Answering Important Questions of Why Forced Outing Bills Harm Students

Should parents be informed by school officials if a child requests to change their gender identity without the parent’s knowledge, also known as “forced outing”?

For many children and youth, gender affirming care is as simple as affirming them in their expressed identities. A recent survey of peer-reviewed scientific studies by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), demonstrates hundreds of studies showing culminating in several recommendations including that “parents/caregivers and health care professionals respond supportively to children who desire to be acknowledged as the gender that matches their internal sense of gender identity”.

Studies cited in WPATH show that children develop their gender identity as they are learning to speak as young as age 3 and identify more with peers of their gender identity than the gender assigned to them at birth. According to WPATH, transgender children experience psychological difficulties because of gender diversity-related rejection, whereas children whose gender identities are accepted are well-adjusted. Transgender children, like all children, have “positive mental health, less depressive symptoms, high self-esteem and life satisfaction in later adolescence” when they are supported in their identities.

Some recent state-level anti-transgender bills have begun requiring school officials to notify parents if a child expresses a gender identity other than their assigned sex at birth. These “forced outing” bills apply regardless of whether the student’s wishes their parents to know, regardless of whether notifying parents would make the students unsafe, and directly against healthcare providers' responsibility to protect a student’s confidentiality.

Transgender students who feel safe sharing their gender identity with their families will do so, and do not need a law to compel them to do so. These forced outing bills escalate an already troubling issue already prevalent issue, transgender children are sometimes rejected and abused because of their gender identity. This results in transgender youth already being overrepresented in homeless shelters and foster care homes, and studies show increases rates of substance abuse and suicide in transgender youth.

All transgender people, including transgender youth, deserve to protect our identities as we see fit. When transgender children are in unsafe homes, forced outing laws mandate that schools should be as unsafe a space as their homes.

At what age do children become aware of their gender identity?

Children develop their gender identity as they are learning to speak. “Transgender children as young as age 3 have identified clearly and consistently with their current gender” and identify more with peers of their gender identity than the gender assigned to them at birth.

Children experience psychological difficulties because of “trauma and maltreatment stemming from gender diversity-related rejection”. WPATH SOC 8, page S67. Whereas “children who are well accepted in their gender diverse identities are generally well-adjusted”. WPATH SOC 8, page S68.

Studies show that young transgender children do need access to one specific gender affirming care, social support for their identities. Transgender children, like all children, have “positive mental health, less depressive symptoms, high self-esteem and life satisfaction in later adolescence” when they are supported in their gender identities.

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Mika Fernandez (she/her) is president of the transgender rights organization Trans Formations Project, as well as a transgender, nonbinary, and intersex attorney, advocate, and researcher with over a decade of experience working on racial justice, gender justice, and youth civil rights work.

More in this series:

Why Gender Affirming Care Should Not Be Banned