By Iris Santana –
Gender Identity Disorder. It is a formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe a person(s) who experience significant gender dysphoria. Dysphoria is a discontent with the biological sex and/or gender with which someone is born.
There are many cases where people, male or female as young as five are ‘trapped’ inside the opposite genders’ body.
Five year old Zach Avery refused to live his life as a boy at the age of three.
“He just turned round to me one day when he was three and said, “Mummy, I’m a girl.” I assumed he was just going through a phase and just left it at that. Zach’s mother, Theresa Avery recalled about the day her son ‘came out’.
It’s sad to think that a lot of people have this problem, dealing with the fact that they are something they’re ‘not’, especially if that person is your little boy.
He gets so frustrated to the point where he even tried to cut his genitals off.
But this is not a big surprise to most. People. Parents do this to their own kids, hiding their child’s identity so they are able to decide themselves what they want to be as if it’s a career choice.
A pigtail-purple tutu wearing ‘Zachy’ is much happier now that he is able to be who he wants to be.
There was another case in 2011, where Toronto parents planned on raising their baby Storm genderless.
The parents, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker claim it’s a “tribute to freedom and choice.”
“That’s wrong, it’s torture and people that do that to their kids should be in jail,” Bianca Cruz commented about the Toronto parents.
“Their child is going to be so confused and with a lot of mental and emotional issues to deal with.” Cruz added.
The couple also has two other boys, five and two, which they encourage to dress and play less ‘boyishly’.
That’s exactly what they do. Jazz, 5, loves to paint his nails and wears pink while his younger brother Kio, 2, gets mistaken for a girl.
People have their own views about gender and sexuality.
“Everyone’s entitled to do what makes them happy,” Dimitrius Dennison said.
Whereas other don’t agree with it.
“It’s just wrong. You think it’s a female and when they turn around it’s a dude.” John Diaz said about cross dressers.
More and more parents nowadays are becoming tolerant towards their child being gay, lesbian and/or even cross-dressing.
“I think my mom would support me, but my dad would just look at it as a phase,” says Sierra Bland, a student at Penn Manor.
Other parents on the other hand are not.
“My dad would slap me, then kick me out,” says Robert Cruz, a senior at Penn Manor.
There are many students walking the halls of Penn Manor, innocently holding hands with the same sex. Maybe their friends, or maybe they’re more than friends.