"Another sign was when we took the boys to the fair and they all chose a crossbow and arrow but she wanted a princess set.

"We knew the writing on the wall and it was no shock. I would have questioned it a bit more if it was one of my other sons that came out because they showed no signs.

"When I first found out I did lots of research and I found so many articles on people who had killed themselves and I thought to myself, she's not going to be a statistic like that.

"It was all about her wanting to be happy and I would rather have a happy girl than an unhappy boy.

"At the end of the day, I'm just loving her and letting her live her life as a happy 10-year-old little girl. It's just a different name.

The mum-of-four bought Zoe a new outfit to express her new identity two weeks later, which she put on straight away and didn't want to take off.

She officially took on her new name in November 2015, which she chose herself after the beauty blogger Zoella.

After wearing girly clothes for a week Zoe became insecure about her short hair, which still showed her as a young boy.

However, to make her feel better, Rachel cut her hair very short as a surprise so that they could grow their hair long together.

After Zoe had taken on her new image and name, Rachel knew it was time to tell their friends, family and the school but thankfully faced no negativity.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...d-told-9281620

There's a load more but it seems to become rather irrelevant.

C+ping my reply from HFFM:
"Did anyone actually read the article?
I will be honest and say I disagree with this whole "trans" movement, but if an adult wants to take these life altering drugs and cut off bits and bobs then so be it. However, suggesting "pausing" puberty because a 9 year old boy now wants to be a girl is insane. Not only do these drugs seriously mess with the body with no physical benefit, but what 9 year old can seriously make such a life changing decision at this age?

If you support this "pausing" of puberty then you should all be ashamed frankly."

I really hope it's just tabloid trash that has been badly spun, but I surely can't be the only one thinking this? I can't also help think now that the child thinks they're a girl because they like traditionally girl things but have read up on how this somehow makes them a girl? It's an assumption but I can't help but think they've looked up some bad information and is just another reason they should not consider drugs.

[lemons]

very interesting topic!
the worst part of this article is that she named herself after zoella

i do think there should be some caution around kids who believe they aren't the right sex because a lot of it can be based on stereotypes which we always seem to be told are a load of shit, however i do think a lot of kids that young are sensible enough to make decisions for themselves and it's just a case by case basis i guess!

to be honest if my children decided they wanted to be the opposite sex then i'd accept it but i wouldnt want them to do the whole hormones thing unless it was really really really destroying their lives being in the wrong body

we watched this video in my tutorial last week it was rly interesting

[FlyingJesus]

I'm shocked they all seem OK with this

Are you really though I mean this is the forum that had a 5 page thread with everyone saying that you can't be racist to white people

But yeah it's a sad case really - sad that gender politics has pushed this kid into wanting such drastic action taken in order to feel comfortable doing the things they want to do. And yes far too young to be having medical action even considered, just let the kid wear dresses and stuff if it makes them happy

[Lewis]

The world of today frightens me...

I don't care if you're transgender - no impact on me - but no child of that age should make a choice like that, especially at those extremities.

[-:Undertaker:-]

any doctor performing these mutilations should be struck off the medical register for malpractice.

[Empired]

To be honest I just don't care. Definitely not a good idea to mess around with a childs hormones but if my son decided he liked dresses and pink then I don't care. I guess I'd want to teach him that he can be a boy and like that stuff rather than become a girl.

But honestly if other people are going along with their kids like that then whatever.

[lawrawrrr]

As far as I know, the drugs that delay puberty are fully reversible and don't cause any physical long-lasting harm to the child? Like, as soon as you stop taking them you then start puberty (so if you change your mind at 17 you THEN go through puberty).

If that's true and the child has been under like extensive psychological evaluations and exams then I really don't see what the HUGE issue is, as long as they truly understand. I have heard of some kids who say they knew from when they were really young then the issue of reversing puberty is pretty hard.

However I do also think that more research needs to be done into transgender children because there doesn't seem like there's a huge wealth of information on the subject and I'm sure I read somewhere recently there's only a few people in the country who will deal with it?? Could be making that up but I'm sure I remember reading it

but yes do remember that any trans people generally undergo huge amounts of evaluations, exams, everything over multiple years, it's not an easy process and they have to be 100000% sure. And if you're an adult you have to be on HRT for a while before getting physical surgeries, it's not just a HELLO MR DOCTOR I WOULD LIKE MY **** CHOPPED OFF THANK YOU AND GOOD DAY

[Joe]

What a crazy hard situation in today's increasingly liberal society. My personal feelings would be that I would allow my child to act as a different gender and even go as far as changing their name, but hormonal changes at that age is ridiculous. Probably a terrible comparison but I remember enjoying wearing my mums high heels and dresses when I was a little boy but obviously grew out of that. Maybe I wouldn't have so quickly if I had the access to the internet and articles on transexual-ism.

[wixard]

well i'm tired of this forum bashing 'lefties' and considering themselves superior

who **** cares? people can do what they want, i don't give a shit what they let their kids do
and you know what? if my kid came and said to me they were trans, i'd hear them out
that decision at 9 is a big decision to make but i'd be willing to compromise to delay it for a couple years to ensure it's what they really wanted
and like laura said, if all evaluation was done correctly and it's reversible why **** not

i don't feel strongly for/against it but i'm sick of you lot and this new trend to bash librals

[FlyingJesus]

No-one's mentioned lefties and the only mention of the word liberal was to state that we live in a more liberal society now, not a slur