Where are the parents in this? Do they not see how much they are screwing up their son's life? My older daughter went through a phase where she wanted to BE a horse. We smiled and let her work through it, not demand that everyone treat her as one. Kids go through phases and the best thing a parent can do is let them enjoy their fantasy but keep them in real life
So as a teacher, when I have this type of kid, is he a he? or a her? or a shem? What about when he wears pants? Is he a boy or a girl that day?
Geez parents let their kids have too much control over their world.
Aside from body image stuff, is there any other instance in which we indulge obviously delusional people? If I insisted I were Napoleon, would they let me rule France?
I hesitate to make such an accusation. We don't really know the details of the case -- the kid probably is a psychological mess, and there could even be physiological reasons behind it. Or it could all be a ploy ... but why would the parents do that?
As an example, I'm thinking of "Tula" (Carolyn Cossey), a transsexual who actually posed in Playboy, back in the early '90s. He/she started life as a hermaphrodite, and her parents were given the choice between "boy" and "girl." They chose "boy," but Cossey later said he/she was really a girl inside....
Who's to say what's right, in a situation like that?