That was disturbing news to Angelica Jadunandan, who moved to New York from Florida with her two young daughters three years ago. Her older daughter, who is eight, is transgender, and Angelica wanted to move them to a safe blue state—somewhere her family’s medical care would not be called into question. New York is a self-declared “sanctuary state” for trans people. It seemed like a good option.
Ah ok, sorry to take it wrongly, it can be hard to tell the difference between “why (curious)” and “why (change my mind)”, especially on topics like this.
Bones fusing is a part of adolescence. And apparently I was wrong, puberty blockers do prevent it. Bone fusing is part of pubescent growth spurts and bone changes, but different bones fuse at different ages. I started hormones at 20 and caught a little bit of shifting of my hip bones because they’re among the last to fuse.
And yeah I’ve got no idea if it impacts brain development. Unfortunately at this point it’s become hard to find reliable evidence because there’s a huge campaign against them. All I know is that the expert organizations (such as the American Academy of Pediatrics) seem to believe it to be worth any potential risks.
And speaking as someone who went through puberty for the second time in college, just because your brain is more developed doesn’t mean you act like it while you’re having big pubescent emotions lol. I’d get into the same stupid fights with my mom I had years earlier, except worse because mom was hormonal too that time.
And the high schoolers basically will all know. Speaking as a former high schooler, something like that a kid is trans is going to be known through the rumor mill, just like how we knew multiple closeted gay kids in my day. And to be blunt, I don’t think either scenario is going to spare this girl the risks of sexual violence, but that’s a personal suspicion.
If she’s attracted to men (she most likely will be, trans people seem to be about equally likely to be straight, gay, or bi) she’s probably never going to have it easy dating them, though. And while yeah teenage boys can be worse, a 16 year old also has a lot less free reign in what kind of mistakes they can make than an 18 year old. At 18 she could go on tinder or to a college party with full force of “this is my first time being horny”. Hopefully her parents and such have given her the “dating men will be more dangerous for you than for cis women” talk.
And for how to protect her in this regard the best thing imo is a friend group that’s protective of her. It feels simple to say, but if the boys in her school know that starting shit with her or hurting her will cause problems with other people, they’ll be less likely to do it, and more likely to stop after facing pushback.