An Illinois dad claimed last week most transgender kids know they’re transgender “between the ages of 3 and 7,” saying his own child knew at around 2 and a half years old.
Speaking to the Naperville 203 Board of Education last Monday, Bob Skrezyna discussed how important he views education on the subject to be.
“We could visit a science classroom … there we’ll see gender is, at its base, a social construct and that sex is not a binary,” Skrezyna said. “With any luck, perhaps it’ll click with some folks that we didn’t learn everything we needed to know about each other in sixth grade science, and just because you graduated from school, doesn’t mean you have to stop learning.”
“One last personal fact: Most trans kids know that they’re trans between the ages of 3 and 7,” he added. “My daughter knew around 2 and a half. She knew, I didn’t.”
The science on the topic is complicated, with various studies providing different findings.
A study published in the BJPsych Bulletin from Cambridge University Press found that “the great majority of young children develop a self-perceived gender identity consonant with their gender assigned at birth, but some, from the age of 3 or 4 years, develop a self-perceived gender identity which is other than that assigned at birth,” supporting Skrezyna’s claim.
An article published by the Mayo Clinic Staff also notes “some children learn to behave in ways that bring them the most reward, despite their authentic gender identity.”
Another study published in the JAMA Network Open, a journal of the American Medical Association, found 73% of transgender women and 78% of transgender men first experienced gender dysphoria by age 7.
Some critics claim most transgender children regret transitioning or undo it entirely once they grow up, but there is evidence contradicting that stance. A review of 27 studies across the U.S., Canada, and Europe found an “extremely low prevalence of regret in transgender patients after gender-affirming surgery.”
An article from the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM) is skeptical about these claims, suggesting the true rates of regret and detransitioning are not known. However, this organization is broadly not recognized by the scientific community. A spokesperson for international medical association Endocrine Society called SEGM “outside the medical mainstream.”
The public is also skeptical about gender transitioning as a whole, with a growing percentage of Americans believing gender is determined at birth, according to a poll from Pew Research Center.
There is a significant partisan gap in this belief, with Republicans 50% more likely than Democrats to agree with gender being assigned at birth, according to the same poll.
Skrezyna is more focused on his own children, explaining last week he often tells them “I’m not smarter than you, I just know different things.”
“And the things that our kids know that we don’t, those are the things that make all the difference, and are the ones we should really listen to,” he said.
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Author: Kristina Watrobski
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