1.

After hearing the stories of the children, did the distinction between sex and gender
become more clear or less? Explain.
 Since this is a topic I am pretty familiar with, I think my understanding of
the distinction between sex and gender is about the same but I definitely
felt like these children give clear examples of that. These kids really show
you that just because you are born one way, that is maybe not who you
are going to identify as. I think as a cisgender people looking into the lives
of trans people, we can’t fully understand how it feels to feel this way. We
can learn and we can be understanding that our biological sex isn’t our
gender, but that is really it. I do understand the difference between
biological sex and gender, though, and I think these kids’ stories can really
clear that up for people.

2. What challenges were the physicians of these children facing? How do medical ethics
play a part in creating a treatment plan?
 The physicians of these children face unknown risks. They know that
these options of different drugs such as hormones and puberty blockers
can help these children and they know the short-term risks, but they don’t
know the long-term risks of what these can do to their bodies later on in
life. Because there hasn’t been enough research on this topic and the
drugs haven’t been around long enough to see how in the future they can
affect the body. This also makes it hard to tell the parents because they
don’t really have all the answers. If there was more research for these
doctors to go off of, it would be easier for them to give the families more
legitimate options that they knew were safer and knew more of the risks
and also to be able to give more and better answers.

3. According to sociologist Erving Goffman, we conduct ourselves as though we are

actors/actresses on a stage. For Goffman we each have a “front stage” where we
highlight our positive aspects to the rest of the world and a back region or stage,
which can also be considered as a hidden or private place. This is where the
individuals can be themselves and get rid of their role or identity in society. How
do you think Goffman would view the development of the children interviewed in
this documentary and the larger transgender community?
 Based on Goffman’s theory, I think he would view these children as
showing people their “back stage”, the part of themselves that is meant to
be private. I think he would consider this as the part of yourself where you
can really be yourself and get rid of your identity. Showing this to the world
goes against his theory that there are two sides of us and kind of morphs
them into one. These kids prove that they want to live the same life with a
different identity in their front stage and their back stage, it isn’t something
they want to be hidden.

4. Why do you think gender roles are so crucial to the institution of the family? What
examples from the documentary support this idea?
 Gender roles are so crucial to the institution of family because when these
 children begin hormones and changing their bodies, they will no longer be
able to have biological children. Unless of course before they started
medically transitioning they were able to freeze their sperm or their eggs.
When these kids decide to change the balance of their body, they are
never going to be able to be biological parents. This can make them feel
like less of a woman or man in their family setting because it kind of takes
something away from them. A good example of this from this documentary
is Arielle. She so desperately one day wants to be able to have children
that her friends talking about having kids is triggering to her. She feels
sadness that she will never get to have the birthing experience. But when
her therapist asked her if she would be okay with not having children when
starting hormones, she tells him she would rather have hormones and
have a child in another way (not biologically). I think this shows us that
transgender people want to live normal lives as the gender they are and
be able to have the gender roles of society, but that just isn’t their reality.

5. Revisiting the “3 Paradigms” in sociology, how do you think functionalists view the role
of gender in our society?
 I think functionalists view gender in our society as a way of making things
balanced and work. I think they would view gender as part of life’s
balance. Since they view things as parts that work together to make
harmony, gender would be one of those parts. Our gender is who we are,
which would affect who we date, and our ability to have children. They
would view gender roles as a way of connectedness and being able to
balance out one another. I think for a functionalist, gender and gender
roles are key to this perspective.

6. You sometimes hear the opinion that being transgender is a choice. How do the
stories you saw in this documentary fit into that narrative or do you think the
stories you saw here challenge that narrative?
 Hearing people say that being transgender is a choice is and has always
been a tough thing for me to understand. For someone who is in
relationship with someone that has come out/transitioned throughout our
relationship, I have seen way too many hardships to think anyone could
ever choose that. I think these kids showed the exact same thing. Seeing
these younger children show you and tell you exactly how being “trapped”
in the wrong body has made them feel and still does make them feel
should show you it isn’t a choice. No one would choose to feel this way.
These kids show you that from such a young age you just know who you
are whether anyone else sees it or not. Some of these kids go through
depression, suicidal thoughts, anger, and so many other emotions. I am
sure they wish they could just be cisgender, what people consider
“normal”, so that they could go through life not feeling this way, but they
can’t. These children show you that there is no choice, there is just who
you were born as and who you are. They show you that they don’t want
attention or to be different, all they want to do is fit in as who they feel
 comfortable as.

7. How do you think gender identity is complicated by sexual identity according to the
author?
 I think gender identity is complicated by sexual identity because with being
whatever gender, it’s usually a heterosexual man/woman. I think a lot of people,
trans or not, not explore their sexual identity enough they just try and fit the
mold of our heteronormative society. I think that our gender identity can make
who we are attracted to a scary thing for a lot of people. People a lot of times
choose the sexual identity expected of them to fit the expectations of people
around them.

8. The author writes, “When working with young trans kids, I’ve been shocked by how rarely
they’re encouraged to seriously play and experiment with gender, how the option of being
a feminine boy as opposed to a trans girl, for example, is never stressed as a possibility.
This isn’t to say that they’re making a mistake by transitioning, or that they might regret it
and should wait, but I worry that strict gender roles are placed even more heavily on the
backs of trans people, especially young trans people, as we are given few options but to
either follow the Johnny narrative, or live uncomfortably in our assigned gender.” What do
you think of his statement? How do strict gender roles play a part?
 I think that he is absolutely right. I think playing around with gender and if you
feel more comfortable as masculine or feminine or as a male or female should
be tested. I think kids should be able to be more feminine males or masculine
females without so much ridicule to either be a masculine man or feminine
female. I think people who transition know that they are in the wrong body, but I
also think there are people who may just feel more comfortable outside of their
genders norm. Before my boyfriend transitioned he had played with being a
more feminine female, a more masculine female, and then came to the
realization that he is just a male who is some days more feminine and other days
more masculine. Because he had the opportunity to play with his gender
without so much ridicule from others, he was really able to figure out who he
was and thats the opportunity all kids should get, trans or cis.

9. The author mentions Caitlyn Jenner in his essay. Can you describe how media attention
may be both beneficial and detrimental to the transgender community?
 I think that Caitlyn Jenner and the attention she brought to transgender
community can be beneficial because it was so public and because it was so
public, it made people curious that didn’t know “what is transgender?” I think
that this attention shed light on the transgender community that it is very well a
thing and these people exist, but I also think it shed darkness on the community.
Since this was such a public transition, I think it could have quite possibly
brought out a lot of hate from people who had nothing to say prior to this. I also
think something that she did that was detrimental to the transgender
community was show that you have to “look” fully transitioned to be actually be
 a woman or a man. She and others focused so much on how feminine she
looked and if she was too masculine looking that I think this made people feel
like to be transgender, you have to look like your gender. Some trans people are
more masculine, some are more feminine, and some can’t afford hormones or
gender reassignment surgery so this just isn’t the case. The media focused too
much on her appearance and less on the important things she could shed light
on or do for the transgender community.

10. Describe three aspects of either the essay or the documentary that either enhanced or
clouded your understanding of gender. (its ok if your understanding has not been
enhanced, it is a complicated field where exploration is still ongoing)
 The first thing that enhanced my understanding of gender was in the essay
when he talks about how our biological body does not determine our gender. I
think a lot of times people look at someone’s body and assume their gender and
the two things have nothing in common. The next thing that helped my
understanding of gender was seeing kids at such a young age know that their
biological sex was not who they are. These kids are so young and too young to
feel pressure to be different, but they just were. Not only that, but those are
such hard ages to be different at that it really shows you our gender does not
always match with our sex. The last thing that helped me understand gender
was when he talked about how sexual identity and gender. Sometimes I think
we assume our sexuality because of our gender and I think that our gender can
put us in such a box. But once you realize what gender is and that it doesn’t
define any aspect of you, you are able to be and like whoever you want.