Mother of transgender 7 year old talks about transition

[Kitsune Muggy]

Quote:

OWEN COUNTY, KY (FOX19) - Nicki Sullivan says her child, designated male at birth, has always identified herself as female. After seeking advice from GLSEN, a gay lesbian and straight education network, last Monday Nicki's 7-year-old daughter Ella made her identity public.

"She came back Monday as a girl. New teacher, new wardrobe, new backpack, completely changed. She was introduced as a new student, Ella Grace,” explained Nicki Sullivan.

Sullivan says over the last week Owen County Elementary School has been more than accommodating to her transgender 7-year-old daughter Ella providing a unisex restroom and protecting her from potential bullying.

"They've been supportive. There hasn't been any issues with the school at all,” said Sullivan.

But parents of Ella's 2nd grade classmates are concerned.

"I've told my son to be nice when he sees this boy. I've told him to never refer to him a girl because that is not what he is," said Caynah Lindsey.

Lindsey says Ella's new name and new wardrobe is confusing to other kids including her own.

"To me, a boy who on Friday is a boy and on Monday decides to be a girl, to me that's a major distraction. Our kids shouldn't have to go through that. It's one thing when they are older or in high school. They are adults. They can make decisions. But we are talking about a 7-year-old child. How does a 7-year-old know what they want?"€ said Lindsey.

Nicki says this isn't about any other child but her own and allowing Ella to be who she has always been.

"People have said they're going to pull their kids out of the same class, stupid things like that but I'm not worried about it. She's the same kid. Different name. Different clothes," said Sullivan.

Sullivan says Ella has been chased on the playground, her clothes pulled and some children have asked her mean questions but school officials have been monitoring the situation and disciplining those children. Sullivan also says she has received threats through Facebook from adults who disagree with the change.

The superintendent of Owen County schools Rob Strafford would not comment on this specific case but says it's their job to provide a safe learning environment for all children regardless of gender, race or any other specification.

Copyright 2014 WXIX. All rights reserved.

Source

Can I just point out how ignorant the bolded statement is?

[Honey of the South]

I'm glad that for once the school is actually being very accommodating and doing what they can to help this young girl in her situation. Certainly better than that school that's not letting their teachers say anything related to binary genders. If anything allowing children who are already like this when they are still in elementary school can help them learn to be more tolerant of such things in the future, as long as the teachers are capable of effectively explaining the situation to the kids in terms that they can understand.

If anything, the parents certainly need to be more tolerant. They don't have to accept it if they don't want to, but they should at least tolerate it. Even if it may mean that said parent(s) have to think of it as only being a phase.

[TANRailgun]

I already have plans for how to explain homosexuality and transgender issues to my child. Hopefully she'll grow up a very accepting and inclusive individual.

[Kitsune Muggy]

Honey of the South

I'm glad that for once the school is actually being very accommodating and doing what they can to help this young girl in her situation. Certainly better than that school that's not letting their teachers say anything related to binary genders. If anything allowing children who are already like this when they are still in elementary school can help them learn to be more tolerant of such things in the future, as long as the teachers are capable of effectively explaining the situation to the kids in terms that they can understand.

If anything, the parents certainly need to be more tolerant. They don't have to accept it if they don't want to, but they should at least tolerate it. Even if it may mean that said parent(s) have to think of it as only being a phase.

My first thought was if the parents have an issue with it, deal with it. Children at seven are more understanding than what we give them credit for. I made a comment on the post on Facebook and there was ONE comment that agreed with me. Everyone else started the "Leviticus" bs.

I'm a Christian and that says something.

[Sailor Tin Nyanko]

Unfortunately, these are frustrating times for this.

There are some children that would benefit from switching gender as a child. There are many teens and adults that are upset their parents didn't allow them to as a child. Also, many graves for people that never got to.

The problem that makes things frustrating are the parents that are getting their children to go through all this... because the parent just wants attention. They want to be part of the trend. They wanna be one of the first. It's not their child that truly was interested... it was their parents effort to warp them into believing they were trans.


This doesn't mean there aren't children that naturally need to switch gender for a range of reasons and conditions. It's just frustrating that some parents are faking the thing.


Furthermore, there are children that are just children. They want to play as and dress as a role dominated or intended for the opposite gender some times. This isn't a big deal if you grasp "playing" and "acting". They may not have interest in normally being like that or everything connected to that. They just like the clothes or personality... or want to play. It would be nice if parents understood playing and acting. There no secret meaning behind it.



A good question might be what if we provided more clothes from outside our culture? Kilts and Robes. Clothes that we think of as skirts and dresses. But other cultures have available either all the time or during certain types of events. Unisex things up. When things get more unisex with durable clothes there are rises in productivity and invention.


Just make sure everyone gets appropriate lengths and wears appropriate undergarments. That is where we are very weak. Even with people trying to wear what they see on TV and in Ads, they aren't getting full guides on the lengths and undergarments needed. Teens especially need these guidelines.

[xdivision_whitey]

Sailor Tin Nyanko

Unfortunately, these are frustrating times for this.

There are some children that would benefit from switching gender as a child. There are many teens and adults that are upset their parents didn't allow them to as a child. Also, many graves for people that never got to.

The problem that makes things frustrating are the parents that are getting their children to go through all this... because the parent just wants attention. They want to be part of the trend. They wanna be one of the first. It's not their child that truly was interested... it was their parents effort to warp them into believing they were trans.


This doesn't mean there aren't children that naturally need to switch gender for a range of reasons and conditions. It's just frustrating that some parents are faking the thing.


Furthermore, there are children that are just children. They want to play as and dress as a role dominated or intended for the opposite gender some times. This isn't a big deal if you grasp "playing" and "acting". They may not have interest in normally being like that or everything connected to that. They just like the clothes or personality... or want to play. It would be nice if parents understood playing and acting. There no secret meaning behind it.



A good question might be what if we provided more clothes from outside our culture? Kilts and Robes. Clothes that we think of as skirts and dresses. But other cultures have available either all the time or during certain types of events. Unisex things up. When things get more unisex with durable clothes there are rises in productivity and invention.


Just make sure everyone gets appropriate lengths and wears appropriate undergarments. That is where we are very weak. Even with people trying to wear what they see on TV and in Ads, they aren't getting full guides on the lengths and undergarments needed. Teens especially need these guidelines.

Kilts with underwear. Shorts under them for when they go up on monkey bars.

[Alexander J Luthor]

I'm not for this at all. It reminds me of a youtube video I saw about a seven year old who started "the change" when s/he was about 3. Born death, the kid couldn't really talk, but almost magically the second she got a cochlear implant her first words were "I'm a boy!" and suddenly she got very depressed. They "noticed" depression in a five year old, and I guess HE is now seven or eight. The clip ended with him reading a speech at an LGBT rally. A speech that I'm 95% sure he didn't write, at all.

This isn't a decision a seven year old, much less a three year old, can make. Sure. Let your kid experiment. Let them have fun with both genders, but don't put them through this whole rigorous process that plenty of adults have trouble with.

[TANRailgun]

Alexander J Luthor

I'm not for this at all. It reminds me of a youtube video I saw about a seven year old who started "the change" when s/he was about 3. Born death, the kid couldn't really talk, but almost magically the second she got a cochlear implant her first words were "I'm a boy!" and suddenly she got very depressed. They "noticed" depression in a five year old, and I guess HE is now seven or eight. The clip ended with him reading a speech at an LGBT rally. A speech that I'm 95% sure he didn't write, at all.

This isn't a decision a seven year old, much less a three year old, can make. Sure. Let your kid experiment. Let them have fun with both genders, but don't put them through this whole rigorous process that plenty of adults have trouble with.

I think you mean "deaf".

[Ringoringa]

TANRailgun

I already have plans for how to explain homosexuality and transgender issues to my child. Hopefully she'll grow up a very accepting and inclusive individual.

I just don't understand why people are convinced that these are such difficult concepts to explain. It's not rocket science, guys. "Most men like women, and most women like men, but some men like other men, and some women like other women. Just like most people are right-handed, but some people are left-handed. Some people are also born into the wrong body; they might look like a man, but they're really a woman, or vice versa." Ba-ba-bing, ba-da-boom. Explanation over. God forbid they have to expend thirty seconds of their time teaching their children that people exist who are a little different than they are. They may as well be whining about how they'll never be able to explain that some people have brown skin. "Black people are too complicated to explain to my child! We mustn't expose children to their kind!"

Uhg. I just feel like they make this so much harder than it has to be.

[TANRailgun]

Ringoringa

TANRailgun

I already have plans for how to explain homosexuality and transgender issues to my child. Hopefully she'll grow up a very accepting and inclusive individual.

I just don't understand why people are convinced that these are such difficult concepts to explain. It's not rocket science, guys. "Most men like women, and most women like men, but some men like other men, and some women like other women. Just like most people are right-handed, but some people are left-handed. Some people are also born into the wrong body; they might look like a man, but they're really a woman, or vice versa." Ba-ba-bing, ba-da-boom. Explanation over. God forbid they have to expend thirty seconds of their time teaching their children that people exist who are a little different than they are. They may as well be whining about how they'll never be able to explain that some people have brown skin. "Black people are too complicated to explain to my child! We mustn't expose children to their kind!"

Uhg. I just feel like they make this so much harder than it has to be.

I agree, I believe questions, especially potentially uncomfortable or controversial ones, must be confronted rather than avoided.

As to the race thing, I don't think I'll ever have to answer questions about that. We live in a very diverse neighborhood, and she plays with kids of all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and loves everyone...a lot...like, I have to stop her from running up and hugging random people...

[Ringoringa]

TANRailgun

Ringoringa

TANRailgun

I already have plans for how to explain homosexuality and transgender issues to my child. Hopefully she'll grow up a very accepting and inclusive individual.

I just don't understand why people are convinced that these are such difficult concepts to explain. It's not rocket science, guys. "Most men like women, and most women like men, but some men like other men, and some women like other women. Just like most people are right-handed, but some people are left-handed. Some people are also born into the wrong body; they might look like a man, but they're really a woman, or vice versa." Ba-ba-bing, ba-da-boom. Explanation over. God forbid they have to expend thirty seconds of their time teaching their children that people exist who are a little different than they are. They may as well be whining about how they'll never be able to explain that some people have brown skin. "Black people are too complicated to explain to my child! We mustn't expose children to their kind!"

Uhg. I just feel like they make this so much harder than it has to be.

I agree, I believe questions, especially potentially uncomfortable or controversial ones, must be confronted rather than avoided.

As to the race thing, I don't think I'll ever have to answer questions about that. We live in a very diverse neighborhood, and she plays with kids of all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and loves everyone...a lot...like, I have to stop her from running up and hugging random people...

Oh my God, I know this is veering slightly off-topic, but that sounds so much like my little brother used to be. He hugged everybody. He'd even get into a stranger's car and hug them. (Which was a bit worrying, admittedly.) He's a sourpuss 14-year-old now, though. Just mentioning what he used to be like makes him mad. XD

[Alexander J Luthor]

TANRailgun

Alexander J Luthor

I'm not for this at all. It reminds me of a youtube video I saw about a seven year old who started "the change" when s/he was about 3. Born death, the kid couldn't really talk, but almost magically the second she got a cochlear implant her first words were "I'm a boy!" and suddenly she got very depressed. They "noticed" depression in a five year old, and I guess HE is now seven or eight. The clip ended with him reading a speech at an LGBT rally. A speech that I'm 95% sure he didn't write, at all.

This isn't a decision a seven year old, much less a three year old, can make. Sure. Let your kid experiment. Let them have fun with both genders, but don't put them through this whole rigorous process that plenty of adults have trouble with.

I think you mean "deaf".

GOD DAMMIT. Not only do I slip when speaking, I type it wrong too. gonk

[Keltoi Samurai]

Now see, stories like this make me glad I wasn't born in more recent years.

When I was little, I used to play with the neighbor girls more than the boys, and would play with dolls and those little kitchen playset things and all that other stuff. I learned to sew before I could walk.

If I'd been born just 20 years later, I'd'a been all over the news as a "Transgendered 2-year old," and would have been raised as a girl.

[Chahklet]

Keltoi Samurai

Now see, stories like this make me glad I wasn't born in more recent years.

When I was little, I used to play with the neighbor girls more than the boys, and would play with dolls and those little kitchen playset things and all that other stuff. I learned to sew before I could walk.

If I'd been born just 20 years later, I'd'a been all over the news as a "Transgendered 2-year old," and would have been raised as a girl.

Good point...

[Keltoi Samurai]

Chahklet

Keltoi Samurai

Now see, stories like this make me glad I wasn't born in more recent years.

When I was little, I used to play with the neighbor girls more than the boys, and would play with dolls and those little kitchen playset things and all that other stuff. I learned to sew before I could walk.

If I'd been born just 20 years later, I'd'a been all over the news as a "Transgendered 2-year old," and would have been raised as a girl.

Good point...

Is it? Is it really?

I can't help but imagine that there are those who would view it as more than a little transphobic, and I can almost see where they'd be coming from, if we're being perfectly honest.