Ok, here you have repeated the whole progressive narrative about transgenderism. Without providing a single bit of evidence.
Oh, the irony! You have no evidence on your side at all, including -- in your own words -- having never met any transgender individuals. Not only that, but you blast anyone to relies on experts, meaning you have a ready-made excuse to blow off any evidence that does not suit your preferences before you even see it.
Anyway. The evidence is in medical journals, and it is not my obligation to present to you a bunch of studies that you're going to blow off anyway.
And I am not saying transgenderism does not occur. I am saying we should be skeptical about the medical interventions. We do not know the long term risks of taking those hormones.
Doctors have used hormone therapies for decades. The risks are fairly well known.
I might add, we don't know the "long term risks" of any drugs or therapies that have been on the market for less than, say, 10-20 years.
We do know that hormone replacement for women has proven harmful.
Incorrect.
What we know is that hormone replacement therapy used to ease menopause symptoms has a complicated balance of risks and benefits. Those risks and benefits vary greatly depending upon the severity of menopausal symptoms, the medications prescribed, the combinations of medications used, the age at which the individual experiences menopause, whether they still have their ovaries, and more. I.e. HRT is still a valid choice for many women who experience menopause -- and, I might add, it is only a result of the expertise of doctors and medical researchers that we know all this about HRT.
There are also very high risks of
not using medication to treat gender dysphoria, including anxiety, depression and social rejection. There are studies on that as well, because doctors need to understand the myriad impacts of both prescribing, and not prescribing, those medications.
You should keep in mind that a key factor in these decisions is the opinion of the patient. If the teen in question feels significantly worse after starting hormone therapy, he certainly has the option to discontinue it. Doctors are not out to push an agenda, their job is to help their patients.
I don't doubt that being non-traditional in terms of gender roles is more difficult. Most of us don't fit perfectly into one or the other, but we learn to act as if. Not saying transgenders should act as if. But there is a whole lot of room for differences now.
It's not
that much better. The entire US did not decide overnight to open its arms to transgender children, and accept them for who they are. Even in progressive bastions, kids don't often get the memo, and will use any difference to pillory and bully other children. As a result, the psychological damage is still happening.
You are making it sound much more horrible than it is. I don't know any transgenders. I don't know this kid, actually only know the father, and not for very long. But I hear about it every day.
So... You are not a doctor, you've done no research, you don't know the boy, you've never met the boy, and you feel justified not only in making a medical diagnosis of the individual, you feel justified in saying that the entire field is making huge mistakes? WTF.
If you really want to be compassionate, then leave your agenda at the door, and just listen to what the father is saying. Rather than help yourself by using this situation to justify your preferred beliefs, maybe you should just help them by being a nice person.
