An authoritative guide by one of the leading child and adolescent psychiatrists working with trans children today. The book brings much research to bear as it explains what it means to be transgender and nonbinary, debunks many of the myths surrounding trans-related medical care, and explores often fraught topics like trans kids’ participation in school sports.
Let’s start with the author’s credentials, since that’s important here. Per the publisher:
Jack Turban, MD, MHS is a Harvard, Yale, and Stanford-trained child and adolescent psychiatrist and founding director of the Gender Psychiatry Program at the University of California, San Francisco. He is an internationally recognized researcher and clinician whose expertise and research on the mental health of transgender youth have been cited in legislative debates and major federal court cases regarding the civil rights of transgender people in the United States.
Turban first explains some introductory concepts and terminology related to transgender and nonbinary identities, but then draws on his deep experience in the field to discuss “The Pseudoscience of Blaming Parents and Social Environments” and then possible avenues for gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery.
While he cites extensive research on the efficacy of gender-affirming medical care for some trans and nonbinary youth, and is clearly in favor of it for the many youth who can benefit from it, he is by no means pushing any particular care path as a sweeping approach for all. In fact, he is also clear that some trans and nonbinary youth may choose not to seek gender-affirming medical care, and that’s fine, too. He’s also careful to note, “Under current medical guidelines, gender-affirming genital surgeries are generally reserved for adults. I talk about them here so that parents and readers can know what may be down the line for young trans people later in life.”
Despite the wealth of medical studies he incorporates throughout the book, he also importantly weaves in the personal stories of three trans and nonbinary youth, Meredith, Kyle, and Sam, to humanize the subject and to show the impact of gender-affirming care—including simple affirmation—on the lives of actual young people.
There are happily a growing number of guides about helping trans and nonbinary youth to thrive, many written by parents of such youth. While many are good and some are excellent, Turban’s book stands out for the sheer amount of research he brings to bear, along with useful observations about the politicization of gender-affirming care. He says, for example, “The reality is that there are risks, benefits, and unknowns for all medications. We just tend to focus on the risks and unknowns much more for medications that are emotionally changed and involved in politics. At the end of the day, medicine always involves weighing all these factors for a given individual and doing our best as physicians and parents to choose which intervention is most likely to result in the best outcome, based on what we know.”
Readable, well-reasoned (as far as this non-medical professional reviewer can tell), and always with an eye towards the best interests of the very real young people who have necessitated it, this book should be an essential read for parents and practitioners caring for trans and nonbinary youth, but it’s also likely to be a volume folks will reach for (and should share!) when they need to confront misinformation in the public sphere.
