A few days ago Brad Warner, one of our favourite Zen Masters, wrote an interesting blog post titled Transgenderism: A Buddhist Perspective.

It is indeed just as the title says. Brad gives a reasoned view of his interpretation of Buddhist philosophy as applied to transgenderism. It may not accord with everyone’s view – indeed it may not be the view of all Buddhists – but he ends up saying pretty much what I have thought for a long time:

[W]hen I see people trying to solve their deep suffering by altering their bodies with chemicals and surgery, I wonder if they are making a mistake. And I wonder if we should be so quick to allow children to make permanent changes to their physical bodies that they may come to regret. It may be better to reserve that for adults who have had adequate time to consider the ramifications of such drastic alterations … I think that, rather than trying to alter one’s body to align it with one’s ideas about one’s “true self”, it would be better to learn to live as comfortably as possible with the mind and body that one’s past karma has manifested in this life.

I would go a little further … Many boys will wonder, and ask about, what it’s like to be a girl – and vice versa. That’s a natural part of childhood curiosity. But it seems to me likely that many well-meaning but misguided adults who are in a position of care and influence pick up on this and, knowingly or not, end up over-influencing the child to “act out” their inquisitiveness without any checks and balances. As Brad says, this should be left to mature consideration in adulthood, or perhaps better to learn to live with what you were given. But then none of that is easy.