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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]09:42. I don't actually think that I feel like a man or a woman inside.  I'm just me, with my own unique set of interests and characteristics.  I don't dispute that others may feel differently.  I'm just trying to figure out how to explain this to my daughter in a way that isn't sexist, and enforces cultural gender stereotypes.  [/quote]

I had this conversation with my two kids as their cousin is transgender. They always thought of her as a girl - they actually thought her birth certificate name (which was a typical boys name ... think John) was a girls name and asked me why a boy had a girls name when they met someone with the same name and they were the opposite gender than their cousin. When he was young his parents did not buy him dresses or skirts, they had him wear pants and boy clothes, although they let him pick out the colors and he was drawn to the more stereotypical girl colors and to my kids he was a tom boy like other girls they knew who wore boys clothes.  It was a harder conversation telling them that he was a boy when they were very young then affirming she was a girl when she came out and identified as a girl in HS - that was a much easier conversation because as far as they were concerned she was always a girl. When I had that first conversation when they were young and I told them their cousin was a boy and not a girl, they continued to call to use the pronoun she and would have to correct themselves to say 'he'. As I said, it was MUCH easier to say, nope, so and so is a girl.

This year my 6th G son wrote a paper on transgender people. I was very proud as my kids really understand that everyone is different. They have friends of different races and are inclusive. They also have friends of different genders.... although my boy would prefer to not being in the friend zone with some of his girlfriends :-) And while they know someone is transgender, it did not "rub" off on them as my kids are not transgender and identify with their birth gender. [/quote]

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