Blogger Profile: Gendermom

I often think Ava may be species dysmorphic, as she’s spent much of the last three years defiantly being a cat, answering in miaows, learning to purr and she’s now decided she’s called Mittens, only answering as such. I’m sure she’ll grow out of it, but at five, she’s been a cat a long time. But hats off to this mum’s eloquent reasoning about taking decisions that will alter the course of life for her young trans daughter. I can only imagine how agonising decisions such as these must be. But letting children decide who they are rather than forcing them into a mould is the only route to happy adulthood and a successful relationship with your son or daughter. So good luck to them both. But my concern is this: despite Ava’s conviction that she’s a cat now, one day she may well change her mind. And it’s much easier, it seems,
to return to being a human than it is to swap genders.