[driveway]

Originally Posted by Itse

It would probably be extremely hard to find a single case anywhere in the world where a child who wants to hide their trans identity from their parents would ever want anyone to use a differently gendered name in as public a place as a school.

It's actually the opposite. There are lots. Millions, globally.

I personally taught three 7th graders over the last 7 years who were in this situation, and another four who were open with their parents with their pronoun/name change requests. Granted, my school was very LGBTQA+ friendly and had a clear policy, well articulated to students, that students could request the school not inform parents.

Giving kids the opportunity to experiment with their gender-identity in whichever way and space feels comfortable to them is so, so, so important. I am certain that many of the parents the kids didn't want to tell would absolutely be accepting of their child's choice, but the kid just didn't want to tell them and I am enormously supportive of giving kids that option.

Laws that require informing parents are going to have exactly the opposite effect that the Christofacists - and I use the word deliberately - intend. MORE teenagers are going to seek medical solutions to perceived gender dysphoria.

Just like so many different phases that kids go through while they're growing up, experiments with gender identity are usually just that: a phase. Granted, there are some people who experience gender dysphoria to the point that medical intervention is what is best for that person. If we make it so that only "genuine" dysphoria is the acceptable way to experiment with gender identity, then you are going to drive people into making medical decisions with life-long consequences who otherwise would not have.

Try to think back to how important your identity was to you as a teenager. How much the music you and your friends listened to mattered. How important it was that people know you disliked something that was popular, a tv show or a genre of music.

Now imagine that the identity you've put on involves your gender and you have people you care about: your parents, teachers, counsellors, asking you if this is really, really who you are. Of course kids are going to say yes, because in that moment it is who they really, really are.

On the other hand, if the school is a space where a kid can show up and be Julie for six months and then Raymond for the rest of the year, and then maybe go back to Julie for a bit because they kinda liked some of the things that came along with it, and they can just do this on their own, without needing to have long conversations with adults about it (which - to a kid - is exactly the same thing as "being in trouble" no matter how you handle the conversation), then we give kids the chance to explore and figure out who they are without involving lasting medical treatments.