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First-of-a-kind study shows encouraging data for trans kids who socially transition

When transgender children go through social transitions to reflect their gender—by way of changing their names and pronouns, or altering their hair and clothing—they tend to continue identifying with that gender five years later. In a new, first-of-a-kind study, researchers surveyed and followed 317 transgender kids across the United States and Canada who underwent social transitions. The children were 3 to 12 when the study started, and they began identifying as trans, on average, at around age 6. The research team found that 94 percent of participants stood firm in their trans identity five years later. Many had begun taking hormonal medication to prompt biological changes and affirm their…

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Articles of Interest

Your guide to socially transitioning

Social transitioning or affirming your gender is a way to ‘come out’ and express your gender to other people. You could socially transition with your appearance, using certain pronouns, changing your name, via your mannerisms, or simply letting people know the gender you identify as. Transitioning is a pretty personal process, and can be as minor or as extensive as you want it to be at any one time. When you ‘come out’ as trans or gender diverse there’s no rulebook that you need to follow. The main thing is that you’re taking steps to truly be yourself, and there are any number of different ways to do that.

A Guide to Gender Transition and Gender Affirmation In the Workplace

Gender transition and gender affirmation can be an incredibly vulnerable time in a transgender, genderqueer, non-binary, genderfluid, or nonconforming person’s life. This journey can bring about anxieties about job security, fears of adverse workplace treatment, and confusion about how to communicate or even begin a transition in a workplace environment.

Exploring Gender Identity: Social Transitioning

Transitioning looks different for everyone. Some people will navigate through a social transition to feel affirmed in their identity, while others will also navigate through a medical transition. There is no right or wrong way to explore one’s gender identity

Gender Affirmation and Social Transition

It may appear harmless and easily welcomed as a beneficial approach that can relieve gender dysphoria symptoms in children. However, it is currently unclear what the long-term psychological effects will be for children who undergo social transitions for some or all of their childhood and how this impacts on the development of their sense of self.

Myth #5: All trans people medically transition

Not everyone who is transgender prioritizes or desires procedures, such as hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries, required for a full medical transition. While some undergo medical transitions for cosmetic, psychological, or health reasons, many won’t because they can’t afford it, face some other obstacle, or simply don’t want to.

Not all young trans people want medical intervention – what is social transitioning, and how should schools handle it?

However, medical transitioning, through hormone therapy or surgery, is only one route for transgender and gender non-conforming people of any age to explore their identity. Many will “socially transition” before or instead of medically transitioning.

Social Affirmation

The Cass Report describes social transition as an active healthcare intervention “because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning and longer-term outcomes.” Regrettably, much of society, including schools, has been convinced that affirming an incongruent gender identity is the right and kind thing to do. It is not. Almost all the research with a sufficiently long timescale to evaluate desistance has been conducted on the cohort of prepubescent boys. It is important to caution against applying statistics drawn from this cohort to the adolescent cohort (majority girls).

The Dysphoria Paradox

For some trans people, treating gender dysphoria can temporarily worsen its severity. But that doesn’t mean transition is dangerous. Every time I take a step forward in my gender transition, I go into it expecting immediate relief. I will be so comfortable in my own skin after I do this, I imagine, so free. And yet, after completing a given transitional step (getting a new haircut, changing my name or gender marker, coming out to friends and loved ones, starting hormones, or changing my pronouns), I am instead met with a sudden rush of anxiety and self-consciousness. Instead of feeling authentic and unburdened, I start worrying I’m a ludicrous fraud.

Transgender ‘affirmation’ has long-term consequences, Oklahoma City psychiatrist says

“Affirming” a child’s belief that he or she is actually the opposite gender puts those children on a fast-track to medical interventions that have severe, negative side effects that cause that child to be a patient for the rest of their lives, according to a local expert.

Understanding Social Transitions

When your kid identifies as trans or non-binary, their first step to align with their affirmed gender may be making changes socially in how they express their gender. Supporting them with these changes is one of the most important things you can do to improve your kid’s mental health and resilience as they explore what’s most authentic to them. This is a social ‘trial period’ to find where on the gender spectrum they feel most comfortable, thus informing future decisions.

Youth Gender Transition Is Pushed Without Evidence

Psychotherapy, not hormones and surgery, is increasingly the first line of treatment abroad.

Resources

10 Transgender People Share What They Wish They Knew Before Transitioning

"It’s totally worth it, to look in the mirror and recognize yourself as you should be.”

TransHub

The process of social affirmation means different things to different people. Steps that feel essential for some, will feel less important for others. Socially affirming who we are is really personal, there isn’t only one right way to do it.

We Are Allies Research Points

Social transition and affirmation are terms used to describe non-medical changes during a person’s gender journey. Social transition and affirmation can include changing names, pronouns, and appearance. This process is different for every person. For example, a person may or may not change their name or try out different pronouns. Appearance can be changed in many ways, including through clothing, accessories, hairstyle, hair removal, speech, mannerisms, binding, packing, tucking, and padding.