While being trans and genderfluid is completely valid, I do think it's strange that more and more stories are coming out about very young children whose entire classrooms are all declaring themselves trans or nonbinary. The incidence of being trans is quite rare in all other generations. So the fact that in some classrooms EVERYONE is identifying as such, makes me wonder if there is an element of social contagion.

I think kids can identify how they like, social transition is completely good and fine, I just think when it comes to surgery/meds that maybe if an entire classroom of children are suddenly asserting they're trans, the possibility that at least some of them are not "really trans" and just trying to be cool, is fairly high.

I haven't just seen this claim that a young child says "all their friends" are trans and thus they are too in this article, but in another article on this site, and I also spoke to a friend I know in real life who saw this phenomenon in their class as well.

I'm not being transphobic - if you're really trans, I will do everything to support you. But I think that it's a fair concern to say that if an entire classroom of kids is identifying as "not cis" out of the blue, it's unlikely to be that the 1% of people that are actually trans ended up in that one class.

I guess the question I think is important is: how can we support all kids to feel safe in experimenting with their identity? While providing them with the medical knowledge appropriate to their age to ensure that any long term medical decisions that they make for themselves are done with as full as possible understanding of the pros and cons, so any decision they make is informed?

I think for kids who are prepubescent - name changing, pronoun changing, hair colour and clothing changing - that's all fine and good and creative. Even if you're not trans or NB, you might want to self identify in a different way. When I was 13 I created an alter ego called Athena that I still use to this day, that is a very important part of who I believe myself to be. I'm cis, but I feel more connected to the name Athena than I do to my birth name. So I think self identification is a big part of growing up and healthy for everyone.

I think for kids who want to go down the path of medical transition, there should be some counselling involved to ensure that they are actually trans and that any medical procedures (including hormone blockers, which do actually have long term effects even if reversed) are done in the best interest of the kid.

Aside from that (the medical aspect), let people identify how they want. I'm not against medical transition for kids I just think there need to be safeguards especially if we're seeing entire classrooms of kids identifying as trans.