According to thetrevorproject.org,  ”Transgender youth reported significantly increased rates of depression, suicidality, and victimization compared to their cisgender peers.” The way that transgender youth is treated is alarming. Every day, transgender youth are looked down upon. People think that they are confused or corrupt, but this is all wrong. Studies have been conducted on how most trans youth who transition when they are young, still identify as the gender they transitioned to (Trans Youth Project) and many face gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is when kids (mainly trans kids along with many others) feel extremely disconnected from the body they are in. They despise their sexual anatomy and often, have a very strong desire to be the opposite gender or be treated like the opposite gender. According to childmind.org, “When they (trans kids) are unable to be accepted as the gender they feel they are, or are bullied or victimized, they are at a high risk for depression and anxiety, as well as self-harm or suicidality.” A study of transgender teens found that more than 50 percent of transgender males and almost 30% of transgender females reported attempting suicide (childmind.org). This needs to be stopped.

As a trans kid myself, this makes me extremely upset. I have had experience with gender dysphoria, and it is a horrible feeling. You feel upset, like you won’t ever be seen as the gender you want, disconnected from your body and mind, and just horrible overall. Gender dysphoria is something that trans kids experience in their own time, but it is made worse by the treatment they face. While I haven’t had the experience of being bullied or put down yet for being trans, it is still a huge issue that many transgender kids alike go through.  I don’t see why people feel the need to treat kids like this. There is no reason to put people down because they feel unlike their biological self, if they’re happy it shouldn’t matter. You don’t need to share your opinions especially if they are going to hurt someone mentally or even physically. It’s not even just kids that treat trans youth this way, adults do it too and that is completely not okay. It’s expected that kids would do this to other kids because kids are just very judgmental but with adults, it’s less forgivable. Don’t get me wrong, even kids doing this to others is wrong, but kids learn more from their parents’ behaviors than anyone else. I think that if you can have a kid and treat them normally then you should be able to treat a trans kid the same. Just because they decide that they feel better as the other gender, doesn’t mean that they are any different than a normal kid. We think the same, act the same, eat the same, even breathe the same, just because we decide that we don’t fit as our biological gender doesn’t mean that we are any different.

Transgender youth has more of an issue with gender dysphoria because of some laws and bills that are set in place in certain areas like a bill that bans healthcare workers from prescribing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery to minors. Any minor who was already going  through this process had 180 days to end their treatment. Then a bill that bans transgender kids from using the bathrooms and locker rooms in grades K-12 that follow what they identify as and making them have to get parental consent to ask for a separate bathroom or locker room, these bills  that were signed in March of 2023 and put in effect immediately, being put in place just here in Iowa. These make it harder for transgender youth to transition and feel more like the gender they know they are compared to the gender they are told they are supposed to be. Sometimes though, the pressure of people not seeing them as the gender they feel and identify as makes the situation feel even worse. The saddest thing is that most of the people who say, think, and decide these things, especially the laws, are people who don’t want to open their minds to the changing times that are happening everywhere around the world. They are still stuck on how everything else used to be and don’t want to realize that as time goes on, the world changes. that

You can’t change people, but my solution to this issue is to teach everyone about transgender people. Teach them what trans people go through, teach them the history behind trans people, teach them why trans people change themselves, even hanging out or getting to  know a trans kid could help you to see how there is no difference. It might not make much sense but the only way to change the way people think is to teach them. People need to be made aware of all that trans kids go through. In my opinion I think that maybe if they are taught how all this works, people will use compassion and logic to treat trans kids the same as any other kids because we are no different than any other.