ABSTRACT
Practices of parenting and the notion of acting in the best interest of the child have undergone drastic changes. Children’s rights and parental responsibilities are globally negotiated concepts whose knowledge has been widely disseminated in the digital age. Parents of trans children have to rethink their parental duties. Documentaries, autobiographies, and postings on social media have created a new awareness about gender diversity on a global level. Highly developed feasibility in medicine and reclassification of gender incongruence as gender variance pose new challenges for parents. What does it mean to act in the best interests of the child? Should parents consent to the medical gender transition of their minor child? Does parental support for transition mean a health risk for the child? Should they rather keep their child from medical interventions, even though they trust his or her self-assessment and the right to bodily autonomy? Parents have to come to terms with the fact that gender variance is now acknowledged by some but highly contested by others. Trans activists have achieved considerable success in their fight for transgender equality, human rights, and the right to self-identify one’s gender. Criticism comes, among others, from trans-exclusionary radical feminists, in whose eyes male individuals use transgender identity to intrude women’s spaces.
