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ysilverman's picture

I just read an interested

I just read an interesting article in the Atlantic about children who, from birth, feel that they were born the wrong gender. A lot of this article talks about parents who, rather than try and "treat" this is a disorder, allow their children to live out their lives as they choose. One mother says, answering another who laments that doctors had told her the problem was curable, "Yeah, it is fixable ... We call it the disorder we cured with a skirt.”

In the cases discussed there is still medical intervention necessary (and mental health intervention as well), but rather than treating these children in order to help them conform to society, they are treated in order to feel better in their own bodies. Even in the article not everyone agrees with some of the interventions (particularly medical) made for young children, but it is interesting to think about a perceived "mental health issue" treated in such a pro-individual way. 

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