Recent years have seen an unprecedented paradigm shift wherein pathologizing approaches to caring for trans children have been contested by efforts to accept and affirm trans children as their self-determined gender. This has resulted in a mainstreaming of gender affirming and de-pathologizing approaches to caring for trans children. While gender affirming care undoubtedly benefits many trans children, this research analyzes the ways in which practices and delivery of gender affirming care can be exclusionary of children who do not fit within a normative, binary, medicalized, white, and middle-class conceptualization of trans childhood. Applying critical social citizenship as a theoretical framework, this research argues that care for trans children is shaped through a complex interweaving of normative liberal citizenship regimes, professional and social care practices, and relational care practices that seek to recognize and create space for children to belong as their self-determined gender. Using a community-based research methodology to engage with trans youth and supportive parent caregivers around their experiences of care, this study sought to a) better understand how the contested landscape of care impacts the lives of trans children and b) offer possibilities for transforming care for trans children. Centring the voices and experiences of trans youth and parents, this research argues that trans children face exclusions and barriers when accessing care. This research then discusses what relational care practices, as shared in participant narratives, offer for envisioning care possibilities that centre trans children’s agency and gender self-determination. The outcome of this research is a vision of care for trans children that is rearticulated through a critical theorization of trans children’s citizenship. / Graduate

Dans les dernières années, plusieurs débats autour de la transition sociale à l’enfance ont émergé tant des sphères publiques, cliniques et scientifiques. Or, peu d’écrits mettent en lumière les expériences de transition de jeunes enfants, et plus particulièrement de leur point de vue. Ainsi, ce projet de mémoire vise à explorer les expériences de transition d’enfants trans prépubères ayant accès à des cliniques transaffirmatives au Canada selon leurs perspectives ainsi que celles de leurs parents. À partir de données extraites d’une recherche plus large menée par Annie Pullen Sansfaçon et plusieurs autres co-chercheur·e·s au Canada, nous avons analysé huit (N=8) entretiens qualitatifs semi-dirigés menés auprès de quatre enfants trans prépubères et de leurs parents en contexte clinique transaffirmatif. L’analyse des entretiens s’est appuyée sur la théorie de la reconnaissance d’Axel Honneth et l’analyse thématique (AT). Ainsi, cinq thèmes qui décrivent les expériences de transition des enfants trans prépubères de notre échantillon ont été identifiés : (1) se dévoiler à ses parents en étant simplement soi-même; (2) le processus de transition en dehors de la maison : un processus de négociation et d’accompagnement; (3) l’école comme principal lieu de tensions; (4) s’affirmer à travers le processus de transition : répercussions des obstacles et retombées positives; et (5) se projeter dans l’avenir : la transition médicale. La compréhension de ces expériences de transition permet de mieux cadrer les interventions des professionnel·le·s dans un contexte d’affirmation des identités et des expressions de genre, d’accompagnement des familles et de défense des droits des enfants dans différentes institutions. / In recent years, several debates around social transitions in early childhood have emerged from public, clinical and scientific spheres. However, little has been published about the children’s transition experiences, particularly from their perspectives. Thus, this research project aims to explore the transition experiences of trans prepubertal children who have access to gender- affirming clinics in Canada from their and their parents’ perspectives. Using data extracted from a larger study conducted by Annie Pullen Sansfaçon and several other co-investigators in Canada, we analysed eight (N=8) semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with four trans prepubertal children and their parents in a gender-affirming clinical setting. Data analysis was based on Axel Honneth’s recognition theory as well as on thematic analysis (TA). We identified five themes that describe the transition experiences of the trans prepubertal children in our sample: (1) revealing oneself to their parents by simply being themselves; (2) the transition process outside of the home: a process of negotiation and accompaniment; (3) school as the main site of tensions; (4) asserting oneself through the transition process: repercussions of obstacles and positive outcomes; and (5) looking ahead into the future: the medical transition. Understanding these transition experiences allows us to better frame the interventions of professionals in a context of affirming gender identities and expressions, accompanying families and defending children’s rights in different institutions.