KEY FINDINGS

Kids Who Identify as Trans at Young Age Retain Their Identity, Study Finds

It comes as many conservatives pass legislation curbing medical transitions for transgender youth, claiming many of them will change their minds.

A new study involving 317 children has found that kids who begin identifying as transgender at a young age tend not to transition back, at least for their first few years. The study authors surveyed children between the ages of 3 and 12 and revisited them five years later, when researchers found that 94 percent were still living as transgender and that nearly two-thirds of the group were still using puberty blocking medication or sex hormones to transition medically. The study comes as conservatives pass legislation across the country aiming to curb medical transitions for young people, often claiming many of these children will ultimately “re-transition” or change their minds, though there is little research to support whether this is true. The new study, which primarily sourced children from white, higher income families supportive of their transitions, is one of the largest to look into the phenomenon of early transition. It’s unclear how results might have differed with a less advantaged subject pool.