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CHILDREN WITH GENDER IDENTITY DISORDER
Babette Francis, May 15, 2010
Baby girls make a beeline for dolls as soon as they can crawl, and baby
boys head for toy cars, a new British study has shown. “There could
be a biological
basis for their choices,” said one of the study’s authors, London
psychologist Dr Brenda Todd (UK Daily Mail, April 16).
I myself wrote exactly that as long ago as 1977 in my minority report
to the Victorian Committee on Equal Opportunity in Schools. Having four
daughters and four sons, I had a perfect laboratory for observing gender
preferences. A minor crisis erupted once when a son removed the head of
a bride doll, treasured for years by a daughter. She shrieked. He looked
merely puzzled — he wanted to see how the doll was made. (No, he
didn’t grow up to be a serial bride-killer; he studied engineering.)
My minority report argued that one can give a boy an “anti-sexist”
toy, but he won’t play with it in the same way as a girl would. You
can give a girl blocks and she will build a house for dolls. Feminist
“anti-sexist” policies may interrupt development of a healthy
sexual identity. Boys have a more difficult time. Girls can identify with
mothers, the primary carers for infants, while boys have to separate from
mothers and identify with fathers with whom they do not spend as much
time.
“Catarina”, the psychologist I wrote about in News Weekly (May
1, 2010) who counsels those who want to change from same-sex attractions
(SSA), says parents must educate themselves on how to help their children
develop a healthy sexual identity. She writes: “Sometimes a child
can have a profound disturbance of his or her sense of gender identity.
This disorder is known as gender identity disorder or GID.
“The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition
(DSM IV), says GID can be distinguished from simple nonconformity to stereotypical
sex role behaviour by the extent and pervasiveness of cross-gender wishes,
interests and activities. This disorder is not meant to describe a child’s
nonconformity to stereotypical sex-role behaviour, e.g., ‘tomboyishness’
in girls or ‘sissyish’ behaviour in boys.
“A child with GID has a persistent discomfort with his or her sexual
identity. The confusion and anxiety about his or her biological sex can
start as early as two or three years of age and the disorder can be well
established by the time he or she reaches adolescence.”
The American Psychiatric Association has diagnostic criteria to determine
whether a child has a GID condition:
1) Repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence he or she is, the other
sex.
2) In boys, preference for cross-dressing, or simulating female attire.
In girls, insistence on only wearing stereotypical masculine clothing.
3) Strong and persistent cross-sexual roles in make-believe play, or persistent
fantasies of being the other sex.
4) Intense desire to participate in stereotypical games and pastimes of
the other sex.
5) Strong preference for playmates of the other sex.
Catarina observes: “The obsession about being the other sex can lead
to pre-homosexuality. The pre-lesbian girl will reject her feminine identity
and the femininity the mother represents. The pre-homosexual boy will
have trouble identifying with his father and his masculinity.
“Children need to feel secure about their sexual identity. Children
with GID or pre-homosexual children will be distressed about their gender
and will suffer other related psychological and social problems.“Parents
need to be concerned when their child exhibits cross-gender behaviours.
Some parents may ignore the importance of early intervention and prevention
of GID because they believe children are born with GID or that they are
born homosexuals. “However, it is important for parents to know that
GID isn’t a biologically-based trait behaviour, but rather a symptom
of ‘separation-anxiety disorder’. A child with GID may feel
emotionally separated and unattached to the same-sex parent. Attachment
is vital for the formation of a child’s identity. It is through attachment
that a child discovers who he or she is.”
Dr Joseph Nicolosi, in his book A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality
(Dallas: InterVarsity Press, 2002), says that “gender nonconformity
in childhood is the single most common factor associated with homosexuality”.
He adds: “However, once mothers and fathers recognise the real problems
their gender-confused children face, agree to work together to resolve
them, and seek the guidance and expertise of a psychotherapist who believes
that change is possible, there is hope. Growth into a heterosexual identity
is indeed possible.”
Catarina remarks: “A mother, concerned about a daughter who has lived
a lesbian life style for the last 20 years, wrote to me: ‘If I’d
only had the well-researched
information which exists now about GID and SSA, I would have been better
able to guide her than I did. “I encourage all parents to inform
themselves about GID and SSA, so they can prevent the pain our lovely
daughter, her father and I have suffered, and still do’.”
Babette Francis is national
co-ordinator of Endeavour Forum Inc., an NGO having special consultative
status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC).
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