Bonny Frescura #832693
Psychology of Human Sexuality – PSY 5040
Kean University – Oct. 7, 2013

Article: ABOUT A BOY WHO ISN’T
A while ago I prepared a presentation about transgender kids for a certain psychology class. This is a topic that has always been interesting to me because of the depth of the psychological dilemma these kids have to endure every day of their lives. The pain and the struggle are unimaginable and the gender identity disorder is a topic that deserves all the research and attention to help these kids to find their true identity.
Aside from the usual obstacles that transgender kids have to go through, this particular kid who is a male to female transgender, experiences the stigma of having a gender identity disorder inside of a traditional Latino family. As a Latina, I could agree with the statement of “M” when he expressed that his family would rather see him as a boy than a lesbian. Latino families are very traditional and have a harder time than other families understanding homosexuality and gender identity disorders. The main problem for the understanding of these issues lies on misinformation. Often parents, educators and other administrative members at schools have not been trained to face the challenge of having to accommodate a student that wishes to cross-live. For a parent is even more difficult because they have to face and accept the “death” of their son or daughter and support their child to become the person they want to be.
One thing that I don’t agree with is the laws and impediments for a teenager to get hormone blockers before the age of 16. Before puberty even begins these kids experience the anxiety of the possible changes their body will encounter. Even at 13, M, is one hundred percent sure that he is a boy trapped in a girl’s body. He has been consistently feeling this way since he was a child.
The laws about hormone blockers should be evaluated on a case to case basis to be able to determine if the child is psychologically stable and the desire to cross-live is not only a phase that he or she is going through. According to articles and the research I had to do for my presentation, hormone blockers are so much more effective as a preventive measure before the first signs of puberty begin to show. It’s always better to stop breasts from growing than have to submit the teenager to a more drastic gender reassignment in the future.
Even though this article it’s a couple of years old, since it mentioned a few times that “M” was looking at his pager, it is evident that even back then there were people trying to advocate for the LGBT community’s rights and finding ways to help them live a functional scholar life. These efforts have been growing more and more, with foundations, organizations formed by parents of transgender kids and research groups raising awareness to a condition that for a long time was left in the dark.