The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice

by Shon Faye

Because of enduring misinformation, it is important to clearly restate the fundamentals of what is meant by ‘transition’ in relation to children. To emphasize: no trans child in Britain can have genital reconstruction surgery, both because of clinical protocols that establish a minimum age of seventeen for signing-off on surgery, and because no British surgeon would perform it on anyone under the age of eighteen. In the UK, referral for trans surgery can only be made by one of the twelve adult gender identity clinics for over-eighteens. The use of ambiguous and dated terms in media headlines referring to ‘sex change children’ misleads the public, implying that genital surgery is being carried out on children when it is not. More often than not, when the term ‘transition’ is used to refer to children and young people, it signifies social transition.