“The truth is that our identities are socially negotiated,” said Lisa Marchiano, Jungian analyst and an outspoken critic of gender-affirmative therapy. It’s a heckuva point: Social transition, by definition, is a communal activity, requiring the buy-in of others. It insists on the community’s participation in this new identity. It requires that others accede to certain practices, if not entirely adopt the belief themselves. And it may even increase an adolescent’s dissatisfaction with her body: Once you’ve cemented her belief that she really is—or is supposed to be—actually a boy, her given
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