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Coming Out Trans
Abstract: Some thoughtful reading to accompany the draft social statement on sexuality.
If you're looking for some background material to accompany you're study of the ELCA's Draft Social Statement on Sexuality, we'd recommend checking out the Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality and particularly the article by William A. Henkin in volume 11 titled Coming Out Trans. Regarding the unique dilemma of transgendered children who try to come out, Henkin writes:
If you're transgendered, ... as soon as you say I'm not a girl" or "I'm not a boy," people point to your body, sometimes literally, and tell you you're wrong about your very own identity. In the face of your still relatively innocent, trusting, and unencumbered awareness, the people you must trust and upon whom you must rely tell you that you are not who you know yourself to be. Especially when they derive from the mostly adult world of appearances, these assertions establish an element of identity conflict in the trans child unlike any other developmental identity conflict we know. That is why coming out trans is not like coming out gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Where sex is concerned, including orientation, a person's value may be questioned and demeaned, but where gender is concerned the person's identity itself is indicted...
