That was disturbing news to Angelica Jadunandan, who moved to New York from Florida with her two young daughters three years ago. Her older daughter, who is eight, is transgender, and Angelica wanted to move them to a safe blue state—somewhere her family’s medical care would not be called into question. New York is a self-declared “sanctuary state” for trans people. It seemed like a good option.
You’ve posted some good information about this. I’m also wondering at what age children were exposed to information about gender norms that deviate from cis-, like through, public education, YouTube or other social media platforms. I’m not sure if it’s taught in public education curriculums to young children, but my intuition says no.
My intuition also tells me that the decision to transition wasn’t influenced by outside factors, but purely through internal motivation. If anything, I would think a lot of individuals struggle with their gender dysphoria, as they realize there can be very real social consequences to coming out.
The fact that such a high rate of individuals are satisfied after their outsides match their insides is pretty much the nail in the coffin for those who oppose transition for youth. As well as anyone who thinks someone can be programmed via education or YouTube to become trans, non-binary, etc.
Also, individuals who differentiate from socially-reinforced gender norms only account for 1-3% of the total US population, so it’s very silly it’s treated by reactionaries as some threat that is going to consume the entire population of kids.
In my case I was a child in the 90s. I wasn’t really exposed to the information until MySpace. I still knew I was different as a young kid, but I didn’t have the information and words to describe it or environment to explore it in.
Today I teach it to my 3 year old class, and I know in at least one nearby primary school they have non-binary toilets and have some education on gender. But I’m also in Australia.