The United Kingdom is seeing a record number of children, under the age of 16, identifying as transgender.
According to the UK Deed Poll Services, in the past five years there has been a surge of parents seeking to change their child’s title from Miss to Master and vice versa. The rise in transgender children now averages at least one child making the switch every single day.
Louise Bowers, a senior deed poll officer, told The Sun: “We used to issue a couple every couple of months — but now it’s seven to ten a week.”
According to Bowers, most of the kids are in their teens, aged either 14 or 15, however some are as young as ten.
Back in 2017, The Telegraph revealed, the number of children being referred to gender identity clinics had quadrupled in the five years prior to 2016. Overall, there was a staggering total of 2,016 referrals for children aged between 3 and 18. Over six times more than the 314 referrals five years earlier.
Last year UK’s Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt ordered an urgent investigation after it was revealed there had been a 4,415 per cent increase in the number of girls being referred for ‘transitioning’ treatment.
However, the abnormal surge in gender confusion in young children is a non-issue according to UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who said she’s “determined to eradicate homophobic and transphobic bullying.”
“We have set out plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act and streamline and de-medicalise the process for changing gender, because being trans is not an illness and it shouldn’t be treated as such,” she added.
Chris McGovern, former adviser to the Department of Education told The Telegraph, it has become an industry. “People are making a career out of encouraging children to question gender at an age when they need to be left to be children. When teachers raise these issues children can become confused or unhappy and traumatised by it.”
