Kids Transcending Gender

Being a transgender child opens up a minefi eld of ethical and medical issues – especially in South Africa where getting treatment poses problems of its own. REBECCA DAVIS looks into the controversial issues surrounding transgender children.

- Rebecca Davis

From before she was old enough to talk, Jazz Jennings knew something was wrong. She was supposed to be a girl, so why did she have the body of a little boy? Jazz begged her mother to dress her like her older sister. This was fine around the house, but in public her parents would insist on Jazz wearing boy-appropriate clothes. When this happened, she felt as freakish and humiliated as some boys would feel if they were made to leave the house in a pink tutu.

At the age of two, Jazz asked, ‘Mommy, when is the good fairy going to come with her wand and change my penis to a vagina?’ At that point, her mother realised she was dealing with more than a boy with an interest in girly fashion.

Jazz is not alone. She is one of a growing number of children worldwide seeking treatment for what is termed gender dysphoria – the strong conviction that you have been born into the wrong body. At four years old, Jazz was the youngest known person to have been diagnosed as gender dysphoric.

That was back in 2004. More than a decade later, Jazz’s diagnosis already seems less remarkable. In 2015, 1 400 children under the age of 18 were referred to a London clinic specialising in gender identity issues. Almost 300 of these children were younger than 12 – and some were as young as three.

This isn’t just a ‘rich world’ issue, either. The transgender clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town confirmed to Marie Claire that in recent years it has witnessed a growth in demand for treatment for people under 18 years old. A spokesperson said the youngest age at which the clinic would begin ‘gender affirming treatment’ on a patient is 10 years old.