joe maldonado

Joe Maldonado, the 8-year-old transgender boy barred from his local Cub Scout pack in Secaucus.

(Corey McDonald | The Jersey Journal)

SECAUCUS -- Recently, 8-year-old Joe Maldonado and his mother, Kristie, have been sent to the forefront of the national debate over transgender rights.

But even they, like many others, have some difficulty pinning down its proper psychological definition.

"It's hard to explain," Joe says in his living room as he plays with his family's 3-month-old rescue dog, Oreo. "You know I actually have a disease to make me feel like I'm a boy..."

Joe has garnered extensive media attention after it was reported that he had been barred from his local Cub Scout pack because he was born a girl but identifies as a boy.

"No, that's not a disease," Kristie tells him.

"No it is!" Joe replies in what is becoming a heated debate inside the apartment.

"Where are you getting your information from, huh?" Kristie asks.

"I'm dead serious!" Joe says. "I looked on YouTube!"

Historically, the boy is not far off the mark.

Until recently, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) -- the American Psychiatric Association's classification and diagnostic tool covering a wide variety of mental conditions -- classified transgender individuals as having Gender Identity Disorder, a mental illness.

"It's not really a disease, it's just... I don't know how to explain it," Joe told The Jersey Journal in an interview. "It's just a thing that you don't feel comfortable with being a girl."

The DSM classified transgender individuals with having a mental illness up until 2013, when it was most recently updated. It now classifies these individuals with having what's known as "gender dysphoria" -- a condition characterized by the stress, anxiety, and depression that an individual may feel in relation to their gender.

"In terms of the gender dysphoria diagnosis, the only thing you get diagnosed with is that if you have stress about the tension between your sex assigned at birth, and the gender you know yourself to be," said Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D., a developmental and clinical psychologist, and founding member of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center in San Francisco.

The "dysphoria" those individuals may experience with their conflicting sex and gender can be so intense that it can interfere with the way they function at school or during social activities.

While professionals like Ehrensaft say this diagnosis is an upgrade from its classification prior to 2013, they say there is still room for improvement.

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It's hard to imagine that an 8-year-old wouldn't incur some level of stress from identifying as a gender different from his or her biological sex. But for Joe, much of that is external stress, such as societal pressures and expectations.

His initial "transition" began in early 2015, when he was still known as Jodi and decided to cut his hair. However, his mother said she suspected something was amiss even earlier.

"When you say transition ... it's been a long time," his mother said. "It's always been there. Are you going by when his name got changed? He could've gotten that done years before that. He wanted to get a haircut -- it took me a year to say yes to that."

Naturally, he experienced some trouble at school. His classmates would ask him if he was a boy -- and if so, why. Kristie remembers him having "a huge anxiety attack" after walking into the school's crowded lunchroom with his hoodie up after the haircut.

She also recalls an end-of-the-year school photo in which Joe was placed in the girls group. While everybody was gleefully smiling, Joe was looking away from the camera, not particularly happy to be forced into a group he didn't identify with.

He started seeing a counselor to help with what he was experiencing.

"I guess I was looking for more of an answer. I don't know -- confirmation, in a sense -- even though I knew it was there," Kristie said. "I just wanted him to speak to somebody about how he felt."

After first grade ended in June 2015, Joe's counselor recommended getting support from Garden State Equality, which could help with his transition.

They spoke with Aaron Potenza, the director of programs for Garden State Equality, who began working not only with the teachers and administration at Joe's school, but with the whole district.

"I attended a conference with (Kristie) and Joe and the school administration, and they were interested in hearing what the best practices are in working with transgender youth," Potenza said.

Joe continued to see his counselor, and in September 2015 -- before he started the second grade -- he and his mother decided he would go by Joe.

"He just decided one day, 'I would like my name changed to Joe,'" Kristie said.

While Joe certainly went through trouble initially in school, he said his past two years in school have been just fine, which Ehrensaft said is something she often sees among children who have strong support.

"We have many children at our clinic who are happy campers," she said. "As long as they've been allowed to live in a gender that's authentic, and they are supported in doing that, they do not have gender dysphoria. They are composed, integrated, and happy.

"They may have some pushback from the culture," she added. "But I've seen so many kids -- as long as the social support is in place -- that are doing fine."

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That peace wouldn't last.

Joe joined the local Cub Scout troop and was enjoying it -- something Kristie says she was originally cautious of, given the organization's troubled history with gay members and scouting leaders. Joe, however, was initially accepted.

Kristie then received a call in October asking if her child was named Jodi. The official with the Northern New Jersey Council for the BSA told her of their regulations -- that girls couldn't join and that Joe would have to leave the organization, she said.

Frustrated, Kristie contemplated legal action, but decided it wasn't the right way to go about the issue.

"It was just not worth it," Kristie said. "My last words were, 'You know what, then I don't want my child in this organization.'"

But when she went public with the story, she was surprised by the backlash on online and on social media.

"People think that this is permanent," Kristie said. "They think 'What if he wants to change his name back?' Then okay fine! Sure, you want to go back? Not a problem. I didn't do anything legally (to change his name or sex)."

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Kristie and Joe -- along with everyone else -- may not have an answer for some time.

The DSM is always being updated as research furthers the field's understanding of its classifications, but there is no recurring time period for updates. Homosexuality was even classified as a mental disorder by the DSM up until 1973.

Professionals say that the Gender Dysphoria classification may not be necessary.

"There are many who say 'We shouldn't have any diagnosis at all,'" Ehrensaft said. "Anything that suggests that there is a mental health issue, or a mental illness issue about being gender non-conforming, will be stigmatizing and will have negative consequences -- as in what's happening with the Boy Scouts."

Others agree, and say that the classification may even complicate a psychologist's treatment of an individual.

"The DSM didn't have to say 'Gender Dysphoria.' It could have just left it as a depressive disorder," said Denise Paulson, a licensed psychologist with a private practice in Verona. "It's one of those cases where -- I don't think society is ready to de-pathologize transgender issues."

"It's not a disorder, it's not a disease, it's just something in my brain -- I just don't feel comfortable being a girl," Joe says to his mother back in their home.

"And guess what? You don't really need to answer anybody about how you feel," Kristie tells her son. "That's your business how you feel inside. You shouldn't care what people think. Doesn't change their life -- how you feel -- does it? No. How you feel is how you live and what makes you happy."

"Yeah. I don't think I'm ever going to feel like a girl again," Joe says.

"That's OK," Kristie reassures him. "And if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't."