Title: 'I am a girl': The plight of Tammy, the adopted son of two lesbians who started sex change aged 8 because he has always maintained he is a girl Source:
Daily Mail Online URL Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ormone-blocking-treatment.html Published:Sep 29, 2011 Author:John Stevens Post Date:2011-09-29 22:29:04 by Sebastian Keywords:None Views:127002 Comments:212
'As soon as we let him put on a dress his personality changed to a very happy little girl thrilled to be alive'
A boy who started the process of changing sex at age eight has told how he always knew he was meant to be a girl.
Thomas Lobel, who now calls himself Tammy, is undergoing controversial hormone blocking treatment in Berkeley, California to stop him going through puberty as a boy.
His two lesbian mothers, who adopted him aged two, say that they have been criticised by friends and family, but insist they have not forced their son to become a girl.
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Therapy: Thomas Lobel, who now calls himself Tammy, is undergoing controversial hormone blocking treatment
No pressure: The boy's two lesbian adopted mothers, Debra, left, and Pauline, right, say that they have not forced their son to become a girl
They say that one of the first things he told them when he learnt sign language aged three, learned because of a speech impediment, was, 'I am a girl'.
Tammy, now 11, wears dresses and effectively lives as a girl.
His parents, Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel, say that their son, who they claim was depressed at a younger age and threatened to chop of his own penis, is now much happier.
The couple were married in 1990 by a rabbi, according to Pauline's Facebook page, and have two older sons and grandchildren.
PROUD MOM: Two photos of Tammy from one of Pauline's Facebook albums called 'My Sweet Sweet Princess'
Here is Tammy with her mothers and older brother Edgar at his recent bar mitzvah. Mother Pauline said Tammy was shy and unhappy as a boy when compared to her older, outgoing brothers
Unlike his older brothers who are both described at outgoing and athletic, Thomas liked to read Wonder Woman comic books and play with dolls.
He shunned baseball hats, preferring rhinestone hair accessories.
At age seven, after threatening genital mutilation on himself, therapists and psychiatrists diagnosed Tammy with gender identity disorder.
A year later his parents allowed him to start the first step of his transition to becoming female by letting him pick his own clothes and wear bras.
Tammy favor headbands to baseball hats and picked out bras and dresses to start wearing when given choice in clothing to wear
'As soon as we let him put on a dress, his personality changed from a very sad kid who sat still, didn't do much of anything to a very happy little girl who was thrilled to be alive,' one mother Pauline told CNN.
This summer, Tammy started taking hormone-blocking drugs, which will stop him from experiencing puberty.
The hormone-suppressant will postpone the 11-year-old developing broad shoulders, deep voice and facial hair.The diagnosis has been hard to accept for Tammy's parents, but they insist their sexuality has nothing to do with it.
As Pauline said, people think 'we're pushing her to do this. I'm a lesbian. My partner is a lesbian. That suddenly falls into the fold: "Oh, you want her to be part of the lifestyle you guys live".'
Unhappy: Tammy was adopted aged two by Debra Lobel and Pauline Moreno
But they insist that is not the case and the decision has been difficult.
His parents say the hormone treatment will give him time to figure out if he wants to fully transition to being female or go through puberty as a boy.
If he chooses to stop taking the drugs, he will undergo natural male puberty at a later stage and his future fertility would not be impacted.
Should he decide to transition to an adult female, he can take female hormones as well, which would raise his voice, grow breasts and develop other feminine physical characteristics.
Pauline and Debra have been married since 1990, when they were joined in a commitment ceremony by their rabbi
San Francisco, right by Berkeley, is one of four cities in the United States with a hospital that has a program for transgender children.
The University of California San Francisco is home to the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health.
Children are seen at length by mental health professionals and then treated by pediatric endocrinologists.
Others cities with youth programs are Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles.
His parents, Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel, say that their son, who they claim was depressed at a younger age and threatened to chop of his own penis, is now much happier.
Mostly because all he heard at home was how everybody with a penis is evil,and their penises should be cut off.
Here is Tammy with her mothers and older brother Edgar at his recent bar mitzvah.
Big brother Edgar looks like a fruitcake to me.
And let's get real. This is about politics with these lesbians as it is sexuality. I doubt they can even separate the two.
Yup. I have always believed the reason Michael Jackson used to put masks on the faces of the white children he bought was so that once they got old enough he could have plastic surgery done to them to make them look like him.
IMHO,those children dodged a bullet when the pervert OD'ed.
I have always believed the reason Michael Jackson used to put masks on the faces of the white children he bought was so that once they got old enough he could have plastic surgery done to them to make them look like him.
Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 postoperative transsexual women live in the United States, and many thousands more are now in the process of gender transition here. These numbers are much larger than commonly assumed by the public because a veil of invisibility hides the true nature and extent of the transsexual condition. Especially hidden are large numbers of highly successful women who have fully transitioned. The reason is that most successful women live in "stealth mode" or are "woodworked". They leave their pasts behind and hide in plain sight in order to avoid social stigmatization and get on with their new lives. Their personal successes insure that they assimilate and blend right into society.
The social invisibility of successful women who have undergone gender corrections supports the notion that male-to-female transsexualism is extremely rare. However, intense transsexualism is not all that uncommon. Recent calculations indicate that the condition occurs in about 1 out of every 250 to 500 children born as boys, and that about 1 in every 2500 males in the U.S. has already undergone surgical sex reassignment*. Transsexualism is thus more than twice as prevalent as multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy or cleft lip/palate conditions.