Transsexuality

A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. Transsexual men and women make or desire to make a transition from their birth sex to that of the opposite sex, with some type of medical alteration (gender reassignment therapy) to their body. The stereotypical explanation is of a "woman trapped in a man's body" or vice versa, although many in the transsexual community reject this formulation.

Transsexual youth

Individuals may begin to come to terms with their gender identity at many different stages in their life. In most cases, the transsexual condition becomes apparent at some time in childhood, sometimes in very early childhood, where the child may be expressing behaviour incongruent with, and dissatisfaction related to, their assigned gender.

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Most of the time, though, these children try to hide their being different as soon as they experience rejection resulting from their differences.

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Coming out

Since transsexualism is still not widely accepted in many countries, transsexual youth may feel they need to remain in the closet until they feel that there is a time appropriate to reveal to their parents their gender identity -- understandably so, as parents have a great deal of influence in their children's lives, some parents can react negatively towards such news. Other parents can be very supportive, initially, or after such news has been broken to them.

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Transsexual youth also face many hardships when it comes to obtaining medical treatment for their condition. Psychiatrists and endocrinologists are very reluctant to give hormone treatment to transsexual youth under 16, and getting surgery is almost completely impossible.

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Ensuring the child's security

Only in recent years have some transsexual or transgendered children received both counseling and in some cases also medical treatment, as well as the possibility to change their social role.

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Families with a young child, who may identify already as a member of "the other" sex, and who chooses to change their gender roles through dress and behaviors, may decide to relocate this child and home to another area in order to afford the young person the best opportunity to live in the desired gender role among a novel set of peers and community.

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Choosing to remain and live within an intolerant society where the local community has had previous experience of the child's assigned sex may raise many challenging issues. Gwen Araujo of Newark, California was a young person who had attempted to cross-live as a female, a gender opposite to the male gender assigned her at birth. She became the victim of violent crimes that resulted in her death after she attended a party where her birth sex was revealed.

Related Topics:
Gwen Araujo - Newark, California

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The film Ma Vie En Rose (1997), by Alain Berliner, depicts a similar scenario: Ludovic is a young child who is assigned male but who identifies as a girl and tries to make others agree with this identification. Ludovic's gender play incurs conflict within the family and prejudice from the neighbours; in the end the family has to relocate to a new community.

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The 1999 documentary film Creature directed by Parris Patton, tells the story of Stacey "Hollywood" Dean, a young transsexual woman who grew up in rural North Carolina. It follows her through four years and includes interviews with her conservative Christian parents.

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The decision to relocate, however, depends very much on the social environment and the handling of the situation by caretakers and other adults. There are also several cases where it was not felt that there was such a need to relocate, particularly in Western Europe.

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