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Some time back my (Male) nephew stayed at our house for 2 weeks on the school term break , at the time my daughter had an old wig that was of no use to her sitting on the floor of her room.
As kids do , he put it on and played with it for a while , at the end of his stayover he asked my daughter if he could keep the wig and he did so.
Last year he was caught wearing the wig at home when he thought there was nobody at home , his mother became suspicious and phoned my wife for advice who then informed me.
My thoughts at the time were of some suspicion but more likely theres nothing in it other than a child playing around .
Yesterday we visited my sister-in-law + mother-in-laws house where my nephew and niece live , his father called in for a brief visit and at the point of leaving he told his son to get a haircut , to which he replied " why? , I like it long" and that started an argumentive debate between my wife and mother-in-law , afterwhich we left and returned home with my wife feeling rather annoyed at their attitude.
None of the above prove that he is TG inclined , however I will be monitoring his behaviour , if the day comes where he starts dressing in his sisters clothing etc , then it may be nessesary for me to come out to my inlaws. I don't want him to be supressed by family narrow mindedness , I will be there for support along with my wife , if things develop further.

He may just like having long hair.

Long hair is rebellious and thus masculine for many boys.

Or you can consider the story of Samson.....

Zari

Absaroka wrote:Long hair is rebellious and thus masculine for many boys.

Hi Zari,

He shows no signs of rebellion and he's not a rough nut kid , he avoided his father for a while because he didn't like his fathers macho activities.
I think there is a difference between just wanting your hair long and staring into the mirror time after time with a wig on your head , but as I said , this all may prove to be nothing , time will tell.

Hi Merinda.

Well, I am not saying that you should "come out" if in fact your nephew is "one of us." I think you could support him without outing yourself if that is not what you wish.

If you don't know his father very well, he is the one I would keep an eye on as you stated he is "macho" and if he would not accept his son as being CD/TS/TG he could make things tough on the kid.

Please keep us posted on how all this develops.

Virginia

There is one other thing that doesn't add up here ........

My son had much longer hair when he was of that age , Grandma was fully accepting of his new look , now the grandson on the other side of her family attempts to grow it long and he is met with a major adverse confrontation .

Why ???

Whats changed to cause this ???

Are there things going on that I don't know about ???

there is usually something we don't know................

I guess what I am reacting to is the assumption that such and such an activity (wig and hair) might mean a certain thing (CD tendencies) when it could mean a great many other things as well. Since 12 to 18 is a rough period for boys I think what he needs is the knowledge that whatever it is that he is accepted with or without anyone knowing what if anything it means.

Zari

What Virginia said, "keep an eye on his father". In my case it

was keep an eye on his mother. Dad or Mom can make life

miserable for the boy and this is sad.

Maybe, someday, people will be more open to our way of life but

I really doubt it. As long as there are churches and groups that are

so against CD's, its hard for me to imagine much of a change for

many years.

There is some research that seems to show an extra long AR gene on the X chromosome is associated with some transgender behavior. IF ones mother carried that extra length, AND it was passed on not only to you but your siblings, and IF hormonal circumstance during development activated it in a child of your female sibling, THEN there would be a X-linked recessive gene that could account for higher incidence of transgender behavior in families. It was also found that in males the longer gene may have been the cause of less strong masculine behavioral connections, as shown by interactive brain scans and areas of the brain that activated to stimuli.

The genetic study was preliminary but included genetic samples from TS in multiple countries, as well as controls. They don't yet even have a suggestion of frequency.

Two references: (I believe Zoe Brain's blog (A. E. Brain) has either links or abstracts of these articles.)

Androgen Receptor Repeat Length Polymorphism Associated With Male-to-Female Transsexualism. Hare etal., Biological Psychiatry, 65:93-96.

A polymorphism of the CYP17 gene related to sex steroid metabolism is associated with female-to-male but not male-to-female transsexualism. Bentz, et.al, Fertility and Sterility 90(1):56-59. The latter might be of interest to anyone interested in "kinging".

Most still think that the root cause is in hormone release timing during fetal development making miscues in developmental order, but this would not account for TG feelings running in families. In that view, there could be degrees of transgendered feeling, that would account for differences between TG and TS. I suppose there could be a genetic basis to this aspect as well, but so far undiscovered.

Animal studies seem to show that short times between offspring may lead to gender confused individuals due to inadequate time for the mother to recover and re-establish normal homone and nutrition. Illnesses could also have a similar effect. Where there are litter births, then the offspring at the end of the shared cord is not only the runt but also often shows less aggressive behavior and is more apt to be confused about it's sexuality, i.e., a male adopting a passive female mating position. Of course people rarely have litters, (though quintuplates and the ocotmom may qualify ), but if a woman has children close together with little time for her body to recover, she may provide the same deficiences observed in animal litters. That was one reason I was interested in birth weight in an old post on this site.

Maybe if there is enough interest among geneticists, new information on genetic causes may be forthcoming.

So, dunno. Keep monitoring your nephew. Social isolation aspects might be most important here, not causes. If you can offer support to the kid without making his folks mad (and without outing yourself -- just be a good uncle), that would be good.

Carolynn

I don't think my having long hair when I was young had anything to do with my being a CD. It was just a way for me to express myself. It may be the same for your nephew.

My youngest son started letting his hair grow long in high school and kept it into his late 20's. He married at 18. He got his ears pierced and used to like wearing his wife's nylon shorts. Then he started with tats, tried piercing other parts of his body and shaved his head. Started building monster trucks, goin mudding, etc. He became a real redneck. He had me goin for awhile. He's 42 now. But, I was dormant for several years so who knows?

Maybe he's overcompensating, Wendae.

Earings and long hair were macho for me.

Zari

Dona that could very well be. As I've said in a previous post I wondered if it is genetic. An uncle on my father's side was a gay CD and an aunt on my mother's side was a lesbian. And then there is me. A triple whammie!