Sex-change boy of 12

A 12-year-old boy reported to have changed sex faces "a critical moment" in his life, a transgender campaign group has said. Bernard Reed, a trustee of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), said teachers and pupils at the child's secondary school in southern England were key to his future. The child's parents gave him a girl's name by deed poll and allowed him to wear a dress to school, according to The Sun. The paper said teachers at the school, which has not been identified, called an emergency assembly to explain to pupils the boy would now be treated as a girl. Mr Reed said it was likely the child had been confused about their gender for years. He said: "As many as 500,000 people in the UK experience this, but very few of them seek treatment or change gender. Very young children can realise there is something wrong that perhaps they can not understand and as they get older they can face more repressive forces. Their family may struggle with the issue and they may be bullied at school. "There is a small number that get the right support from their family and school so they can live as themselves. The start of puberty is a critical moment in their lives. What happens in other countries is the child is given treatment for the suspension of the pubertal process but this is refused in the UK." Children in this country can have hormone treatment to aid their physical development but this does not usually happen until they are at least 16 and surgery is not allowed until the age of 18 apart from in exceptional cases. Mr Reed said: "The key people in this are the teachers. They need coaching so they are confident about talking to the other children and their parents. The other key people are the peer group, the children who will be around the child." It was reported the child's parents hoped his transformation from male to female would not be noticed as he was starting secondary school this year, but pupils from his old primary school noticed the change.