Myth #4: Social pressure can make kids trans or nonbinary
Given the harassment, threats, denial of rights, inaccessibility of healthcare and more that gender-diverse people face, the likelihood of someone saying they are trans or nonbinary due to social pressure or because they think it’s “trendy” is extremely low.
In fact, there is considerable social pressure to be straight and cisgender, which is what keeps so many people from coming out in the first place, says Dr. Mariebeth Velasquez, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the UW School of Medicine and a faculty advisor for the
Qmedicine student organization.
“Understanding that you’re trans, nonbinary or queer often involves needing to unlearn what we’ve been socialized to learn with Western civilization, where we have all these labels and binaries,” she says.