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| Insistent: Tyler receives a longed-for short haircut after insisting for years that he was not a girl |
The insistence that she was a boy began when Kathryn was two years old and only became more pronounced, distressed and frustrated as she grew older.
By the time she was four, Kathryn's parents began to realize there was more going on than just Kathryn being a tomboy.
After seeing a psychologist who diagnosed Kathryn as having gender dysphoria and recommended they let her to live as a boy, Jean and Stephen allowed Kathryn to become Tyler (names have been changed) and watched as their daughter bloomed into a happy, playful little boy.
According to The Washington Post, for years, their little girl had been telling Stephen and Jean that she was a little boy.
Stephen recalls a car trip with Kathryn that made him realize how desperately unhappy his child was in her skin.
'Daddy, I’m going to read you a story, okay?' (Που είσαι Ρεπούση στο σχολείο θα το έμαθε)
Kathryn told her father, before opening a book and pretending to read. Her story was about a little boy who was born 'like a girl' and how sad he was.
The couple decided to take their younger child to see a psychologist specializing in transgender. Michele Angello confirmed what they already knew - Tyler had gender dysphoria and it was unlikely to change.
'If Tyler wants to be Kathryn again, that’s fine,' Jean told The Washington Post. 'But right now, this works. He’s happy. I just want my child to be happy.'
For Tyler's older sister, 8, it's fairly simple: 'It’s just a boy mind in a girl body,' she told her classmates about her brother.
The Washington Post first profiled Tyler and his family when he was five. Tyler's parents had followed their psychologist's advice and faced the difficulty of imparting the news of Tyler's change to their families and community.
She and him: Once Kathryn was allowed to become Tyler, many behavioral issues he'd been having stopped
The idea of a child being transgender is controversial.
Making a decision that will affect children for the rest of their lives at such a young age seems folly to some, but experts say gender asserts itself in early childhood.
'In children, gender solidifies at about three to six,' Patrick Kelly, a psychiatrist with the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, told The Washington Post.
This is when children begin showing a strong preference for some things over others - for girls it may be dolls, make-up and other trappings of a grown-up woman, and for boys it may be trucks and Spiderman.
Kathryn at two had told her parents she was a boy, and from there they faced constant struggles over clothing, haircuts and the word 'she'.
The idea of allowing children to transition from one gender to another has only really be happening in the U.S. for about 10 years, Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist and leader in the field of gender orientation, told The Washington Post.
Allowing a child to live as one sex when biologically another by changing their appearance is one thing, but bigger questions arise as the child matures.
Disorder: Psychiatrists say people with gender dysphoria have 'a persistent and intense distress about assigned sex'
When Tyler begins to show the first signs of puberty, his parents will have to decide whether to begin giving him puberty blockers to stop his woman's body developing.
Tyler's mother says they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. Right now, she's just glad to have a happy child.
Tyler was permitted to enroll at school as a boy, and now, at six years old and 18 months after his public switch, he has a Spider-man themed bedroom and a cohort of little playmates to compare space cruisers with.
Jean says Tyler has full access to his sister's trove of pink, glittery, girl things - but that he's never showed the slightest interest.
'It may just be gender variance,' she told The Washington Post. 'But it's not likely.'
'It’s not a phase. Anyone who meets him says, "Yeah, that’s a boy."'
Jean says she's constantly facing criticism and finding herself sticking up for her son - and transgendered people in general.
She's even had co-workers at the gym where she's a teacher sniggering at Tyler in his swim trunks at the pool.
'You become this advocate. All day, every day,' she told The Washington Post.
Out of his shell: Since his change, Tyler has revelled in his new identity and become a much more happy and content child
Psychiatrists are quick to point out that gender dysphoria is much more than merely effeminate boys or tomboyish girls.
According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, people who suffer gender dysphoria experience 'a persistent and intense distress about assigned sex, together with a desire to be (or insistence that one is) of the other sex. There is a persistent preoccupation with the dress and activities of the opposite sex and repudiation of the individual’s own sex.'
And cases like Tyler's are becoming more and more common, with six-year-old Coy Mathis, who was born a boy but identifies as a girl, winning the right to use the female bathroom at her school in a civil rights suit in Eagleside, Colorado recently.
A new bill set to pass in California will allow children to choose sports teams and bathrooms based on their gender identity.
Bat boy: Tyler has always rejected his sister's hand-me-downs and thrown tantrums when forced to wear leotards or dresses
According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 45 per cent of transgender/non-gender conforming 18-24-year-old's had attempted suicide in 2011.
It's this kind of unhappiness Jean and Stephen are hoping to avoid with Tyler, by allowing him to be exactly who he is.
As for Tyler, he seems at peace with his new identity. According to The Washington Post, he has even revealed his own situation on at least one occasion to a friend. The result was much less complex than the adult discussions surrounding transgender children:
'"Whatever,” the kid said, and they dived back into trucks and light-saber play.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362313/Transgender-Family-embraces-decision-let-daughter-live-boy.html#ixzz2YsrfN4SJ
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