Diagnoses of gender dysphoria is on the rise. Sadly, our world today encourages sufferers to pursue life-altering procedures instead of digging deeper into the condition.
It’s head-scratching enough when we’re talking about consenting adults that suddenly decide they wish to swap genders, but it becomes downright alarming when we’re talking about children going through the transition process.
What parent could possibly allow their child to go through with such a life-altering decision when the child may not fully understand the long-term ramifications?
Unfortunately, situation such as these are on the rise as well, including this example of Patrick Mitchell, an Australian boy that decided he wanted to be a girl.
“You wish you could just change everything about you, you just see any girl and you say ‘I’d kill to be like that’,” the boy said in an interview with 60 Minutes, according to News.com.au.
He begged his mother to allow him to transition after he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and she gave him the green light.
However, a slight problem would arise later on.
“But two years after taking oestrogen hormones and growing his hair long in an effort to address the condition which put him at odds between his biological gender and his own identity, Patrick has changed his mind,” News.com.au shares.
So what happens now? You guessed it, he stops taking the transitioning hormones, and he’s slated to undergo a procedure to remove excess breast tissue.
“That moment … when you know it’s taken every drop of courage for that child to speak up … I didn’t know what the coming days would bring, but I knew his thoughts had caught up with his body,” the mother said, according to News.com.au.
Really? How about being a parent in the first place and tabling the whole conversation until he’s old enough to decide for himself?
As most fully functioning parents know, what kids want today may not be the same thing they want tomorrow. Hence, it’s really not that challenging to put your foot down when the situation calls for it.
In a perfect world, we would see a full investigation of the doctor that diagnosed the child, as well as a lengthy sit down chat with the mother to get a handle on her decision making process.
We’ll assume that neither will happen, but something needs to be done to prevent this from happening to other whimsical children.
See below for a preview of Mitchell’s appearance on 60 Minutes.
Source:
News.com.au
