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guest editorial
Let the trans kids play BY LAUREN WILSON, M.D.
If you
work with transgender youth, as I have — mostly in the context of mental health emergencies, unfortunately — you will know that this is one of our most discriminated against, misunderstood groups of people. The idea of being transgender is intimidating to others. Many people do not have direct experience with transgender people and mistakenly think of being transgender as an intentional choice. Transgender children often face bullying in school. These kids often feel different or uncomfortable in their bodies, and if there’s anything middle school bullies thrive on, it’s insecurity. The transgender kids I’ve worked with mostly have known they were a different gender than their sex assigned at birth, starting around age 3. It isn’t a case of the “I wish I were a girl” sort of expression, or playing with the “wrong” toys for their gender, or being tomboys. It’s the firm, and sometimes, the disturbing conviction that their gender is different than the sex assigned at birth. Think about this as sex assigned at birth (what’s in your pants) differing entirely from gender identity (what’s in your mind and soul). These are both distinct from sexual orientation (what’s in your heart; who you love). It is estimated that up to 1.8 percent of youth identify as transgender, and a further 1.6 percent are questioning or gender diverse. If families are supportive of
their transgender child (not always the case), they allow their child to express themselves how they choose. This is the only real therapy, so to speak, physicians and psychologists recommend that before the onset of puberty. This can be a matter of wearing different clothes, sporting a different haircut, or using a different name or pronouns. If the child begins to live in a different gender, it’s called “socially transitioning.” Many transgender kids are not open about being transgender, largely due to stigma, prejudice, and discrimination, and live wholly in the gender that feels authentic. In many cases, friends do not know that their sex assigned at birth differs from their gender identity. Here, we should pause and examine just how hard the path is that transgender people must walk. Transgender people have worse health outcomes than cisgender people — those whose sex is assigned at birth and gender identity match. Transgender people are reluctant to seek medical care. They often experience discrimination by medical staff or others unfamiliar with issues they face and do not provide guideline supported care. They are more often the victims of violence. They experience discrimination in employment and housing. Transgender people who cannot transition or receive “gender-affirming” medical care have high rates of anxiety,
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depression, self-harm, and suicide. It is estimated that more than half have suicidal thoughts, and more than a third attempt suicide. Rates of depression go down dramatically when transgender people are supported by their families and have access to appropriate medical care. In fact, young children who have been allowed to live in their authentic gender from the start have rates of depression similar to age-matched cisgender peers. On the other hand, we know it’s clearly beneficial for children’s physical, social and emotional development to be physically active and play sports with their peers. Sports participation helps athletes develop self-esteem, correlates positively with overall mental health, and has been shown to have a protective effect against suicide. Forcing transgender children to play on teams according to their sex assigned at birth, rather than the gender they live, undermines their ability to belong to their community as their authentic selves, essentially excluding them from sports participation. My transgender patients certainly don’t want to show up to play on the girls’ team if they otherwise live as a boy, for example. Arguments for new laws in the US that focus on bone density, muscle mass, and hemoglobin sound more scientific, but the reality is much more complex. Before puberty, biological boys and girls do not differ much in height, muscle, and bone mass. Children enter puberty between age 8 and 14 and generally don’t gain adult muscle mass until age 18. At age 14, for example, physical discrepancies among young male athletes within one team
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MARCH, 2021
can be truly significant, and we have never felt it necessary to regulate. After puberty is complete, we know there are differences in male and female athletic performance. However, transgender athletes undergoing recommended medical care will generally not go through puberty in the gender of their birth. At the onset of puberty, children and teens who are consistent and persistent in expressing their identity, with ongoing care from a multidisciplinary medical team, can be treated with puberty suppressing medication, or “blockers.” These are entirely reversible and safe medications designed to pause pubertal changes and allow them to live as their authentic self, without undergoing body changes that can cause severe dysphoria, the medical term for profound unhappiness. Later on — with time to further develop and grow, mentally and physically — many will elect (usually around age 16 or later) to take gender-affirming hormones that initiate puberty matching their identity. These medications are partially reversible and are only started after thorough evaluation, discussion, and consent from both patient and guardians. In this situation, there is no good evidence that a teen assigned male at birth who transitioned to female without going through male puberty has any advantage at all in athletics. Moreover, even if one has gone through pubertal changes, different types of sports are different. There are some in which being a large-framed person is actually a disadvantage, such as gymnastics, versus others where it’s clearly an advantage, such as football. If transgender women really
