A doctor helps children change their gender

From The Boston Globe:

Children have cut themselves. In some cases, 9- or 10-year-old kids have staged suicide attempts. The little boys sob unless they're allowed to wear dresses. The girls want to be called Luke, Ted, or James.

Until recently, children with cross-gender feelings rarely received modern medical care - and certainly not hormone shots. After all, who would allow a child to redesign his or her body?

But in the past few years, some doctors have come to believe that kids should be allowed to have some control over how they grow up. Dr. Norman Spack, 64, argues that transgender kids tend to be much happier - and less likely to harm themselves - when they're able to live in their preferred gender role.

I have mixed feelings about this.

I entertained some pretty bizarre notions when I was a kid, especially around the ages of 10-12. When I saw Charly, I wanted to be a retarded janitor that lived in a one room apartment... for about a day and a half. (As it turned out, I ended up a semi-retarded tour guide that lives in a one bedroom apartment. Creepy.)

Now, I don't want to come off as insensitive, but we all learn valuable lessons from the mistakes of others. Case in point:

(Be careful at work)




My problem with this has nothing to do with any moral, religious or gender issue. It's just that, as a former and well accomplished kid, I know what sort of things children can obsess on. The only thing that stopped me from acting out on many of my childhood obsessions was a combination of the accumulated knowledge of what would fly and the fear of getting my ass beat.

These are different times.

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