Dr. Phil episode finally going to show

[kayleighsmom]

It's scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 1/17 if anyone is interested in seeing it!

Hope everyone is happy and well this New Years!

Linda

[Priestess]

I've never actually watched the Dr Phil show before, though sometimes people make somewhat negative comments about him. Do you think the show went well and is well worth the watching?

[Kailana]

Hiya Linda, thank you for posting, i will try to watch it tomorrow. I hope things are going well with the family. I know you have been wondering when they were gonna air this taping, as you made it 3-4 months ago. I imagine it has been trying, waiting, did they call you or did you have to call them to see when they were going to air this episode?

Sorry for pestering, im just curious?

Take care and best wishes to all of you.

[Priestess]

Hmm, Dr Phil is calling this show "Gender Identity Crisis" ... sounds ominous. I hope he doesn't spin things in ways you never intended. It's on in a couple of hours, here.

[Priestess]

My thoughts on the show, which I'm jotting down during commercials ...

First guest, Cameron Cardoza; f2m ts, apparently pre-testosterone, many naive ideas. Actually sounds like he's asking for Dr Phil's permission. Too bad he didn't get any.

Second subject, Stephanie * ;teenage m2f trans, short interview with the mid-west dang y'all rednecks who're outraged by this.

Aww, Kayleigh is cute. Linda, that's terrible that the doctors call her "it". I know they call me an "it", but I'm an adult so they probably think I can take it. At least Dr Phil had a semi-sensible attitude re: that not all girls are the same; tomboys do exist. Though he had the biology down a bit wrong, puberty isn't going to virilize someone with CAIS.

Overall, I guess Dr Phil was somewhat supportive, especially considering his reputation. Though I'm wondering what sort of advice the "Dr Phil advisory board" hands out :redface:

Even my mother had a positive reaction to your segment Linda, which is most of a miracle. Maybe by actually seeing the face of another parent who's child was born IS, she might lighten up on me a little bit. She wanted me to pass a question along to you, whether there's any RH pos/neg conflicts for Kayleigh? She's been trying to blame my condition and some unspecified birth condition of my sister's on RH. If I can tell her that there's no conflict for Kayleigh, then I can ease her mind a bit ...

4'th guest, Christa the (boring) "lesbian" m2f; interview was too short to form any opinions.

[kayleighsmom]

Although the show was edited so that the full story wasn't explained, I do understand they were under some time constraints. I have been on the Dr.phil message board and it's been pretty positive. And boy did my phone start to ring!

I'm glad your mom saw the show and hopefully will ease up on you a bit. And nope, no RH problems in our family and I have 12 aunts and uncles!

I was expecting a little more negativity and I'm sure that is to come, but I'm just planning on keeping a positive attitude along with a little humor due to the fact that most people are ignorant on the subject.

thanks for your support sweetie and let me know what your mom says!

Hugs,

Linda

[kayleighsmom]

Krista and the wife were so sweet,

Their two children were Abby and Kiley - my daughers Abby and Kayleigh LOL! They got to play together backstage and the girls both told me "matter of fact" Momma they have 2 mommies! and then back to regular convo.

Children are so accepting of things that are not of "the norm" that I'm in awe of them.

[kayleighsmom]

I know, it was totally tortuous waiting. Especially when they started showing repeats from this season. I'm thinking, "oh well, not interesting enough to air!" LOL But they finally called me and I was pretty shocked. We actually taped the show waaaaay back in mid-Sept. But I'm kinda glad because it gave some certain family members much time to prepare.

Hope you are well!

Linda

[Peter]

Hi Linda,

I saw the show. Thanks ever so much for having the courage to appear on the Dr. Phil show. I remember that a few years ago, it was through watching a day time television show, that I got up the courage to search the Internet for more information about my body.

I do find Dr. Phil to be generally well meaning, but he can be annoying at times. The show was on Gender Identity Crisis. For instance, earlier in the show, there was another brave person named Cameron who as discussing being FtM. At one point, going along the Cameron's relatives' concerns, Dr. Phil told Cameron that he should seek try prayer and a spiritual approach to his situation. How does Dr. Phil know that SRS surgery will not be the answer to all of Cameron's prayers?

Here is what I remember of the episode for people who did not see it. Dr. Phil started the segment on Kayleigh by saying that next up he would be talking with the parents of a four year old who thinks she is a boy. Then Dr. Phil introduced Linda and Jim, who as many BLO regulars already know, are the parents of Kayleigh. They showed pictures of the family, including Linda and Jims' beautiful daughters. Dr. Phil explained that Kayleigh was born with AIS. He said that Kayleigh had XY chromosomes and no uterus. He continued that Kayleigh was asking questions as to whether she would ever grow a penis, or develop along boy lines. Linda said that she was considering surgery for Kayleigh's undescended testicles. My personal thoughts about these questions, are that if the doctors have done a good medical workup of Kayleigh's AIS, they should be able to provide Kayleigh and her parents with pretty good answers to her questions.

The most powerful part of the episode for me, was when Linda, in a strong voice, said that she is really upset when doctors refer to Kayleigh as "It". She looked straight into the camera, and said, "She is not an it".

Dr. Phil then tried to give some advice. He mentioned that AIS occurs in about 1 in 20,000 births. He said that lots of AIS women go male later because of XY chromosomes. I don't believe that it is accurate to say that most women with CAIS later go male. I think that Dr. Phil is learning more about AIS, but that he is still in an early stage of the learning curve. He seemed well meaning, but not very knowledgeable about AIS. I don't know where Dr. Phil is getting his medical advice, but he did mention a Dr. Phil Advisory Board.

I liked Jim, who as Kayleigh's father said that he was in favor of a wait and see approach to bringing up Kayleigh. He mentioned that how Kayleigh decided to live was "ultimately her decision to make".

I was really impressed with Linda and Jim, and wish their daughter Kayleigh all the best.


Peter

[kayleighsmom]

Thanks so much for your feedback. The part about the surgery bugged me because I did say that I wouldn't do any surgery until and unless it was "medically necessary", but it was edited out. Plus, Jim did say more than the one sentence! LOL But I understand with time contraints, etc.

I do think they tried to "fit" Kayleigh into the show by making it seem possible that she could PHYSICALLY change genders, but I'm a laid back person and I don't mind explaining.

We've gotten a lot more extended family support and some good resources as to what to tell her when. You know, the age appropriateness of it?

Thanks again for your positive feed back!

Linda

[sparklingdreams]

I'm just writing to say thank you Linda, thanks to all three of you,

I didn't see your episode, sadly I've just now read your post. It was very kind of you to go on such an open forum. I feel I need to thank Kayleigh the most though. I think he was very strong and brave to be so open about how he felt, and about Kayleigh's statement about the little girl "having two mommies", how cute is that. I feel for you about Kayleigh being called an "it", sadly I feel for him the most. I was called an "it" as long as an I remember, by the family & Doctors, and I can't forget how that felt. Kayleigh is very lucky to have you both as parents, especially to help him as he deals with healing as he becomes a teenager. I think you're so wonderful to be supportive of how Kayleigh feels enough to be open to helping him. Its wonderful that you recognise that Kayleigh know how he feels & who he is, better than anyone else ever could. And its so wonderful that you're being brave enough to handle this now. You're saving him from years of trauma that would only haunt him. So for that I thank you. Please thank Kayleigh, for me, for being so strong & brave and going on t.v. to tell everyone who he is. Take care & again thank you all.

[Sara Zeal]

I'm just writing to say thank you Linda, thanks to all three of you,

I didn't see your episode, sadly I've just now read your post. It was very kind of you to go on such an open forum. I feel I need to thank Kayleigh the most though. I think he was very strong and brave to be so open about how he felt, and about Kayleigh's statement about the little girl "having two mommies", how cute is that. I feel for you about Kayleigh being called an "it", sadly I feel for him the most. I was called an "it" as long as an I remember, by the family & Doctors, and I can't forget how that felt. Kayleigh is very lucky to have you both as parents, especially to help him as he deals with healing as he becomes a teenager. I think you're so wonderful to be supportive of how Kayleigh feels enough to be open to helping him. Its wonderful that you recognise that Kayleigh know how he feels & who he is, better than anyone else ever could. And its so wonderful that you're being brave enough to handle this now. You're saving him from years of trauma that would only haunt him. So for that I thank you. Please thank Kayleigh, for me, for being so strong & brave and going on t.v. to tell everyone who he is. Take care & again thank you all.

Hmm is it just me who thinks nearly all the pronouns here refer to masculine when you speak of Kayleigh while kayleighsmom said, just on the first page my daughers Abby and Kayleigh

I personally don't mind, but I think it can be offensive, though I doubt Kayleigh herself would complain about pronouns on a forum, at 4 years old.

[Sara Zeal]

I'm retracting myself on previous post, I'd kill for an edit function lol. Anyway, I didn't hear about the episode and I went on Dr Phil's board (and read the entire 50+ page forum) and I can understand where Katy comes from with the male pronouns. Sorry for saying anything bad about it.

[Dr_Owl]

Hmm, Dr Phil is calling this show "Gender Identity Crisis" ... sounds ominous. I hope he doesn't spin things in ways you never intended. It's on in a couple of hours, here.

Hello,
Watch out for any TV Show. I once worked for a Television Station for 5.5yrs

Any TV show might film your ideas and views for half the day but chop them into about 10 minutes of Show. Normaly they will put on air every possible horrible thing about you they can. Just so they can top the ratings.

They dont care what you want to say to tell the public a message. They will bend anything you say to suit themselves.

So just watch out.

Andrew