ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the way in which the practice of transgendering children has developed in the present, giving examples of how this is taking place from Australian Family Court cases. It is followed by a comparison between traditional eugenics and the new variety in evidence in the transgendering of children. The chapter illustrates the socially unacceptable 'gender' practices that lead to the diagnosis of a child as having gender identity disorder. It identifies some connections between the transgendering of children and eugenics practice that may help inform the development of a more critical social science literature. Though the acceptability of sterilising some constituencies of the 'unfit' has lessened, sterilisation and sexual surgeries on children identified as transgender is an increasing trend. Today's transgendering of children is similar to the earlier history of sexual surgeries in that progressive people, including many feminists, feel that this is a reasonable practice, and have not yet begun to criticize it.
