"Welcome to the clinic! Are you a (link: "boy")[(set: $g to "m")(go-to: "intro2")], a (link: "girl")[(set: $g to "f")(go-to: "intro2")], (link: "neither")[(set: $g to "nb")(go-to: "intro2")], or (link: "something else")[(set: $g to "nb")(go-to: "intro2")]?""Thank you! Just sit tight, [[let me get you set up..."->setup]]
(set: $discourage to 0)
(set: $encourage to 0)
(set: $patients to 0)(set: $patients to it + 1)"Doctor Ford, time to admit the next patient:"
(if:visits is 1)["8 year old, biologically male, claims to be a little girl. Likes to wear dresses and refuses to play with other boys. The older boys pick on them."](if:visits is 2)["7 year old, biologically female, tells their extended family that they are a boy. Takes their brothers clothes. The mother explains that their aunts are beginning to tell their children to stay away from them."](if:visits is 3)["10 year old, biologically male, likes to play with dolls, nail polish, dolls, etc, but has not claimed to be a girl. Parents are concerned."]
[[Discourage the child and give them more gender appropriate toys->discourage]]
[[Encourage the parents to let the child do as they please->encourage]](set:$discourage to it + 1)
"They're so young after all. Catching them this early means they could be spared from a lifetime of discrimination, if only they could be set straight."
Children this young, they might not necessarily be set in stone. If we get to them soon enough they won't need to live such a hard life.
(if:$patients < 3)[[Next|setup]]
(if:$patients is 3)[[Next|end]](set:$encourage to it + 1)"Accepting them as they are as soon as possible is better for everyone."
This is who the child is, and the sooner we recognize that the better. This child will probably have a harder life than their peers, but we can make it a bit easier for them.
(if:$patients < 3)[[Next|setup]]
(if:$patients is 3)[[Next|end]]"(if:$g is "m")[Sir](if:$g is "f")[Miss](if:$g is "nb")[Hon]," the clerk calls out, breaking you from your imagination. You wish you were a doctor, maybe then you'd know what to do. But you're a patient, waiting with your parents in the clinic. "Doctor Ford is [[ready to see you now."->end2]]You're a (if:$g is "m")[boy](if:$g is "f")[girl](if:$g is "nb")[not a boy or a girl], but your parents keep telling you that (if:$g is "m")[you're a girl](if:$g is "f")[you're a boy](if:$g is "nb")[that doesn't make sense]. "You're too young to know these things." And sometimes you wonder, maybe you are. They keep telling you you're confused, but you think it's them who are confused, or maybe you both are. You hope the doctor can help.
(if:$discourage > $encourage)[You're worried, but as you walk into his office, Doctor Ford (link-reveal:"begins to speak.")[
And he tells your parents to take away your toys, to change your television programs, to keep an eye on if you're spending your time with girls or boys. You sneak around your parents when you can, but they catch you more often than not.
It's stifling.
And maybe one day, after all of this, you'll be able to say that you're (if:$g is "m")[girl](if:$g is "f")[boy](if:$g is "nb")[boy], just like they all want you to be. And maybe you'll mean it.
Or maybe you'll be here again, with another therapist, when you're older, telling them about how demeaning this all was. Maybe you'll get puberty blockers after all this, after you've had to prove yourself by fighting your parents and the doctor tooth and nail. Maybe you'll stick your head down and move out, and get hormones to undo what this one wouldn't. Maybe it will be expensive.
Maybe this wasn't what was best for you.
END]](if:$discourage < $encourage)[You're worried, but as you walk into his office, Doctor Ford (link-reveal:"begins to speak.")[
"Good morning to you, (if:$g is "m")[young man.](if:$g is "f")[young lady.](if:$g is "nb")[kiddo.]"
It's refreshing. To be taken seriously. The doctor arranges for you to start taking puberty blockers, and talks about what your options are. Who knows, maybe one day you'll decide this isn't what you want. It might be messy, but you can stop anytime you want to. Right now you have time to explore who you are, and who you want to be, and you think your family is a litte closer to getting it.
Maybe you didn't need this, maybe you did. But now you have time to know.
END]]