When she discovered the transgender world on the Internet, she had a flash of recognition. She still shuns dresses, preferring skinny jeans and band T-shirts. She liked to play with cars and slash bad guys in the Legend of Zelda video games. Kat Boone did not fit the stereotype of a girl trapped in a boy’s body.Īs a child, she dressed in jeans and shirts, like all the other boys, and her best friend was a boy. Drescher said, “Is it fair to make a child who’s never going to change wait till 16 or 18 to get treatment?” Jack Drescher, a New York City psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who helped develop the latest diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria. “Basically you have clinics working by the seat of the pants, making these decisions, and depending on which clinic you go to, you get a different response,” said Dr.
Some experts argue that the earlier the decision is made, the more treacherous, because it is impossible to predict which children will grow up to be transgender and which will not. Is gender dysphoria governed by a miswiring of the brain or by genetic coding? How much does it stem from the pressure to fit into society’s boxes - pink and dolls for girls, blue and sports for boys? Has the Internet liberated teenagers like Kat from a narrow view of how they should live their life, or has it seduced them by offering them, for the first time, an answer to their self-searching, an answer they might later choose to reject? The debates invoke biology, ideology and emotion. Given that there are no proven biological markers for what is known as gender dysphoria, however, there is no consensus in the medical community on the central question: whether teenagers, habitually trying on new identities and not known for foresight, should be granted an irreversible physical fix for what is still considered a psychological condition. Now advocates like Empire State Pride Agenda are fighting for coverage at an earlier age, beginning with hormone blockers at the onset of puberty, saying it is more seamless for a teenage boy to transition to becoming an adult woman, for example, if he does not first become a full-bodied man. In March, New York’s Medicaid drew a line at that age, and at 21 for some procedures.īut the number of teenagers going through gender reassignment has been growing amid wider acceptance of transgender identity, more parental comfort with the treatment and the emergence of a number of willing practitioners. No law prohibits minors from receiving sex-change hormones or even surgery, but insurers, both private and public, have generally refused to extend coverage for these procedures to those under 18. With growing tolerance, the question is no longer whether gender reassignment is an option but rather how young should it begin. Bruce Jenner’s transition from male sex symbol to a comely female named Caitlyn has elevated her back to her public profile as a gold-medal decathlete at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
They are characters in popular television shows. President Obama was hailed just for saying the word “transgender” in his State of the Union address this year, in a list of people who should not be discriminated against. Bruce Jenner’s transition from male sex symbol to a comely female named Caitlyn has elevated him back to his public profile as a gold-medal decathlete at the 1976 Summer Olympics. President Obama was hailed just for saying the word “transgender” in his State of the Union speech this year, in a list of people who should not be discriminated against. Kat, whose side-parted hair was dyed fire engine red, is just 18, and about to graduate from high school. Her childlike reaction was, perhaps, not surprising. Emma is her black and white cat, at home outside Syracuse, N.Y., 200 miles away. “I just want to hold Emma,” she said in her darkened room at the bed and breakfast in New Hope, Pa., run by the doctor who performed the surgery in a hospital nearby. She did not seem empowered she seemed regressed.
She lost weight from her already frail frame. Transcript Rebirth of a Transgender Teenager As Katherine Boone, 18, recovered from gender reassignment surgery, she and her family talked about what they went through.
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