Miami.com – Roberto Santiago
Broward County schools’ progressive policy on transgendered children will be tested by the admission to kindergarten this fall of a boy who believes that he’s a girl.
One little girl entering Broward County kindergarten this fall is actually a boy.
Few will know this genetic truth, because the 5-year-old’s parents and school administrators have agreed that it’s in his best interest to blend in as a female.
Mental health professionals have diagnosed Pat — not his real name — with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes that he or she is the opposite gender. After two years of examination, they have determined that he is not simply effeminate or going through a phase.
‘Gender dysphoria can take place during a fetus’ development in the womb,” said noted gender specialist and sexologist Marilyn Volker, Ph.D., of Miami.
While this tyke is likely the youngest transgendered child admitted to a South Florida school, he is not unique. Both the Broward and Miami-Dade County school systems have policies in place to smooth the way for such students and their families.
Equality Florida, which advocates for Florida’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, and PFLAG — Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays — say the two school districts have the most progressive policies in the state.
Broward and Miami-Dade are among the most exemplary school districts ”when it comes to the rights of transgendered people,” said Tobias Packer, South Florida Field Organizer for Equality Florida, who himself is transgendered.