Tonight on BBC 2 (9pm), Louis Theroux travels to San Francisco to meet families who are navigating unchartered territory. Each of the families’ have a child who say that they were born in the wrong body. In the documentary Theroux meets children who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and learns that children as young as 3-years-old can show signs of rejecting their biological gender.
Controversial treatments are being offered at the Child and Adult Gender Centre at UCSF Hospital. Treatments such as hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers to delay the onset of puberty and eventually gender reassignment surgery are up for discussion, as the families try to decide what is best for their child.
The dilemma faced by the parents in Thereoux’s documentary is whether to allow them receive treatments such as hormone therapy at such a young age before their identity is fully formed. To say that these are high stake decisions would be a massive understatement.
One father, whose teenage child is undergoing hormone therapy, tells Theroux:
“I see it as protecting the life of my child.”
The children, themselves, are embracing their chosen genders as much as they can. 5-year-old Camille, changed her name from Sebastian and loves play and toys more traditionally associated with girls, while Nikki (14) has been on hormone blockers for 2 years.
Transgender Kids is on BBC 2 tonight at 9pm
Main image via BBC
