A Boy Who Wants to Live as a Girl

How old is old enough to know your own sexual identity?

Some would say you never really know. Some would consider twenty-five old enough, or perhaps even twenty. Others might say nineteen, or eighteen. Some might go as young as sixteen, or maybe even eleven since that's the average age of the start of puberty. But younger than that? Is it possible?

What about five years old? Or, is it actually something we're born, hard-wired and knowing, even if we can't articulate it until we're older?

Children as young as five years old have recently been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. These are kindergarten girls who want to be boys and boys who think they should have been born girls.

A little boy in England was just diagnosed after apparently telling his mother that he denies being a boy. Now Zach Avery's parents and everyone in his school treats him as a girl. While not many children at this age express cross-gender identification, it does happen.

Is it a childhood phase that they may eventually grow out of? There is a phase during childhood when children pretend to be the opposite sex, but is this more than that?

What do you think? And what would you do if this was your child?