YOU KNOW WHAT ERKS ME

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Transgender children

It was a topic on The View...
Now a days, parents are more likely to buy thier little boys kitchen sets and dolls to play with if the boy asks for them and if a little girl likes GI Joes, so be it, she gets a GI Joe...
But when your children..example your boy, starts dressing like a girl, and it becomes clear he might be transgender...what do you do? How do you react?

My thoughts.. I have no clue. Being gay has become more and more acceptable but transgender??? I don't want my child to be humiliated and teased. But then again, when they grow older, they will probably face the same ridicule. So do you prepare them for it now? I don't see the need to make your child feel dirty b/c of the choice. I think as a parent it needs to be explained to your child b/c they are probably a bit confused about their feelings.
But when do you start?

I have a brother that is gay and I am not going to say it was easy to hear, but I was thankful that he was no longer living a lie and I was comforted by the fact that he felt good enough in his skin to show the world who he really was. It was my fear of the world's perception of him that worried me and how others in my family might react.

Thoughts???

Here is the clip from The View

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh....

I hope and pray I never have to find out what I'd do.

Course, my boy is 13 and all he talks about is girls....just like his Daddy!

paz y amor said...

I think the most important thing is that the child knows that the parents/family love and support them- regardless of their sexual/gender orientation. Even if they disagree with it, it's critical that they empathize as best as possible. I can't say how I'd react- but I honestly believe that I'd be as supportive as my child needed me to be.

Jay said...

I know a couple transgendered people. Its very difficult. They are accepted in the gay community and treated well but even then they tend to keep to themselves. being a gay male is easier to understand because you are a guy that likes guys or a lady that likes ladies but a transgendered person has so many things occuring on the inside that you cannot see and it makes it difficult to understand to the average person.

One friend is a male in a female body who is attracted to men so in actuality its gay male but in a womans body. Gay men are attracted to the male form so automatically their chances are slim to none of meeting a gay man who'd be cool with it. The other is a straight women in a mans body who is attracted to men. She could easily be attractive to gay men but she hates her body and obviously her penis and is in the process of having it sniped off. Gay men are nto into women and straight men are not into men who have had a sex change.

They tend to end their internal turmoil over their bodies but in the process make themselves even less appealing to those they seek to form relationships with and alienate those who find them appealing now. Very hard and very sad. I will admit I was deeply disturbed when I was younger over people like this mainly due to not understanding the situation. In university I took a human sexuality psychology course because I was at odds with myself at the time and realizing I was gay. The professor for the course couldn't have been better. he had been married but it turned out he was gay, his wife was lesbian, one son was straight, the other gay, and his daughter was bi. They had a tenant in their basement apartment who was transgendered (women inside a man). We got to meet everyone throughout the course. Very eye opening.

Life is not as easy as we are raised to believe it is and thats the greatest disappointment to many when they get older. We need to just accept this and stop pretending everything is black and white. Their is an entire spectrum of humanity that we should be celebrating not ridiculing.