Well, unfortunately, the statistics in that brief article (and would it have killed Alexa to say "Auckland"?) don't really tell the whole story. Here's the report they were derived from - found with 10 seconds of googling:Originally Posted by Tamara Croft
http://www.jahonline.org/article/S10...ltext#sec1.1.2
So according to those statistics, sure, 3000 kids in Auckland answered on the survey that they were transgender. However, only 32% reported having disclosed this information to anyone other than the survey. So the number of kids who are out as trans in some way is much, much smaller than was reported. Further, as you continue to read the survey, the trans kids report experiencing elevated levels of depression, suicidal ideation, bullying, violence, and alcohol use - in other words, the same things the kids here in the states report. This is a HUGE difference in reality from what Alexa presented - that is that thousands of kids in (apparently) Auckland NZ were being encouraged to transition? Encouraged by who? The bullies that beat them up?
So I apologize if I came off as harsh, but the abuse of statistics that I saw, and that are borne out by reading the actual source material, is *exactly* the type of thing that anti-trans concern (edit:people) do here in the states. So I came down on it pretty hard. Given the damage those people do over here, I feel this was justified - believe me, I spend *a lot* of time fighting such people as they try to get laws passed here to make transition effectively impossible, especially for young people.
Probably the most interesting thing to my mind that I read in that paper, btw, was that 2.5% of the respondents didn't understand the term transgender - and yet in many ways mirrored some of the same negative results as the transgender kids. Which makes one go hmmm.... (Or at least me.)
TLDR: There aren't 3000 out trans kids in Auckland - those numbers really are absurd. Use the source, Luke!
