Identity Checkup

The 15-Minute Transgender Consult

Jessica was one of my patients on a busy day in the clinic. Self-conscious about her weight and the fashion limitations of her socioeconomic class, Jessica clearly fell somewhere among the vulnerable lower rung of the junior-high-school cultural food chain. As her single and disabled custodial grandmother spoke, Jessica sat motionless, arms crossed, staring furiously at the floor. From a previous visit I had discerned that in the gray zone of adolescence, her emotional maturity lagged toward the child end of the spectrum, a place I wish young patients like her could be left in peace, unmolested, to naturally mature at a slower pace than some of their peers. But seeing her adult woman’s body and the smartphone clutched in her hand,...