Transgénero desde la niñez

Los fundamentalistas religiosos - como Exodus, Courage y la AMESI (Asociación Mexicana para la Educación Sexual Integral) - creen que homosexuales y transgénero son como son, porque así lo deciden. La ciencia pueda enseñarles que la realidad no está de acuerdo con su teoría. La National Public Radio comentó el caso de dos niños de seis años, que no están de acuerdo con el sexo con que nacieron, informa Obsidian Wings. Una familia apoyó a su hijo, y lo dejó ser, y la nueva hija fue feliz. La otra familia no lo apoyó, él no sabe que hacer, bueno sí sabe: ya vive en un clóset personal a los seis años... El precio de la transfobia.


"Yesterday, NPR had a fascinating story about two six year olds who are transgender. You can either read or listen to it here; if you have twenty three minutes, I recommend listening to it. One thing that becomes very clear when you listen to it is that these are not kids (biologically, boys) whose parents put the idea of being girls into their heads. They came up with it on their own. They played with dolls, not trucks; they identified with female characters, not male ones; one decided to go trick or treating as Dorothy when he was two and a half (and that's not the half of it; read or listen to the story.)"


El amoroso padre de un niño transgénero de 10 años le escribió a Andrew Sullivan sobre su caso. Solo imagino cuantas familias tienen casos así, en México y no tienen la valentía de enfrentarlos:

My ten year old son has shown clear and undeniable signs of transgenderism since before he was four. His favorite musicians are all girls (Hannah Montana, Hillary Duff, etc.), all his friends are girls, he enjoys dressing in girls' clothing--often sneaking into his mother's closet, and he is presently obsessed with the "fairy" kid-lit of Daisy Meadows.

I cannot tell you how much conflict lies within me as to how to "deal" with my son. At church and in society, we get the very clear message that anything akin to transgenderism or homosexuality is a moral choice and is deeply wrong.

And yet, I bristle against this.

I view any attempts to "reprogram" my son as only begetting future years of repression, sorrow, therapy, and in-the-closet-angst. And yet, I cannot also allow my son to go to school dressed as a girl (which would truly thrill him, I'm sure). I worry that he would be subject to ridicule and physical violence from his peers. I worry that his teachers might treat him unfairly. I worry about the shower of hell that would rain down upon us from my mostly-conservative family. I worry about things that I cannot even imagine right now.

So for now, we just "let it be." We don't try to force him to play with certain "boy" toys. We don't try to censor his music choices, nor control his friendships. We let him be.

And for now, he seems healthy, happy, and thriving. I believe, as he gets older, he will have the maturity to become whomever he wishes. For now, our job must be to guide him in truly moral matters (like stealing, lying, cheating, doing the right thing, etc.), and shower him with love, acceptance and affection.

And I pray that we're doing the right thing.