The mother of a transgender girl sobbed in federal court Wednesday as she contemplated having to move away from her Navy officer husband to get health care for her 12-year-old if Florida’s ban on gender dysphoria treatments for minors is allowed to take affect.
The woman, who testified as Jane Doe to protect the identity of her child, said her daughter went from being anxious and upset to a thriving, happy straight-A student after being allowed to live as a girl about eight years ago, a decision she made with her husband after multiple visits to their family’s doctor.
But as the girl approaches puberty, she fears she will start turning into a boy. Without treatment, she and her family will be devasted, the mother said.
We begin forming our gender identity fairly young, and at 2-3, we do have a relatively simple grasp on gender, and broad concepts are pretty easy to understand. A child that asks you to call them a boy or a girl instead of their assigned birth gender isn’t even particularly strange! Children explore their identities in a lot of ways, from nicknames to the way they dress and act and play.
I have a 6-year old cousin who is adamant that she is a girl with some solid reasoning behind it, and she was never told any of it. She came up with it herself! I think you underestimate children, and maybe you underestimate yourself, too.