What it costs a child not to be believed
Dr Helen Webberley on Triggernometry: the trans debate, with Konstantin Kisin, Triggernometry
Children that young don't really know what they're talking about when it comes to something this serious. They need to grow up a bit before anyone should take them at their word.
An 11 year old who tells you something hard has usually been working up the courage to say it for a long time. The moment they speak is not the beginning of the story. What happens next, whether the adult in front of them leans in or pulls back, shapes everything that follows. I have heard from so many people who were not believed as children, and the damage that does does not stay small. It travels with them. Listening is not the same as agreeing with every word or knowing exactly what to do: it is just refusing to make a child feel that their inner life is not real.
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