A new documentary explores the agony of what it’s like to be a transgender child
LOOKING at the kid doing cartwheels on the lawn, you see a happy little girl. But nine-year-old Warner was in fact born a boy.
“I think God made a mistake,” Warner had told his parents.
Instead of being shocked or trying to force their child into a gender role, it’s they who’ve done the adapting: they’ve accepted that instead of a son they now have a daughter. They refer to their child as “she” and support all her choices. She likes to wear her hair long and has a preference for sparkles and the colour pink, explains her mother, Melissa, from Ottawa in Canada.
Warner is just one of the children featured in the new BBC documentary Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best? which is airing on DStv. They talk about what it’s like to be a transgender child and adolescent, and feeling trapped in the wrong body.
The documentary focuses on the transgender children and adolescents who experience gender dysphoria – in other words, they experience constant discomfort and distress because their gender identity doesn’t match the gender assigned to them at birth.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a boy, but I don’t enjoy being a boy,” Warner explains. “I’m not the full puzzle – there are a couple of pieces missing. My life’s journey is to find the missing pieces.”
But it’s not going to be easy. Somewhere down the road she’ll need to decide if she wants to be placed on treatment that will pause her puberty process – if she chooses this route it will mean her development will be delayed so she won’t develop distinctive male features such as a prominent Adam’s apple, facial hair, muscles and a deep voice.
This will buy her time while she decides whether she wants to start oestrogen therapy to fully transition.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 21, 2017-Ausgabe von YOU South Africa.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 21, 2017-Ausgabe von YOU South Africa.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Our top picks to listen to and watch
The HOTTEST things in POP CULTURE and ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK
QUEEN OF THE COURT
She's just won her fifth Grand Slam title and at 23 tennis star Iga Świątek is only getting started!
WE'RE ON A MISSION TO HELP
The Olifants have started an ambulance service for animals from less fortunate communities
BARBER TO THE BOKS
He's been cutting hair for almost 50 years. But it's the more than 40 jackets and signed jerseys from Springbok players whose hair he's done that make him a cut above the rest
THE SCIENCE OF DEATH
New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be far less distinct than previously thought
WE TALK ABOUT Colombia's underwater treasure quest
COLOMBIA is launching a historic underwater expedition to explore a ship that sank in the Caribbean more than 300 years ago.
UNFORGETTABLE READS
These new releases all offer something surprising and unexpected
EAT YOUR FILL
Trying to lose weight? Stock up on the foods that trigger the release of the same 'fullness' hormone as the weight-loss drug Ozempic
ROMANTIC RUPERT
Retired media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is a sucker for love and at 93 he's got married - again!
RUNNING STRONG
This Roodepoort mom has lost half her body weight - and she's just done her second Comrades