Who are you?

Our ultimate universal goal in life is to seek happiness. What makes an individual happy can be very different for each and every one of us so then it makes it difficult to set standards and laws that all can be pleased with. Nothing is set in stone not even gender. Society gradually became acceptable to different types of gender slowly. In media there was the comic Milton Berle who did sketches completely dressed in women’s cloths. There were men who had children like the singer David Bowie who wore perfect female makeup. There is Boy George who is gay and wears perfect female makeup while wearing a beard. Years ago society had the bearded lady as a side show freak in the circus. With modern advances in medicine and acceptance of change in society times have changed and the fight for gender change and acceptance in all aspects of society rages on.

The line separating boy from girl rages on I guess for reproductive purposes but in society a definite “boy” or “girl” doesn’t exist for many and that is fine as long as one is achieving their goal in life to seek happiness. When a woman gives birth the doctor immediately tells you what genitals your baby is born with. From then on you think you are providing that child with gender appropriate   toys and influences but there are children as young as age four who are experiencing a need to be the opposite of what their reproductive parts are in their pants. Suddenly a parent is faced with the shock that their child is not the little girl they love but is a little boy that needs help to achieve his goals. It is the same for their child who is the little boy they love but is a little girl that needs help to achieve her goals. It is difficult for the parents to lose the kind of child they raised for years and trade it in for a new version and most of the time to also be faced with the fact that they will probably never see a grandchild produced from the family genes.

There are many medical advances available to transgender youth than ever before in history. Society doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with all the changes and is causing strife in school bathroom rules. There are children’s books like The Boy Princess that helps kids to understand as early as they could read. As early as pre-school age children are identifying with a gender despite what they have going on in their pants. The word transgender wasn’t even a common term. Caitlin Jenner didn’t exist and bathroom laws wasn’t an issue. Now we know.  The conflict over one’s happiness causes children to change their names and cloths and now physicality too.

Social transition is hard on families. Most families are not accepting of a parent who allows their child to identify with a different gender. Again the happiness. It can be lonely for parent and child. About 1.7% of American youth identify as transgender and those estimates are considered low. Bathroom laws have become a major issue in politics. Most mixed race folks have a problem in race identity. Obama has a very white mother but he and society views him as being a black man simply because he looks like his black father. Society no longer deals with what they are but with who they are to give themselves happiness.

The fight over transgender rules intensifies in school bathrooms and could lose funding from Federal sources and our taxes. So, if we have children dressing different from what is in their pants, I think it would be safer for their protection to have private bathrooms. We all know that some of the worst bullying and lude things are written on bathroom walls in school bathrooms.  School age kids are the most curious about sexuality in their young years. Even if they all have the same body parts there will be sexual exploration and wanting to see “it”. My fright is for the female dressed as a boy going into the boy’s bathroom, getting assaulted because a bunch of bullying kids with penises wanting to see a vagina up close and personal. Besides, who wants to hear or smell what is going on in the bathroom stall next to you anyway?

States are now suing the Federal government over funding if they don’t have transgender children sharing the bathroom of their choice. Conservatives are saying what’s next? Legalize Pedophilia and Polygamy? It has become an unresolved explosive issue. Parents are now fighting school boards for the rights for their child to use the bathroom of their choice in schools. Happiness is not being achieved. The suicide rate for transgender youth is at 41%. Kids learn quickly now about segregation and discrimination   no matter what they identify with. Obama passed a directive to allow students to use the bathroom of choice. Trump after one month in office withdrew Obama’s federal guidelines. How we treat transgender people in our communities have become a civil rights issue.

Now the Department of Justice has to step in because the issue is like the civil rights movement that we can not treat people differently. We have to accept people for who they are. Transgender people are more likely to be the victims of violence rather than the source of the violence in society. Parents are under pressure to get medical assistance as early as possible to help their children switch the identity that they want. There are hormone blockers one can give the child before puberty to stop their natural physical  changes.  It is much more than just changing one’s clothes or haircuts. Medical intervention is available now. Boston’s Children’s Hospital opened the first clinic in America for transgender youth.

In the past few years the volume of patients going through sexual changes have doubled. Hormone blockers is an injection that will stop the onset of puberty in a child and is reversible if one chooses to stop the treatment. The concerns is bone health and the possibility of suppressing growth in youth to a standard height. There is an implant that can be inserted into a child’s arm that will suppress puberty. The implant is functional for about 17 months. It takes 15 minutes for the operation. Then comes the cross sex therapy. Fertility issues are discussed even at the early age of 12. It is a difficult decision because the changes that come with cross sex hormones can be irreversible.

Children are making adult choices for happiness. Most transgender people wish they could have started the change when they were a child. For them it is hard to connect mentally with what they see physically. 40% of homeless youth identify with LGBT because they do not have the support from their families. Waltham House in Massachusetts is a home for trans youth.  The kids are troubled and can be suicidal.  Without acceptance one can feel like they have no place in this world. Breast augmentation is available to those who want it. They have legal names and names they want to be called. Doctors are still worried about the long term effects of treatments since medically it is all so new.

The largest concern is if a child will grow up to regret their early decisions since many of the treatments are potentially irreversible according to Dr. Elizabeth Miller the Cofounder of the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburg PA. Medical professionals are being criticized by everyone. Either they are not offering treatments fast enough or that they are giving people care that they don’t agree with. The controversy continues. For these kids hormone blockers and estrogen treatments are necessary for their happiness. Hormone blockers can take the buff man out of a boy and take the girlish physique out of a girl as they are growing. They can now grow as who they identify with.

 They are treated like societies misfits and do not get the respect they deserve. Yes, parents’ morn the child who they thought they had but in a loving and accepting family the suicide rate goes down and all are able to be happy and enjoy their loved ones no matter what they are. Tell the lawmakers to figure it out. We all need to support our children and make the decisions that are best for them.