Should We Support Gender Exploration and Transsexualism in Young Children? (Self Debate - Part II)

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Should We Support Gender Exploration In Young Children?

It is a natural part of the human process of self-development for a child to question their identity, and no child should be denied the opportunity to do so.

While it may be natural for a child to question their identity, it ought also to be natural for a parent to guide that exploration in a productive manner. If a child begins to question if they are a dog or a camel, as adults we do not encourage them to continue down this line of thought until they arrive at a point where they feel imprisoned in a body that doesn't belong to them. Consequently, if a child begins to have thoughts that they are not the sex that their body suggests, as responsible adults, we ought to be informing them that they are wrong, not convincing them they may be right.

Should we prevent them from doing so, especially at the early stages of mental development, we will be teaching them to bury aspects of their personality that they are afraid will not be tolerated by society. This could manifest later in life as fear of self-expression and therefore insecurity, with the child becoming an adult who is afraid to accept or to exhibit parts of their identity that they were trained to hide beneath a facade composed of what is deemed acceptable.

Insecurity is a product of feeling uncomfortable with who we are. At such a young age, children should be learning to feel comfortable in their own skin rather than to question whether they are wearing the wrong body. If one is led to feel they are not at home in the body they have found themselves in, then they will learn that to find confidence and security they must keep changing who they are rather than accepting it. For this reason, I think that encouraging children to question their gender is far more likely to negate any chance they have at acquiring a formidable sense of confidence as an adult.

Another positive to guiding children towards the exploration of their gender, is that they will in process of doing so, exercise their imagination at an important part of their life, which will in future translate to heightened creativity. No child's imagination should be impeded by forcing them to exercise thought and expression within boxes defined by another person or persons.

Imagination is undoubtedly an important and useful tool for a child, and an adult, to have at their disposal. But the most useful imaginations are those that are able to discern fantasy from reality. Encouraging a child to imagine what it would be like to be the opposite sex, and leading them to entertain the notion of changing to it, are two entirely different things. The former may improve imagination, and even invite empathy. But the latter offers only a false promise, for a male who transitions into a female will never truly know what it is like to be a female. They will know only what it is like to be a male who is acting as a female - something that one needn't ever step beyond the bounds of their imagination to experience. If we want children to grow up healthy and happy, then leading them to question whether the very world is against them by condemning them to an existence in a body that wasn't meant for them is the worst possible approach. It is far better, I would think, to encourage them towards accepting who they are and learning to love and accept, rather than hate and reject, who they are.

Furthermore, permitting a child to explore their own gender identity will lead them to be more empathetic towards transgenders as they mature. This will reduce prejudices in society and cultivate a generation with more tolerance for those who are different.

This may be true, but there are safer ways to educate children on empathy and tolerance than to lead them to question and potentially to distrust the fundamental nature of their existence.

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This position will be scrutinised in part III of this debate.