There is no such thing as a trans child
Julia Hartley-Brewer said:
“I don't believe there's any such thing as a trans kid.”
To someone unfamiliar with the clinical and developmental literature, the idea that gender identity in children is simply a phase or a belief imposed from outside can sound like common sense, especially when framed as scepticism rather than denial.
Gender diversity in children is documented across decades of clinical literature, in multiple countries, and is recognised in both the ICD-11 and the DSM-5. Children who experience a persistent, consistent, and insistent sense of who they are, across years, across contexts, and regardless of what the adults around them believe, are not responding to ideology or suggestion: they are telling us something true about themselves. The proportion who continue to identify as trans into adulthood is not trivial, and the research showing that parental support is the single most protective factor for those children's mental health is not contested. When a parent hears that trans children do not exist and acts on it, the cost is borne entirely by the child.
What I said at the time:
“Transgender children exist.”
Trans children whose parents, having heard this framing from a prominent broadcaster, conclude that their child's identity is not real and withdraw support, with well-documented consequences for mental health.