Gender Revolution

By suppressing puberty in transgender and questioning children through the
repressing of the body’s release of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, pubertal
blockers help minimize gender dysphoria and its adverse effects (Biggs, 2020) . Gender
dysphoria is the feeling of distress or discomfort that might accompany the onset of puberty
and the attendant physical body changes in transgender children. For children with gender
dysphoria, suppressing puberty might help improve their mental health, reduce anxiety and
depression, improve self-confidence and social interaction with other children, eliminate the
need for surgeries in the future, and reduce the likelihood of suicidal thoughts behaviors.
However, pubertal blockers might also come with adverse consequences, including affecting
future fertility. Also, delaying a child’s puberty beyond that of their peers can be stressful and
lower the child’s self-esteem. Still, if children with male genitalia start using pubertal
blockers too early in puberty, they might fail to develop enough scrotal and penile skin for
some gender-affirming surgical procedures like penile inversion vaginoplasty.
Prompt 2
Through socialization and the internalization of gender stereotypes, our culture pre-
conditions children to certain gender roles (Solbes-Canales, Valverde-Montesino, & Herranz-
Hernández, 2020). Because children grow up seeing their fathers and mothers (or father and
mother figures) play certain roles in the family and in society, it becomes ingrained in their
minds from an early age that certain roles are designated for males and females. These
processes of socialization and internalization happen intuitively and unconsciously rather
than purposively because of the power of cultural norms. Meanwhile, there are historical
reasons why these habits have endured: driven by a need for cultural preservation; people

GENDER REVOLUTION 3
tend to pass down their cultural norms from one generation to the next. While still valid and
powerful, it would appear that these historical conditions are gradually giving way to more
egalitarian attitudes as far as gender roles are concerned.
Prompts 3 and 4
The state of Florida does not have a statute that protects transgender individuals by
explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on one’s gender identity (Brown & Herman,
2015). However, at least ten counties and fourteen cities in the state have passed local
ordinances that outlaw such discrimination in private and public employment. These are steps
in the right direction when one considers that Florida has a substantial population of adults
who identify themselves as transgender: 46,600 of them. However, the twenty-four localities
(counties and cities) with anti-discrimination ordinances are home to only 53% of the adult
transgender population, meaning that 47% of Florida’s transgender adult population do not
enjoy such protection. Meanwhile, according to the Transgender Law Center, with a score of
3 out of 22, Florida as a whole scores very poorly on gender identity policy (Transgender
Law Center, n.d.).
While local anti-discrimination ordinances are a step in the right direction, I believe
there is a need for a state-wide law. This is because a state-wide law protecting transgender
Floridians against discrimination in employment can be seen as a cost-saving measure for the
state. For example, currently, on account of transgender Floridians being unable to access
formal employment, the state government is spending at least $570 000 a year on this
population’s Medicaid expenditures (Brown & Herman, 2015). By making it easier for
transgender Floridians to access employment, their enrolment in Medicaid will be elevated,
hence less expenditure by the state.

GENDER REVOLUTION 4

References

Biggs, M. (2020). Puberty Blockers and Suicidality in Adolescents Suffering from Gender
Dysphoria. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(7), 2227-2229.
Brown, T., & Herman, J. (2015). The Cost of Employment Discrimination against
Transgender Residents of Florida. Los Angeles: The Williams Institute.
Solbes-Canales, I., Valverde-Montesino, S., & Herranz-Hernández, P. (2020). Socialization
of Gender Stereotypes Related to Attributes and Professions Among Young Spanish
School-Aged Children. Frontiers in Psychology, Unpaginated.
Transgender Law Center. (n.d.). Florida’s Equality Profile. Retrieved from Transgender Law
Center: https://transgenderlawcenter.org/equalitymap