Fatherly: Lecturer Rebecca Minor (MSW’15) Debunks Misconceptions of Gender Dysphoria in Trans Youth
A 2018 study by a professor at Brown University introduced a misguided hypothesis that trans youth experience gender dysphoria due to conflicts between social identities and self identities. BUSSW lecturer Rebecca Minor clarifies the trans youth experience and harmful misconceptions around the difficult process of coming out in a recent Fatherly article.
Excerpt from “‘Social Contagion’ Isn’t A Thing — And 4 More Myths About Trans Youth, Debunked” by Sofia Quaglia, originally posted in Fatherly:
‘The perceived rapidness of coming out is actually a parental temporal misalignment,’ says Rebecca Minor, a gender specialist and lecturer at Boston University School of Social Work who was not involved in the study. The young person has likely explored, researched, questioned, and educated themselves long before coming out to the parent, says Minor. Furthermore, they may have hidden their true gender identity from their parent because they expected the parents to be transphobic.
‘Rapid onset gender dysphoria does not exist and is not a diagnosis,’ says Minor.”