This is an uncomfortable conversation that needs to be had, but it sadly likely won’t until too many lives have been irreplaceably altered.

Now firstly, I support trans people! I support all LGBTQ+ people, and Cis Straight people, to find themselves and be themselves and accept themselves for who they are! People need to learn to love themselves and not need to change to find happiness. Trans people are unfortunately stuck in a body that doesn’t match their brain so they need to change to become who they are inside. Just as everyone’s fingerprints are unique, everyone’s brains are unique, and sometimes the brain is so different from their sex that they need to transition to truly be themselves. But IMO not all people who say they are trans actually are, let me explain why.

People want to support minorities, and lonely people want to find a community that will support them. So some people will surely become a minority just for the social support being a minority offers, not necessarily because they actually are that minority but they may convince themselves that is the case even if they aren’t. But the issue is there’s no easy way to know who’s who in this situation, and it’s arguably not our business to challenge them in their personal decisions. These are lonely people who need people to hear them and be their friends regardless of what they choose to do, and people who preach anti-trans arguments often aren’t able to do that and instead are very hateful.

People today are lonely, in large part because of social media’s affect on our psych. And what support is there for straight cisgender people? Essentially none. Especially white straight cisgender people who are practically seen as the “bad guys” throughout history (Which isn’t necessarily an unfair assessment considering what Europe has historically done to basically everyone (including each other for that matter) but that was largely the actions of the wealthy few again). Why do so many kids and adults commit suicide? Where’s the support network for people who need it regardless of minority/majority status? Real life social networks are dying. I’m sure there is some support, but it’s not as visible to those who need it.

There’s a conversation that needs to be had which is being shutdown because of the “look everyone a bigot(!)” mentality that bringing this up has. However, there’s no simple way I can see to really separate that honest discussion from those who do want to ban the practice entirely, so it’s understandable why the reaction is the way it is. It really is a shitshow from all sides. (Transitioning should not be banned BTW in case I haven’t made it clear that that’s my position.)

I think that some kids should be allowed to transition, based on their physicians and families assessments of the situation. But in the end it’s not my business if someone believes they truly need to transition to be happy. I do think currently too many are transitioning because it’s become the new social fad like being goth or emo, though perhaps I’m wrong. But if I’m right than it’s a lot harder to reverse being trans, if it’s possible at all.

Personally, I’m just dropping the subject IRL because of the reaction that happens after any mention of that honest concern comes out.

I expect someone will say I’m a bigot just for this comment showing any concern at all that too many people think they’re trans and are harming themselves long term. My goal is the largest amount of happy people who love themselves as possible. And sometimes in trying to do that society inadvertently causes some people unnecessary suffering as I’m sure is the case here, but there’s nothing we can really do about it, it is what it is. So just love everyone and accept everyone and do your own thing. Things will work out for most people in the end if you just accept people and don’t worry about things. Which is what I try to do.

It’s so funny to me this person don’t ever seem to have the same concerns about the nose jobs, boob jobs, lip enhancements, etc that are also being done on teens AND CHILDREN. I hear nothing from you about the performance enhancing drugs for teenage boys, or the altering of the bodies of gymnasts who also start in their early childhood. In the case of the latter, they get stunted growth because the intensive amount of training affects hormones and delays puberty. Gee what other thing that you argue about sounds similar to that?

Maybe you didn’t know about those things before. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But now I fully expect that you go to all of gymnastics forums where they’re talking about young female gymnasts and male athletes,l and tell them that you don’t think they should do those sports anymore. You’re totally going to do that right? Right?

The problem is that there’s a very big difference between wanting a blanket ban on transition preparation and wanting the actual people involved (the trans kid, the parents, and the doctors) to do a better job of evaluating the situation and working out the best path for each case.

While your opinion may be more reasonable you should be careful to not assume they share your opinion. A lot of people don’t realize that the common choice for “transition” treatments for teens does not transition them, but rather delays/suppresses puberty in such a way that they can choose which way to go at a later time. Banning this treatment forces a choice and disallows a trans person’s ability to fully transition once of age.

See the problem here is that you forgot that opinions are only allowed to include concerns or nuances that are on the approved list.

Anything you might be concerned about that isn’t on the approved list puts you straight into wrongthink, double plus ungood.

Ah yes the great source of the New York post. I don’t think you are being harmful on purpose but I do believe that by spreading shit like this you are harming trans people. There is no trans epidemic or social fad. That opinion is absolutely ridiculous. I have a close family member who is trans and the difficulty of even getting hormones is extreme. Multiple meetings with psychologists and endocrinologist, many exams and paperwork, not even mentioning the bureaucracy you have to deal with afterwards. And this is as an adult, transitioning as a minor is way way harder. No one just gets transitioned in an accident, and 99% don’t regret it. Now on the flip side 30-50% of trans kids want to commit suicide due to societal pressure and bullying. The only „cure“ for gender dysphoria is, shocking I know, transitioning. So when people say to protect trans kids, it’s literally protecting them from self harm or from getting attacked. Also, do you really think that more people identify as trans because it’s a „fad“ or maybe it’s because your can finally openly talk about it! It’s like saying that the rise of left handed people after them not being retrained in school anymore is a social fad. It’s a stupid opinion. Whenever you have more societal acceptance of something more people will feel safe coming out. I understand that some people are scared of their kids being transed by the woke liberal teachers but the same people also think that Obama turned the frogs gay.

because transphobes are just people with different opinions

._.

If that medical opinion wasn’t backed up by doctors and the majority of the medical community, I’d imagine that opinion probably would be.

If your goal is to have a safe space for an oppressed minority group to express themselves, allowing transphobes to go about “just asking questions” and harassing people shuts down conversation of a group that actually has their freedom of expression threatened. Allowing harassment is more censorship than banning it. And no one should have the expectation of being able to just go into anyone’s house and shit on their floor without consequence. And that might mean being banned from going to all of their friend’s houses as well.