When Kids Say They’re Trans: A guide for thoughtful parents
Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O’Malley, Swift Books £20

THE transgender phenomenon disturbs some of our most closely held social norms and has provoked some heated and divisive debate. 

This book purports to be a “self-help” guide for a potentially difficult situation and parents or carers with a child who is trans may find some useful information here. What they will not find is an objective or balanced appraisal of a complex issue. 

That the authors are writing with a particular outlook is made clear by the flyleaf recommendations from well-known gender-critical writers. Although, at times, the book does provide thoughtful suggestions for how to discuss gender identity with children, it does so from a position of essentially denying the possibility for that child to be defined by anything other than their biological sex. On the contrary, for a young person to be trans is presented as a problem and one the authors want to “fix.”