It’s the idiot parents pushing this disgusting stuff so they can get attention. Nothing unusual about a young child saying he wants to be something he is not — the opposite sex, a superhero, a dog, etc. It is a momentary flight of fancy.
Good example occurred in my house recently. I was babysitting two of my grandsons, when the younger one, 2 1/2, handed me a piece of string that had a loop in it that vaguely resembled a bow. He asked me to put it in his hair so that he could be a “gale”. I complied, he looked in the mirror to see himself, and then he was back to dressing as Darth Vader, leaving behind his brief life as a girl.
Too many idiot parents make something of this sort of exchange. I guess too many of them are so obsessed with sex, that it tints their thinking. My grandson’s “gale” association was based merely on the fact that he saw a pattern — the bow — that he associates with a girl’s attire; he is not even thinking about sex organs. He is much too young to make such associations.
Same kid, BTW, when asked, told me he knows that my dog is a boy because of his collar. :)
I know, right? When our kid was 11, he believed one of our cats was "African-American" because her fur was brown and black. (Which was fine with us, btw. But if he had said she was a male, there would have been a teachable moment.)