Recognising the needs of gender variant children and their parents
/Recognising the needs of gender variant children and their parents
Published in: Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning. 2013. Authors: Elizabeth A. Riley, Gomathi Sitharthan, Lindy Clemson & Milton Diamond
“The data in the present study suggest that even when gender-variant children actively endeavour to conform, their efforts are often thwarted by individuals who seek to marginalise and victimise them for their difference. Children therefore suffer from an invisibility and lack of recognition of their needs, on the one hand, and (in some cases) a violation of their personal boundaries that can foster a general anxiety, on the other. The well-documented need of all children for acceptance and affirmation places even more responsibility on adults to be compassionate and make provisions for gender-variant children.”