Apparently, your child may be lucky enough to know that he or she is transgender by age 2.
You might think this is a joke, but I’m not kidding in the slightest. That’s right, before a kid loses his first tooth or learns how to tie his shoelaces, he could know that societal norms just aren’t for him.
Clinical psychologist and author of “The Gender Creative Child” Diane Ehrensaft claims that by the time a child is two, he or she can identify their biological gender — as well as the gender they feel applies to them.
Do you know where I was at age two? I was strapped into a carseat barely able to formulate a proper sentence. I frequently ate grass and climbed all over my big labrador retriever. My favorite color was purple and on my grandmother’s birthday, I tried to stick a fork into an outlet just to see what would happen. Of course, I don’t remember any of this BECAUSE I WAS TWO.
Do you know what kids do when they’re two? They sing the ABC’s. They get potty trained. They have meltdowns and require daily naps. They can’t read or write, and they certainly don’t have the faculties to understand Gender Schema Theory.
Trying to coax a complex gender identity out of a two year old is what I imagine lobbying with that dog mayor is like. Neither party really understands what’s going on and it ends with drool.
Dr. Ehrensaft suggested ways to determine whether a child is transgender, such as looking at the “use of verbs regarding gender,” frustration concerning his or her own genitals, and “taking ‘gender expansion play’ seriously” (boys wearing dresses, girls playing with trucks, etc.)
Is she for real? A two year old mixes up their verbs, adjectives, nouns, and pronouns all the time. I’m not an expert but I really wouldn’t suggest taking a toddler’s grammar too seriously.
Regarding the “genital frustration,” it’s probably because the kid is potty training. I wouldn’t sweat it if your kid expresses some difficulty going to the bathroom at that age.
Another psychologist, Johanna Olson-Kennedy, suggested getting away with your kid for a weekend to let them anonymously test out the other gender. She suggested:
Allowing the child to “call the shots in terms of their gender” and “letting them use a different pronoun or wear a dress or other clothing of their choice,” according to AP.
“People have said this over and over again: ‘Oh, my God. I saw a side of my child I had never seen before.’”
Uhhh yeah. That would be because your kid is acting out another gender.
Nine out of 10 parents would probably also agree that letting their two year old “call the shots” is almost never a good idea. Remember, I stuck a fork in an outlet at that age. Because my family sang “Happy Birthday” to my grandmother.
And for one last zinger, I present to you the princess-dress-gayness theory:
You have a son who likes princess dresses. I would say, get him the dresses. Have your child feel free to choose. Maybe, they’ll stop wearing dresses. Maybe, they’ll grow up to be gay.
I have plenty of gay friends and have never seen any of them wear princess dresses.
It might be time for Ehrensaft to go back to the drawing board on this. Last time I checked, gay men still wore men’s clothing. To conflate gayness and trans-ness would be a gross oversight, I would think.
What’s the rush with this anyways? If a person feels like they’re a different gender, they’ll reveal it in good time. We don’t have speed dating for toddlers. Let’s save speed transitioning for adulthood too.