Introduction

Akiko Asano is a single parent of two children, the youngest of whom, Mat, who was born a biological boy, identifies as trans. Now aged 15, Mat was just two when she began to show a strong preference for wearing dresses and playing with dolls, and began to live as a girl full time at the age of four. Although many in Akiko's community were supportive of her parenting, not all were, and when Mat was about six, Akiko was briefly investigated by social services. The complaint? That Akiko was trying to change her child's ‘sexual orientation’. Although the case was quickly dismissed, many other North American families have not been so lucky. Indeed, although there is still limited evidence, some children have been forcibly removed from the care of parents who allow their children to live in accordance with their felt sense of gender (see Manning et al, forthcoming, for a discussion of child apprehension prompted by a child's gender non-conformity).

A growing body of scholarship suggests that childhood gender non-conformity is a natural part of human diversity. Indeed, research suggests that between 2.3% and 8.3% of children (Moller et al, 2009, pp 118-19) engage in varying degrees of cross-gender dress and behaviour, and of those, a small number will end up following through with gender change interventions later on in their lives (Meyer, 2012). The problem is, Western society continues to be structured on the basis of a gender binary in which a child's failure to conform to their assigned birth sex, has often resulted in the pathologisation of parent and child (Langer and Martin, 2004). The fact that another member of Akiko's community viewed her parenting as ‘harmful’ and thus requiring state intervention, suggests the degree to which gross misunderstandings about gender identity continue to prevail.