Transgressing the Gendered Norms in Childhood: Understanding Transgender Children and Their Families

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study utilized case-study research methodology and ethnographic techniques to highlight the lived experiences of four prepubescent (female affirmed) transgender children and their families. This article presents the exploratory and descriptive findings from a micro perspective of the children, siblings, and their parents, as the prepubescent children transitioned gender and developed their gender identity over time. Through an in-depth portrait of their lives, this article details the strengths and challenges that these families experienced at the micro level, while sharing the limitations, challenges, and areas for future research with trans children and their families.

KEYWORDS:

• Trans children
• gender-variant children
• transgender
• gender identity development
• case study

Acknowledgments

This article is dedicated to the four brave children—Elena, Isabel, Kayla, and Ana—who made this project worth every second. You are the epitome of what it means to be “your authentic self.”

Notes

1. The term affirm “allows recognition of the fact that these children have never identified as the gender assigned to them at birth and are therefore not moving from one gender to another, but into an affirmation of the gender they have always known themselves to be” (Vanderburgh, 2009, p. 136).

2. After culling the literature, we found that Giordano's (2013) discussion of some of the models of gender development appears to be a reoccurring theme and therefore this review will focus on these models.

3. This review does not encompass intersex children.

4. The Human Subjects Institutional Review Board approval was gained by the university prior to our beginning this research. All names featured in this article are pseudonyms in order to protect the anonymity and confidentiality of the participants.

5. Creswell (2012) defines a cultural-sharing group as one that has “shared and learned patterns of values, behaviors, beliefs, and language” (p. 68).

6. Stealth refers to the decision of the families to not share their child's gender variance with others—living as an affirmed girl.