WATCH: San Diego parents reveal story of transgender son who became boy at 5

[mountaineer]

Another perspective:

I am Ryland – the story of a male-identifying little girl who didn’t transition
Posted on June 30, 2014   
 

I have been shying away from highly controversial topics on this blog recently because I just couldn’t take the drama that naturally associates with it.  But I keep hearing the story of Ryland, a child who was born a female, whose parents have transitioned her to male at 5 years old.  You can see the full story HERE, but in short, because their daughter identified herself as a boy, and liked “boy” things as opposed to “girl” things, they cut off her hair, bought her “boy” clothes, and have begun telling her, and others, that she is a boy.

I have no degree in early childhood development, nor have I studied psychology.  I didn’t even graduate from College.

I am also not here to pass judgement on Ryland’s parents.  I believe that they are doing what they believe to be the most loving thing for their child.  I’m simply sharing my story because I see so much of my 5-year-old self in this child. ...

Anyhow, even as a baby I seemed to prefer “boy” things.  I was rough, tough, and daring.  My parents had to cut my curly hair short because I would twist it into knots and refused to let my parents brush it.  I once managed to make my way onto the second story roof, and was gleefully running around, as my parents had simultaneous panic-attacks.  My toys of choice were sticks, sling-shots, bows & arrows, guns, mud, motorcycles, and monsters.  When my sister and I picked out “My LIttle Ponies” I chose a blue one, and promptly cut all of that lustrous long hair off as short as possible.  My barbie also got the chop.

I loved going on hunting trips with my dad and thought it was amazing when he taught me to pop the head off a dove. (PETA, please, no…just.  No.) 

I wanted to be a boy.  Desperately wanted to be a boy.  I thought boys had more fun.  I felt like a boy in the way that our society views genders.  I liked blue and green more than pink and purple.  I remember sitting up as high as I could climb in our huge mulberry tree, bow & arrow in hand, trying to kiss my elbow (a neighbor lady had told me that if I could accomplish this, that I would turn into a boy, which was what I wanted in that moment, as a child, more than anything.)

Thankfully, my parents didn’t adhere to the archaic stereotypes that “boys like blue” and “girls like pink;”  that “boys play with dinosaurs, and girls play with dolls.”  Had they told me that liking these things made me a boy, I would have concluded that I was a boy. ...

In this day and age, I probably could have been labled as transgender.   They would cut my hair off short (because, all boys have short hair, right?) I would be given “boy” clothes to wear, blue walls in my room rather than pink, and be told to pretend to have a penis, at least until I could have one surgically added. Had this happened, I can not even imagine how traumatic puberty would have been for me.

Fast forward to age 14/15 (late bloomer here) and I finally started going through puberty.  I had never really thought of the opposite sex in a sexual manner before.  My attraction was immediately, and is to this day, towards men.  At the risk of going all Shania on you,  I “feel” like a woman.  Had my parents decided, at age 5, that I was a boy, I can not imagine the confusion that I would have experienced during my teen years. ...

Read the entire blog post here

[NavyCanDo]

There was a young girl once who never had a Barbie Doll, or any girls doll for that matter.  Who loved fishing, and helping dad clean those fish. Who would go out late at night digging up earth worms for the next day’s fishing trip. Getting dirty and using tools was fun for her. She might have used those tools repairing a lose wheel on her go-cart, or in building balsa wood  remote controlled airplanes which she loved doing. For  Christmas she would never ask for a  Susie Bake Oven or a Mystery Date game, but more likely a new addition  Lionel Train set or fishing tackle box.   Did her parents cut her hair and make her wear boy clothes until someday she could get an attachment, making her into a real boy?   What did happen to her?

She grew up, puberty happened, and later I married her.     Happily married to a real lady.