Book Review

reviewed by Tracie O'Keefe

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

The Transgender Child

by Stephanie A. Brill and Rachel Pepper, Wakefield Press, Kent Town I.S.B.N. 978 1 57344 318 0

The Transgender Child, by Stephanie A. Brill and Rachel Pepper

There are few sensible books around about children with sex and gender diverse circumstances or identities. This book seeks to fill some of that void. Alas, its approach is somewhat limited. The use of the word "transgender" to homogenise the whole of sex and gender variation is a linguistic shot in the foot. What about those children who are variant but do not identify as transsexual or transgender? Gender is an interpretation of sex-social performance but many children who are sex and gender diverse do not have issues with their gender but do have issues with their physical sex, making them sex dysphoric or diverse.

I got a sense from reading this book that the authors had skipped their classes on psycho- and sociolinguistics and the implications and semantic interpretation through nominalisation. But hey, maybe I spent too much time with my head in transformational grammar.

There is certainly much in this book that could help the families of sex and gender diverse children, particularly around the devastating effects of prejudice from relatives, schools and classmates. As a clinician I often see parents who think sex and gender specialists are out to get them when they are told to encourage their children to explore their identities.

Most Janets and Johns from suburbia have little concept that people can be all different sex and gender identities and more variant than the colours of the rainbow. They often have little idea of the misery they are heaping on their children when they force them into identities that make them unhappy.

That unhappiness then persists into adulthood and may ruin a life that might have been. There are, of course, parents who are very supportive of their children's decision to transition or be sex and gender variant and in the short and long term those children do tend to become more balanced human beings.

The authors give examples of children who knew intuitively at an early age that they were transsexual or transexed even though they might not have had a word for it. When Tommy, at seven tells his parents he has always known he is a boy, not a girl, one has to wonder if it is Nature speaking through biology, not Nurture through social adjustment. When asked how he knows, he deems it such a silly question and has an air of "How can anyone be so short-sighted?" The text covers transition decisions at an early age, how to manage their situation and affect positive parenting, disclosure to others, what to do within the educational system, medical issues, delaying of puberty with hormone blockers, and legal issues. It is certainly empathetic toward children who find they are not fitting into the cardboard cutouts of Janet and John, well not as Mum and Dad expected anyway. So I will recommend this book but with words of caution that not all children who are sex and gender different should be addressed as "transgender" because that simply replaces one stereotype with another.

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.