There have been several great items this week on children’s gender identity and expression, including a terrific new 15-minute video from TransActive Education & Advocacy. Have a look.
- Mom Kelly Byrom writes a great response at HuffPo to those who criticized her for an earlier post about her son wanting to wear a dress for Halloween. Add this to the “great responses by parents whose children wear gender nonconforming Halloween costumes” list—a list that started (I believe) with Sarah at Nerdy Apple Bottom a couple of years ago.
- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a long profile of a gender nonconforming child and his family, along with a look at how gender develops.
- Ann Whitford Paul writes in the LA Times about her grown child coming out as transgender.
- Dr. Abbie Goldberg of Clark University writes at HuffPo about her research indicating that children of gay and lesbian parents play in less gender-stereotyped ways. (I wrote about her findings myself a few weeks ago, but now you can read it in her own words.)
- Finally, this video from TransActive tells the history of the organization, but in the process also educates viewers generally about transgender and gender nonconforming children. Make sure you watch the lovely bit at the end from about 13:30 on.
I wanted to share another great resource around gender independent kids. It was developed by Rainbow Health Ontario and is called Supporting Gender Independent Children and Their Families. It’s free, downloadable as a PDF, and available here: http://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca/admin/contentEngine/contentDocuments/Gender_Independent_Children_final.pdf