I've recently joined a blogging group and our very first project is a two-week series on Biblical Relationships. I have a lot of totally different things to share over the next ten week days, but this week is primarily going to be about one thing: Relationship with Self.

I wrote this out as one long post and I'm breaking it up into four, plus a day that's just an interview with my mom. I had started thinking about this topic totally apart from the blogging project when I read a post over at The American Conservative, from Rod Dreher. His post is here. In the post, he links to a Washington Post article titled "Transgender at Five."

I recommend reading them if you have the time, but if not, I'll briefly summarize: The article is about a family dealing with a very young child who is diagnosed with gender dysphoria and, though born a female, begins preschool life as a male-- this includes registration as a boy for school and gymnastics, a short haircut, a new name, etc. The parents discuss issues that they haven't had to deal with yet, but may have to in the future, such as hormone repression during puberty and hormone therapy afterward.

When I read both of those things a few weeks ago, my first reaction was to post a comment on Rod Dreher's post. My iPod was giving me trouble so I ended up deciding I had too much to say in a mere comment anyway. It needed it's own post-- I needed to write a full post (or two, or three) about it-- and I thought it fit well into this Biblical Relationships series.

Gender dysphoria is the name given to a condition diagnosed by psychologists and doctors in those people with a profound discontent with their natural (i.e., biological) gender. Very young children are being diagnosed with this and are labeled "transgender."

I was never diagnosed with gender dysphoria as a child, and cannot say for certain I would have been, but I strongly identified with the child in the Washington Post story. The article made me think about things I hadn't thought of in years. I'll post the first part of the things it brought to mind on Tuesday.

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This is part of a two week series on Biblical Relationships that I'm doing with a network of bloggers! Check out their daily (or almost-daily!) posts on Biblical Relationships at these links!