10-03-2017, 10:23 PM
I have a lot of sympathy for truly transgendered people. I also think that the transgendered issue is being badly handled by some on the side of the transgendered. I've read numerous opinion pieces, backed up by hundreds, if not thousands of comments, about a man who would not want to sleep with a transgendered woman because they are transgendered being a bigoted transphobe. In a similar vein they claim that sexual activity with a non surgically transitioned transgender person cannot, and should not, be considered homosexual activity because the partner does not identify as the gender of their biology. This, of course totally ignores that the perception of the non trans partner is equally valid as that of the trans person.
My biggest issue though, by far, is irreversible hormone treatments for minors who identify as transgender. This is relatively new, but done before puberty they cause permanent changes to a person's physiology and development. You can't vote, get a tattoo or even not go to school if you are under eighteen, but you can engage in voluntary medical treatment with permanent effects? We have a juvenile justice system solely because we've, correctly, determined that the brains of young people are not fully developed and their decision making cannot be held to the same level of accountability as an adult. Plus, who doesn't look back at how they thought or felt at 8, 10 or 12 and smiled about how naïve or immature we were to have the thoughts and beliefs we did at that age? Personally, I think any parent allowing these kind of treatments is engaging in a horrific form of child abuse. If the now minor becomes an adult and still feels the same way they have access to the ever improving medical means of transitioning. Allowing a child to undergo such radical, voluntary medical procedures is disturbing to me.
My biggest issue though, by far, is irreversible hormone treatments for minors who identify as transgender. This is relatively new, but done before puberty they cause permanent changes to a person's physiology and development. You can't vote, get a tattoo or even not go to school if you are under eighteen, but you can engage in voluntary medical treatment with permanent effects? We have a juvenile justice system solely because we've, correctly, determined that the brains of young people are not fully developed and their decision making cannot be held to the same level of accountability as an adult. Plus, who doesn't look back at how they thought or felt at 8, 10 or 12 and smiled about how naïve or immature we were to have the thoughts and beliefs we did at that age? Personally, I think any parent allowing these kind of treatments is engaging in a horrific form of child abuse. If the now minor becomes an adult and still feels the same way they have access to the ever improving medical means of transitioning. Allowing a child to undergo such radical, voluntary medical procedures is disturbing to me.
