Protection and Safety a Priority for Gender Diverse Children

By Kerrie Gottliebsen

Today is International Transgender Day of Visibility. Tweddle welcomes people of different age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, intersex status, culture, sexual orientation, relationship status, language, faith, ability levels and socio-economic backgrounds.

We take an intersectional approach in reducing inequality and discrimination by embedding safe, inclusive and affirming partnerships. We celebrate families from all walks of life and promote diversity, equity, inclusion and a sense of belonging in principle and practice.

Tweddle would like to acknowledge the contributions made by people within the transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse communities today and always. Tweddle is and will remain a safe place for babies, toddlers, parents and families.

A new study, to be published in the February issue of Psychological Science, finds that transgender children are fully capable of understanding what gender means, as well as their personal gender identities.

The study followed 32 transgender children, 18 of their siblings, and 32 non-transgender children used as a control group, all aged 5 to 12. The transgender children come from supportive homes.

The author of the report, Nicholas Eaton, an assistant psychology professor at Stony Brook University, said, “We found that gender cognition in the transgender kids was indistinguishable from their non-transgender peers and siblings.”

By testing the answers about how a child identifies against their reaction time to computerised tasks, psychologists were able to determine that there is no discernible difference between the responses of a transgender girl and a cisgender girl; the same is true for transgender boys and cisgender boys (cisgender is a term used by some to describe people who are not transgender).

The Raising Children Network offer some advice and support for parents of gender-diverse children. They point out that gender-diverse children and teenagers do well with support from parents, family and communities. Trying to change children’s minds about their gender or stop them from expressing themselves can be harmful.