But if the grown-ups have been trained to believe that “trans kids know who they are”—if they’re emotionally eager at the prospect of having a transgender child, or fearful of the damage they might do by not affirming—they might selectively attend to confirming evidence that the child “is trans”, selectively ignore contrary evidence that the child “is cis”, and end up reinforcing a cross-sex identity that would not have existed if not for their belief in it—a belief that the same people raising the same child ten years ago wouldn’t have held. (A September 2013 article in The Atlantic by the father of a male child with stereotypically feminine interests was titled “My Son Wears Dresses; Get Over It”, not “My Daughter Is Trans; Get Over It”.)
Wow. This is a horrifying thought.