Medical treatment for transgender children is cautious and evidence-based, but the conservative reaction has become increasingly hysterical.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Evie is like many 14-year-old girls. After school she likes to hang out with her friends, or go home and watch Netflix. She says she would like to focus on her studies, but almost every day she has to fill out bullying reports.
At the age of nine she transitioned, saying she always knew she was a girl but was assigned male at birth. Almost one year ago she criticised the prime minister, Scott Morrison, on TV for a tweet complaining about “gender whisperers” in schools.
In August, Evie returned to high school in Melbourne after six weeks filming a new TV show, First Day, in which she plays a transgender teen in high school. Finishing work on the show and moving back to school has been challenging for Evie. The recent media coverage of trans issues hasn’t helped, she says.
Evie has had students using her pre-transition name (known as deadnaming) and asking why she is wearing girl’s clothes, or doesn’t use the boy’s bathroom. “Most [kids at school] go home and ask their parents about all this stuff and they come back with a negative reaction,” she says.
