This study follows the development of gender identity in three boys from the age of 10 to 20. Each of the boys fitted the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder as each wished to be a girl and preferred to dress as a girl and two gave themselves girls' names. Through acceptance by the teachers at their small independent schools and a policy of protecting them from teasing, all three were able to arrive at a secure sense of their own masculinity by their mid-teens. From an examination of these cases it is suggested that this disorder is better viewed as a developmental lag which can be pathologized by intolerance and the huge pressure on boys to conform to the masculine stereotype.
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