Gender Variance In Childhood

The adolescents being interviewed in the study were at least 14 years of age and had been diagnosed with GID in childhood. The results of the study include the presentation of gender variance in childhood, the adolescent development of persisters and the adolescent development of desisters. There seemed to be only minimal differences in childhood gender variant expression for persisters and desisters. For gender variance in childhood, a persister stated, “I always played with girls’ stuff and I dressed up as a girl. I sometimes borrowed my sister’s dress and had a furry sheet, which I tied on my head, pretending I had long hair.” A desister stated, “I knew very well that I was a girl, but one who wished to be a boy. In childhood, I liked the …show more content…
But when they actually started to grow, I was glad they did. I really loved looking like a girl, so I was glad my body became more feminine. A male desister also expressed, “Around the age of 12, I discovered that there were a lot of things you could do with your body…in a sexual way, I mean. I became aware that this was a good side of being a boy, something that would not be possible if I were a girl.” This shows that those desisters experience the feminization and masculinization that were reported to be a positive experience and their negative feelings about their gender discomfort shifted in a different direction. Some of the clinical implications of this study suggest that although adolescents diagnosed with gender identity disorder in childhood, some may revert back to living in his or her original gender role and they may no longer have the desire for a sex reassignment. They suggest that parents and caregivers should handle their gender variance in a supportive way without taking social steps long before puberty, which may be hard to reverse. In other words, instead of diagnosing a child with GID right away, they should let the child discover their gender identity on their own until they reach