What You Probably Don’t Understand About Transgender Kids and Their Parents

Are you listening Texas Governor Abbott?

Mary DeVries
11 min readFeb 24, 2022
Young LGBTQ teenager with rainbow stripes in hair. In the background are paint bottles in rainbow hues.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

Imagine you are a parent and your kid has come out to you as transgender. Now imagine you live in Texas. The governor has just instructed the Department of Family and Protective Services to consider any gender-affirming medical treatment child abuse. You are now living in a nightmare scenario where no matter what you do your child is at extreme risk.

If you aren’t the parent of a transgender child your reaction to the news out of Texas and similar anti-transgender actions in other conservative states probably falls into one of three categories:

  • Good. It’s about time.
  • Absolute horror. This is madness.
  • Shrug. What will those silly conservatives think of next? Oh well, it will probably get knocked down in the courts. Not my problem.

You almost certainly come to this question with opinions and assumptions about transgender kids, their parents, current medical advice, and risks. You are probably wrong. Your ignorance is getting kids killed. Please keep reading.

Myth #1: I know a boy who thought he was a girl but his parents shut down that nonsense fast…

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Mary DeVries
Mary DeVries

Written by Mary DeVries

I delight, despair and write about a life lived around the world. Fueled by Yorkshire Gold tea.

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