Free Report on Growing Up Trans: Daniel's Journey of Self-Discovery

In the frontline documentary Growing up Trans, the children featured all grew up struggling with their gender identity. The children started behaving and doing things that spelled the gender in which they identified themselves. In the case of Daniel, he began identifying himself as a transgender person in the 2nd grade. During the struggle with his identity, Daniel was more comfortable being a boy; he did not like wearing stockings. Also, at school, he could not socialize with his friends because he felt detached and felt nobody wanted him there.

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On the other hand, Ariel tells her story of her struggle with identity. Before her transition, Ariel’s social life was not friends; she lived a secret as a girl because of the fear of how her friends would react and treat her. When she finally transitioned, she was confident to behave like a normal girl, wearing dresses, doing makeup, and even hanging out. From the film, therefore, it is clear that the kids were dressing and behaving in the way the gender they identify themselves with does. The girls, including Ariel, wore dresses and did makeup, and also they loved the pink color. The boys, including Daniel, went skating with their friends, dressed as a male, and wanted not to develop characteristics of their born sex, thus aiming for hormonal blockage medication.

Growing up as a transgender kid affects the social life of the family involved and institutions, including schools. Accepting the gender identity of a child in a family by the parents has never been an easy decision to make. Parents expect their kids to grow up as they raise them according to their biological characteristics of being male or female. When the child starts behaving in a manner that is opposite to the gender they were born, it brings fear and confusion among the parents. Also, having transgender students influence the social life of the school and other public organizations. The most common effect is discrimination. Transgender students face discrimination in school because of the confusion in their gender identity. From the film, Daniel explains that when he was struggling with gender identity, before transitioning, to him, he was lesbian because he was attracted to girls. He says that he got into a fight with a female student in the washroom because she insulted him for being a lesbian. Daniel recalls that the encounter in the restroom was not excellent and it got him angry and depressed. Kyle was depressed because he could not tell his father about his gender identity. Kyle’s dad wanted his kid to be a girl as he was born, but to Kyle, he didn’t feel female. The fear of his father, therefore, got him into depression and suicidal thoughts. Therefore, having transgender kids affects relationships, and friendships in the family, as well as the schools or any other social institution.

Growing up, transgender is not an easy task for transgender people. They affect the challenge of being accepted in the community and social institutions. Most organizations have gender discrimination. In society today, males are deemed to be superior to females. The gender roles played by the two groups are divided according to what the culture is stereotyping. For example, in most organizations, males tend to have roles in senior management than females, therefore when it comes to transgender people, it will be even a challenge for them to be accepted in either position. In the film, all the children featured expressed the problems they go through trying to live freely without being judged. They have gone through a series of suicidal thoughts and depression in the fight to be identities for whom they feel comfortable by society. The case will not be different for adult transgender people. This will affect career growth and development in the future if the organization fails to develop policies to ensure transgender inclusion in workplaces.

The society today has not entirely accepted transgender people for who they are. There are still cases of hate and discrimination in social places including the use of single-sex toilets. On the contrary, many states today are supporting transgender rights to be included in the law. The hospitals are also giving transgender people the medication they need, including gender reconstruction surgery. Many universities, including Harvard, and Yale, offer health insurance plans to cover hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery to transgender students. Also, more transgender are given support to participate in social events, including dancing, singing, and acting without fear and discrimination, as seen in the case of Chaz Bono, a transgender dancer.

References

Growing up trans. (n.d.). FRONTLINE. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/growing-up-trans/

Transgender today. (n.d.). https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/04/transgender

Vomiero, J. (2018, January 29). Is the world more accepting of transgender people? Yes, but many people still aren’t: Ipsos. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/3991849/transgender-people-world-accepting-ipsos-poll/