Children who say they are trans are just like children saying they are Spider-Man
Ben Leo said:
“You entertain in a child's mind which hasn't properly formed yet. As I said, they think they're Batman 1 day and they go to a boy the next.”
Parents know that young children say imaginative things about identity all the time, so the comparison to superhero play feels grounded in everyday parenting experience and suggests that taking a child's gender expression seriously is naive credulity.
Gender identity and imaginative play are genuinely different things, and the research is clear on this. A child who says they are Batman for an afternoon is doing what children do: trying on ideas about the world. A child who tells every trusted adult in their life, consistently, across months and years, that they are a girl when they were registered as a boy is doing something categorically different. Every reputable clinical pathway assesses for exactly this distinction, looking specifically for persistence, consistency, and insistence over time before anything beyond a listening conversation happens. Parents who take that away from this comparison and conclude that any gender-related expression is just a phase to be dismissed are not protecting their child from naivety; they are closing a door that the child needed to stay open.
What I said at the time:
“Let's talk about a different child, right, who went to his dad and said, dad, I actually feel like a girl and the dad said, no, that's that's not nice because that shuts these kids down.”
Parents of trans children who hear this and conclude that any gender-related expression is just a phase to be dismissed, potentially leaving children without support during a critical period.