Questioning one’s gender, at whatever age (which is usually at a young age), already implies cognitive dissonance, i.e., conflicting thoughts between what I would like to be and what I am, between my ideal self and my real self. Sexual identity cannot be understood as a simple construction process. It is not something we choose as we please.
Not all people follow the same model of developing their sexual identity. There are some who need more time, complex processes, with different transformations, processes that fix fluid identities.
Is there an age at which transgender people usually realize that they do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth? What does this depend on?
We start from the idea that we should not understand transsexuality as a process of changing from one sex to another. As the transition from a fixed identity to another equally fixed one, but as an open and flexible continuum, where there is heterogeneity of identities.
An important situation is that transsexual children will not follow a schematic model of evolution. If we follow the indications offered by Félix López (2013a: 212), from the first year of life the categories of male and female are established by identifying them with the conventional signs of the role: the shape of the hair, the type of clothing, the body anatomy…. Between 18 months and 2 years of age, the child feels that he/she belongs to one of the two groups, he/she can recognize him/herself as a boy or a girl. And between 5 and 7 years of age, they reach the certainty of having a certain identity.
There is no linearity, so there is nothing to prevent transsexuality from revealing itself sooner or later, depending on the individual.
What advice can you give to parents whose children show signs of non-conformity with their gender?
Psychological specialists indicate that it is necessary for parents of transsexual children to broaden and make more flexible the idea they have about sexual and gender diversity. I would ask them to please be patient, as it is not an easy process for both parties to assimilate or assume, it is not a matter of choice. I would tell them to listen to what their children want to tell them, to understand them, to give them affection, to let them know that they can count on them. A patient one day said to me, “If my family understands me, respects me and gives me love, I will be able to handle anything that comes my way.”
What are some of the biggest psychological challenges that transgender people face?
The main challenges are dysphoria, associated comorbidity and quality of life.
In terms of comorbidity, we can find patients with:
- High anxiety
- Depressive states
- Difficulties of adaptation in the environment and with the family.
Why do these cases of discrimination against this group occur and how can they be explained?
We are talking about that in 2005 they passed the law that allowed people of the same sex to marry, and in 2018 transsexuality ceased to be considered a mental disorder. The great ignorance and the “fear” of the unknown or the possibility of believing that it is a choice, lead the rest of people to consider it as a subject subject subject to discrimination. It all starts from ignorance.