While awareness of transgender issues has become more mainstream, there is still a lot to be learned about what the trans experience is like — which was the thinking of Searah Deysach, a Chicago business owner, who is making waves for selling silicone penises for transgender and gender non-conforming kids as young as 5. And while Deysach sells these products with the intention of helping trans kids better express their gender, she's facing a strong pushback online from people who think she's way out of line.
Searah is mother to a gender-non-conforming child and sells "expression gear" for trans kids on her website Tranzkids.biz
The TranzKids site, says that their purpose is to be a place of support for families with trans children:
"After years of helping adults find high-quality gender expression gear, she saw the need for a site and store that focused more on kids and their unique needs. Searah hopes that all parents coming here can trust that this is a safe and affirming place, where helping your kids live fully and embodied is our only goal."
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The prosthetics are meant to help kids with their gender expression.
"Packing" is a common practice of wearing a prosthetic penis or padding to give the appearance of having a penis. On Deysach's website, she notes that while many kids don't start thinking about this until they are older, some do, and she wanted these products to be available to them.
The site goes on to explain that these prosthetics are 100 percent silicone, and while The Mini (left) is meant for kids ages 5-8, The Teeny Tiny (right) is meant for 5 year olds. The site also offers "Stand-to-Pee" devices for youngsters who were born female but wish to stand up while urinating. Deysach tells CafeMom the products exist solely to "help transgender kids to feel at home in their own bodies."
However, not everyone agrees that these prosthetics are the right way for kids to express their gender identity.
Many criticized the products, saying kids are too young to fully understand or experiment with gender.
But others are defending Desaych, arguing that she is doing young trans kids an important service.
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"They are aids to help children with gender issues feel normal," this person writes.
CafeMom reached out Searah for her response to the backlash against her products, and she explained that her products "came about because parents were looking for gender expression gear to help their kids feel at peace."
"Most transgender kids are classified as such because they are insistent, consistent, and persistent in their identification as a gender other than what a doctor said they were at birth," she explained. "In recent years, parents and doctors have finally started to listen to their kids when they say who they are, instead of compounding distress by insisting that everyone else knows better than the kids themselves … Critics accuse trans advocates of forcing gender nonconformity on kids, but in fact, the vast preponderance of force around kids’ gender comes from parents and others who force kids, sometimes even violently, to conform to dominant gendered expectations."
