I meant as much as we know ours now, not at age 4. I don't recall what or whether I thought about gender at all at that age. But I don't remember ever really thinking about my gender except in the context of conversations around gender topics like this one. Presumably for cisgender folks there's not normally any motivation to do so, any more than you'd spend time specifically thinking about other aspects of your person. But I can see how one would be much more likely to think about it if the gender they experience doesn't match their physical body and how others perceive them. And I've spoken to enough people with very similar experiences that I have no reason to doubt them.
And I guess that's what I don't understand about those who find transgender kids implausible. From what I can tell, the vast majority of transgender people will tell you they became aware of it in early childhood. Why would they lie? I can't come up with a speculation that doesn't sound like an absurd straw man.
* "We" had a weak sense of our true gender at age 4
* "We" have a strong sense of our true gender now
* Transgender people had a strong sense of their true gender at age 4
> From what I can tell, the vast majority of transgender people will tell you they became aware of it in early childhood. Why would they lie? I can't come up with a speculation that doesn't sound like an absurd straw man.
I think it would strengthen your argument if everyone who had a strong sense of being transgender at age 4 maintained that sense into adulthood. I don't know how one would find that out though.
Ah, is that the main point of disagreement? People are thinking back to their own experience of gender at that age, and then expecting it to be the same for trans kids. I think, as I mentioned, a logical explanation for that is that cis people don't have any reason to think about it. Or at least didn't when we were kids. I've asked my kids, and they're both confident in their gender at a young age.
Ah, gotcha. I bet there's something to that though. It seems natural that having a very strong sense of gender at age 4 would appear ridiculous to most people given that it doesn't fit with their own experience. I do expect over time mainstream opinion on this will shift much as it has for homosexuality. Likewise there I think it was initially difficult for straight people to relate, because it just didn't fit with their own experience at all—sexual attraction is something for people of the opposite sex; if you think you're attracted to people of the same sex, that doesn't make sense, so something must have happened to you. Over time, more and more gay people were out, more people came to realize that they knew gay people, and those people truly did experience what they said they experienced, and mainstream belief shifted.
Per the original comment here though, I hope it doesn't happen by one 'side' winning and beating the other into submission, but rather through that process of understanding.
And I guess that's what I don't understand about those who find transgender kids implausible. From what I can tell, the vast majority of transgender people will tell you they became aware of it in early childhood. Why would they lie? I can't come up with a speculation that doesn't sound like an absurd straw man.