![]() ![]() In other words, for some transgender youth, family support can be the difference between life and death. It is important to know-and quite alarming, that research finds that transgender youth are at greatest risk of suicide (compared to their non-transgender peers) as a result of rejection, bullying, and other victimization. ![]() The opposite is true-transgender children are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and at greater risk of substance abuse and homelessness when their immediate caregivers are rejecting or hostile. In fact, an increasing body of social science research reflects that gender-affirming behavior on the part of parents and other adults (teachers, grandparents, etc.) greatly improves mental health and well-being. This is certainly true of transgender and gender-expansive children and teens, for whom family support is absolutely critical. Gender identity and expression are central to the way we see ourselves and engage in the world around us. Transgender people identify along this spectrum, but also identify as a gender that is different than the one they were assigned at birth. But gender does not simply exist in those binary terms gender is more of a spectrum, with all individuals expressing and identifying with varying degrees of both masculinity and femininity. Whether it’s the sorting of blue clothes and pink clothes, “boys’ toys” and “girls’ toys” or telling young girls they’re “pretty” and boys they’re “strong.” It continues into puberty and adulthood as social expectations of masculine and feminine expression and behavior often become more rigid. As soon as a doctor or other healthcare provider declares – based on observing the newborn’s external sex organs – “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl,” the world around a child begins to teach these lessons. Children are not born knowing what it means to be a boy or a girl they learn it from their parents, older children and others around them.
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