[Nicky91]

it's not just going through a phase though


example a: Bruce Jenner: successful olympic athlete, whom it never felt right to living as a man, who is much happier now living as Caitlyn



or remember the one german singer who is internationally well known (for her music) Kim Petras (yup she too is trans, has been since she was 4 or 5 can't remember correctly but from a very very young age anyway)



even one ends up winning the eurovision song contest, in the 90's for Israel, Dana International (and quite a gorgeous hot woman she is too, i myself as a straight guy, i have a crush at her)

[ChristmasNeeve]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

it's not just going through a phase though


example a: Bruce Jenner: successful olympic athlete, whom it never felt right to living as a man, who is much happier now living as Caitlyn



or remember the one german singer who is internationally well known (for her music) Kim Petras (yup she too is trans, has been since she was 4 or 5 can't remember correctly but from a very very young age anyway)



even one ends up winning the eurovision song contest, in the 90's for Israel, Dana International (and quite a gorgeous hot woman she is too, i myself as a straight guy, i have a crush at her)

Maybe read the article through Nicky. Obviously, some people are genuinely dysphoric.

[Urban Cragou]

Nicky: yeah, no.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

it's not just going through a phase though


example a: Bruce Jenner: successful olympic athlete, whom it never felt right to living as a man, who is much happier now living as Caitlyn



or remember the one german singer who is internationally well known (for her music) Kim Petras (yup she too is trans, has been since she was 4 or 5 can't remember correctly but from a very very young age anyway)



even one ends up winning the eurovision song contest, in the 90's for Israel, Dana International (and quite a gorgeous hot woman she is too, i myself as a straight guy, i have a crush at her)

You're naming people who transitioned as adults though Nicky and the research is specifically talking about children/adolescents. In my experience (of having a teenage child in early high school) it does seem to be correct... my daughter's school is very EDI-minded and supportive of kids discovering themselves, my daughter has had several friends who have experimented with gender (all female-to-male, which is far more common) and in fact at one point more than half of the girls she knew from primary school were identifying as male - I think a pretty clear example of social contagion, but obviously semi-anecdotal. Anyway... after roughly 18 to 24 months, the vast majority have cycled through various descriptors and new names only to settle back on their original natal gender and original name. At this point she has one female-to-male identifying friend and knows 2 or 3 others out of the whole year group (at one point there were 25+) which seems like a "realistic" proportion of the population who have genuinely found something in it, while the rest experimented but ultimately found they'd been most comfortable as they were.

IMO it's pretty clear from that that it's healthy to let kids and adolescents EXPERIMENT with identity - as we always have - but that (being blunt) adults should be loosely supportive but basically stay out of it. The problems arise when an adult social framework is applied to teens and pre-teens which is completely inappropriate. Too much affirmation is as bad as none at all. It forces these kids into a corner and into a decision they're nowhere near ready to make for themselves. The goal, surely, should be normalisation of experimentation - not celebration of it. It's vital to be sure that people are taking action for their own internal sense of self, and not for external validation. I'm hesitant to say "for attention" because "attention-seeking" has such negative connotations. I don't mean it in a negative way. It's perfectly understandable that kids who have felt marginalised or ignored would seek attention and validation from both adults and peers.