What is the general view on here when it comes to medical transitioning for children under the age of 18?
What do you consider to be ethical?
What are some good points I can tell folks who tell me “BUT THE LEFT WANTS TO LET CHILDREN TRANSITION!?!”.
If we lived in a world where being trans was something people understood, someone could have looked at me at 12 and said “hey that sounds like trans stuff, let me ask you some questions about gender”.
This this this!
I knew since I was in elementary school it wasn’t socially acceptable for me to wear a dress because I saw no other boys wearing one. So I crafted elaborate fantasies where I was “forced” to wear girls clothes because I couldn’t bear the idea of being responsible for wanting to be feminine.
I’m well into my adult life now and finally accepted myself, and a really backhanded compliment I got was “at least now that you’re older you know what you want”. Thankfully I was very willing to point out to them: what if I had seen so many other boys my age wearing dresses? What if being trans was normalized then? I guarantee I would’ve started presenting as a girl as a early as elementary school if I didn’t feel like I would’ve been judged or punished for it. Then I would’ve had years before puberty to discern whether this was something I wanted to commit to.
So yeah, the idea that kids can’t make those decisions is completely transphobic. No one should have a problem with stalling puberty; if they’re too young to decide, then their body shouldn’t make that decision for them. It’s literally a question of bodily autonomy that no one else should have the right to decide.
Tons of kids go through puberty at the age of 12 without a fuss. I honestly think they should have the right to choose which one, or to block it for the moment and decide later.
Every kid is gonna go through puberty eventually, we just want to make sure trans people go through the right one. For every cis kid who is “just confused” and regrets taking hormones to transition, there are thousands of trans kids forced to experience the wrong puberty due to societal barriers.
The mainstream way to do this is to use puberty blockers til 18 then HRT, but some people transition earlier than that if they can and I’m super jealous tbh.
I was on the wrong hormones til about age 21 (testosterone, naturally) and its done permanent damage to my body (especially my voice, male puberty lowers your voice but female puberty doesnt raise it). I really wish I had access to hormonal resources much earlier
Children should definitely be able to take hormone blockers and transition when it’s appropriate to have puberty. Cis children have hormonal treatment all the time. One of my cis brothers took spironolactone (a testosterone blocker) for his acne.
Conservatives scaremonger about endocrinology because the vast majority of the population doesn’t know shit. Trans kids get consultation and treatment from professional endocrinologists, and the treatment is just as safe as any other puberty.
That said, most endos just put kids on blockers up until they’re 18 and then move on to estrogen and testosterone from there through informed consent.
