Endocrinologist claims 'trans kids' know their gender identity 'as soon as they can talk'

The division chief of endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in California said in a 2017 video from the hospital's website that children can know they are transgender from a very young age and in some cases the children will let their parents know the moment they can talk. 

In the video, pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Mark Daniels announced he was overseeing the new Gender, Puberty and Sex Development program at the hospital and said, "Gender is that sense of self of who one is in the world that we live in, and so gender really is not defined by what you look like, or what your body looks like. It's who you are inside."

The clinic performs experimental sex changes on young people on the basis of that definition.

Daniels defined being transgender as people who "do not feel that they are the same gender as what their sex at birth was," and said that while genetics, culture and environment are all believed to play a role, there isn't a blood test or an X-ray that can confirm a self-declared transgender identity.

"Some children will, at a very early age, as soon as they can talk, will tell you that they're being told that they're a girl when they're a boy or they feel like a boy, or vice versa. They're actually a boy but everybody is calling them a girl or making them wear dresses," said the specialist in pediatric endocrinology.  "And this is actually oftentimes very distressing to a child. So that would be one of the first indicators to some families."

This is similar to Dr. Diane Erhensaft’s famous theory that pre-verbal toddlers who pull barrettes out of their hair or unfasten their onesies are sending gender messages and indicating that they are transgender.

Daniels advised parents who notice that their child is "not following typical gender ideas" to contact a medical professional, stressing that the idea is not to try to change the child, but instead to offer support. The doctor said that many children will keep their transgender identity hidden until adolescence or even adulthood.

Daniels explained that the goal at CHOC is to provide "gender affirming therapy" that includes "medical care, adolescent medical care, therapy and counseling," as well as access to resources.

"We want children and adolescents to actually feel comfortable in expressing who they feel they are, not what the world thinks they should be," Daniels said.

The clinic’s website assures parents that their "child will be addressed and referred to based on their self-identified gender, using their preferred choice of pronoun and name," and boasts of offering "gender affirming hormone therapy."

Resources on the CHOC site include a Welcoming Schools guide produced by the Human Rights Campaign that advises teachers to ask students which pronouns they would like to use and which pronouns should be used with parents and siblings. Then there’s a Trevor Project guide to being a good ally that says respecting a person's pronouns "can save lives."

The Post Millennial has contacted CHOC for comment.