美国国家公共电台 NPR A Transgender Child Faces Growing Up

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

We first heard from a Brooklyn youngster named Q Daily a couple of years ago when he was just finishing third grade. That was his first full school year identifying as a boy. Q is transgender. At the time, he described his feeling like this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

Q DAILY: It feels like instead of a dead flower, a growing flower.

SIMON: Two years later, he's 11, on the cusp of adolescence² - middle school - and facing decisions about his changing body. That's all the while the United States is having a conversation about transgender children and their rights, especially in schools. WNYC's Yasmeen Khan caught up with Q to hear how it's going.

YASMEEN KHAN, BYLINE³: I would say that Q Daily is savoring⁴ childhood. I hadn't seen him for two years when I met up with Q and his mom, Francisca Montana, at a playground. Francisca points him out to me up in a tree.

FRANCISCA MONTANA: He's always in the tree.

KHAN: I'm going to say hello.

Q - adept⁵ climber of trees, lover of Michael Jackson, doesn't want to grow up. In fact, he thinks adults are pretty boring, especially at parties.

Q: All that I think they do is sit around, talk and drink wine.

KHAN: But like all kids this age, Q has to face the idea that he's getting older and deal with the universal awkwardness of puberty. Of course, for a transgender child, that's even more complex.

MONTANA: He's at a different stage, where people start, like, having different standards for, like, what it means to be transgender.

KHAN: Meaning people ask her, what's Q's plan? Or they feel at liberty to ask about his body and hormones⁶. Q began questioning his gender¹ when he was 3 years old. By the end of second grade, he had transitioned socially from girl to boy. At a time when you hear stories of transgender kids feeling isolated⁷ or bullied⁸, Q's comfort in his own skin and happy-go-lucky nature draw people in. Francisca calls it his superpower.

MONTANA: People like him because he's good with people. He's good to people. And he is not ashamed of asking for people to be good to him, either.

KHAN: Q is learning more about his body and physical presence in the world through theater and dance.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You can't start right away, then start...

KHAN: He takes three classes. His favorite is modern.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Five, six, seven, eight.

KHAN: He says he's learned that he's flexible and strong.

Q: And I have very big thighs⁹.

KHAN: You do?

Q: Yeah.

KHAN: But you're so long and skinny.

Q: Like, they're huge. It's like skinny here and then (imitates explosion).

KHAN: Not quite, but he does have a vision for what he wants from his body in the future. Q's dad, Avery Daily, says they talk about it.

AVERY DAILY: Do you ever think you'll go back to being a girl? He's was like, no. He was like, I don't think so. He was like, I want hair on my chest.

Q: I think chest hair is so cool. It's like hairs that grow near your belly¹⁰. It's like nothing's like that.

KHAN: He'll also take a beard and a mustache. If he has to grow up, he at least wants to do it his way.

Q: I mean, obviously, I'm going to get armpit hair 'cause my mom says everybody gets armpit hair. And then I'm like, OK.

KHAN: He hasn't thought too far ahead about how this will happen. Remember, more than anything, Q wants to stay a kid. But the family for the past year has been talking about what it would mean for Q to start taking puberty blockers.

Q: I call it the talk.

KHAN: This is medication that basically suppresses puberty. It's a common course of treatment. It's listed as reversible in a guide co-authored by the American Academy of Pediatrics. But it's still a very new part of the medical and cultural conversation around transgender children. That guide only came out last fall. Francisca says she sees blockers as a logical next step if that's what Q wants.

MONTANA: Seems that it will give us more time to think about the big decisions, yeah?

KHAN: The big decisions transgender adolescents make, such as whether to take hormones like testosterone or down the road get surgery. Q knows all about blockers - the idea, anyway - because he goes to a camp for transgender kids each summer, and other kids are on them.

Q: Everybody in camp, that's the only people that I want to talk about the blocker thing with. Like, everybody else in school, I keep my mouth shut.

KHAN: Q is spending two weeks at camp this summer, even though he has lots of friends in Brooklyn and feels accepted by his peers at school. He says it's not the same as being with other people like him. But besides enrolling¹¹ transgender kids, the camp is just like any other outdoorsy sleep-away camp with a focus on nature, cheesy songs and all.

Q: (Singing) This is the composting toilet system. Oh, yes it is a digester of organic materials only.

KHAN: Both of Q's parents say there's a desire to buffer¹² a bit of the outside world. For instance, Francisca didn't directly discuss with Q a decision this year to rescind¹³ federal guidelines protecting transgender kids in schools, partly because New York City has its own guidelines and partly because with Q being a half-Latino, half-black transgender kid, they want him to feel strong and maintain that uncanny sense of self. So that if or when he does face discrimination, or when he has to make hard decisions about his future, he'll have the tools to deal. Right now, he's game to stay a kid and a happy one at that.

Q: Then I heard a little voice, and that voice said to me...

KHAN: For NPR News, I'm Yasmeen Khan in New York.

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 savoring   

v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的现在分词 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝

参考例句：

• Cooking was fine but it was the savoring that he enjoyed most. 烹饪当然很好，但他最享受的是闻到的各种味道。 来自互联网
• She sat there for a moment, savoring the smell of the food. 她在那儿坐了一会儿，品尝这些食物的香味。 来自互联网

5 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

6 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

7 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

8 bullied   

adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My son is being bullied at school. 我儿子在学校里受欺负。
• The boy bullied the small girl into giving him all her money. 那男孩威逼那个小女孩把所有的钱都给他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

11 enrolling   

v.招收( enrol的现在分词 )；吸收；入学；加入；[亦作enrol]( enroll的现在分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They lashed out at the university enrolling system. 他们猛烈抨击大学的招生制度。 来自辞典例句
• You're enrolling in a country club, Billy. 你是注册加入乡村俱乐部了，比利。 来自辞典例句

12 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。

13 rescind   

v.废除，取消

参考例句：

• They accepted his advice and rescinded the original plan.他们听从了他的劝告，撤销了原计划。
• Trade Union leaders have demanded the government rescind the price rise.工会领导已经要求政府阻止价格上涨。