I'm sure that by now, we are all aware of the parents who are suing the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital System and Medical University of South Carolina for completing sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) on their adopted son when he was a mere 16 months old. It's important to realize that most children show gender preference that early. Some studies say that children start dabbling in gender roles around the age of 3. They can "tell the difference between" boys and girls, but it's not a permanent idea just yet.
In cases where a child is born with ambiguous genitalia, there should be consent from the parents for surgery to take place. Since there was no parent to have a voice for the baby born with male genitalia, the state stepped up and made an "irreversible decision" that ultimately should have been made by the child or the adoptive parents. The boy, M.C., has transitioned to the best of his ability and has been accepted by his peers. That's the silver lining to this situation. Unfortunately, he's going to have "questions about his body" and the conversation to follow is going to be quite difficult. He has identified as a male since he was around the age of 7 and will now never have the ability to have children of his own.
There is a time and a place for SRS and this decision should be made by the person having the surgery. They're the one to live with the decision for the rest of their life and nobody can or should force them into what they feel this child should be. This kind of surgery used to be much more common 40 to 50 years ago, where children weren't given the chance to find their true gender. In today's society, things like this shouldn't be happening. Waiting "until the child's own gender identity" becomes apparent, or when they initiate the conversation, is when medical steps should be taken. Children can tell at an early age where they fit in and can take hormone suppressants if necessary. They have reversible advantages and can be stopped at any time if the child determines that they want to remain their birth gender.
When a child, or any person, is able to articulate what gender they identify with, it can be scary if it's to the opposite than their birth gender. What makes it even more scary is one of these doctors agrees that this surgery can "be catastrophic" without the proper consent. There are many reasons why this surgery was unnecessary and it's time for awareness to be considered. Intersex is something that we don't hear of often. Statistics are available and most state that there are 2 or 3 in every 2,000 children born as having both male and female genitalia. These children have a unique set of challenges ahead of them. They're not transgender or transsexual, but they can be. Within the umbrella of what can be considered sexual deviance, they are truly the black sheep of the family.
(The USA Today link should include a video. If it doesn't work, comment or email me and I'll ensure you get the proper link.)
Resources:
"Early Childhood Gender Identity and Sexuality", Child Development and Parenting: Early Childhood, Angela Oswalt
"Parents sue South Carolina, hospital over child's sex assignment surgery", Associated Press via fox news.com, 2013
"Child, born as a hermaphrodite, was given surgery to become female as a toddler," The Greenville (S.C) News via USA TODAY, Tim Smith, David Dykes, Michelle Frizalone, 2013
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