That was disturbing news to Angelica Jadunandan, who moved to New York from Florida with her two young daughters three years ago. Her older daughter, who is eight, is transgender, and Angelica wanted to move them to a safe blue state—somewhere her family’s medical care would not be called into question. New York is a self-declared “sanctuary state” for trans people. It seemed like a good option.
If a cis child is able to begin puberty without people calling into question whether the child is mature enough to make such a life altering decision, there’s no reason a trans child should be unable to begin puberty blockers or HRT at the age they’d typically begin puberty regardless.
Choosing not to allow trans children to take necessary medical steps to transition is not a neutral choice. The wrong puberty can irreversibly damage your body in ways that are impossible or very expensive to fix, and the torture of seeing that happen to yourself and be unable to prevent it can’t be overstated.
No 8 year old is starting HRT, because they aren’t at the age to begin puberty. If a child is insistent in their gender idenity being incongruous with the puberty they will undergo long term, there is no reason to prevent them accessing HRT at the correct age, and if there is any doubt, the neutral option to pause unwanted changes in the interim is puberty blockers.
Gender confirmation surgeries are very uncommon for minors, and typically only happen to those who have already undergone the wrong puberty and have developed unwanted secondary sex characteristics (typically just top surgery for trans mascs). Breast reduction surgery for cis boys is the vast majority of gender confirmation surgery on minors, and among trans minors specifically the rate of gender affirming surgery is around 0.0021% for those 15-17, 0.0001% for those 13-14, and 0 for 12 and under. And the best way to reduce this number is by letting trans teens access puberty blockers and HRT.
Edit: Also there have 1000% been trans minors who started HRT as a minor and are now trans adults who are still on HRT. The rate of desisting for minors who identify as trans is like ~2%, and most of those who do do so by age 10 (eg before any HRT or gender affirming care outside of social transition). [source]
Removed by mod
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
But look at how I’m being treated here, look at how they removed my original comment. I wasn’t being mean or anything.
If people expect to have discussion and convert people then they need to be nicer. What I saw today is evil, and it doesn’t help the trans community much when this happens.
I’m not going to let it poison my research, but holy moly you folks need some manners and decency.
Trans woman going to reply.
Imagine how it feels to be yelled at while in line to pee at a washroom.
Four hings here.
You are not owed politeness. (See 2). I dont know what you said that got removed, so I’m only judging on this comment. But talking to people who are criminalized for trying to pee in certain states, were done trying to be polite.
No one is converting anyone. Were here demanding basic rights and protections that are given to everyone else. You don’t like trans people, fine, we dont want to hang with people like that either.
No one in history has gotten said rights politely. Politics dont care about the oppressed until they’re forced to be heard.
If your allyship is so flimsy that someone being rude makes you question it, you were never an ally in the first place
From me to you, I face that every day as a trans woman. If you dont like it, get fucked I guess? Thats what I keep getting told…
I get mad when I’m told I should be more polite in the face of a Genocide upcoming
Well, there are people ready to listen. I see you, but not everyone is mean. I hope it gets better for you.
I can’t even access my original comment but it wasn’t mean or judgmental. The problem with society right now is that we can’t have polite discourse.
Thanks for your perspective!
Fuck your poliete discourse. Disrespectfully.
https://www.lemkininstitute.com/red-flag-alerts/red-flag-alert---anti-trans-genocide-in-the-usa---%233
Were in the face of a genocide agaosnt my trans siblings south of the border here.
Were past civilaized discussions.
Trans women are being raped in men’s prisons.
Why should I be polite to people who dont want to understand my oppression?
When it’s time that me, a Canadian trans woman, feels the need to own a gun for protection. Why should I be polite to anyone?
Thank you for your perspective. Please stop being mean, it doesn’t help.
I understand where you’re coming from.
You are not owed politeness.
Because an example I’m looking at, is a German telling a Jew to be more polite in 1939.
Politeness has never gotten anything, so no, I won’t stop.
Ok, thanks!
I would not call people being (rightfully) annoyed at you evil. What I would call evil is posting, on an article about the rights of trans kids being stripped away, how you’re “just asking questions” about why trans kids shouldn’t have the right to the correct puberty the same as their cis peers, while ignoring the sources people offer to you and using as your source a single article by a right-wing, anti-abortion christian site, out of some fear that kids are being pushed into transitioning. A fear that is being created by the people behind the rollback of trans rights, using the age old technique of accusing queer people of “grooming kids” (whether that’s turning them gay, trans, or anything else). One that you are being told is wrong from both actual medical studies as well as personal experience (I almost guarantee every trans person can tell you a story of medical gatekeeping they or someone they know experienced). Even as adults getting on HRT is not always an easy task, and as a minor it can be almost impossible.
Sorry that you feel trans people are being rude to you, but you have no idea how often we hear this exact same argument from cis people who think they somehow know better than medical experts and actual trans people about whether kids are too stupid to know that they’re trans but somehow not too stupid to know that they’re cis.
And, respectfully, you yourself did not approach this topic with the respect it deserves. Your initial now removed comment insinuated an 8 year old child not yet seeking medical intervention was the age for “alter[ing] their body like this” (eg medically transitioning), said how you
were “leaning towards being against”“don’t understand… and would say [you] even disagree” about trans care for minors [edit: correction since I misremembered exact wording], and reused a common TERF and transphobe talking point about how its possible you could have been pushed into transitioning as a child were it more well known and accepted, with no evidence other than a vague feeling. Your comment being removed is entirely fair and not evidence of mistreatment.That’s not really what I said but I appreciate your input, thank you.
If thats how several trans people in this thread took your argument it might be a good opportunity to self-reflect.
Is there any way to get a copy of my original Lemmy post so I can see it? I want to look at my tone and such.
Yeah I found a copy of it, here are the relevant parts I was thinking of in this response:
“Leaning towards being against”
“Just asking questions”
“pushed into transitioning”
Both “insinuating medical transition happens at 8 years old” and “trans kids are too stupid to know they’re trans and undergo HRT driven puberty, but cis kids can undergo natal puberty perfectly fine”. A 2 for 1 special, how fun.
Edit:
Also this is stupid for a multitude of reasons and shows you didn’t do even a tiny bit of research beforehand
Oh sweet, thanks! I wanted it to be seen again too!
And it even has the edits, perfect haha. Tyvm
Yeah, probably!
Trans people are getting our rights stripped away at an alarming rate, and you’re whining about people being pissed at you on an internet forum? Maybe log off and get some perspective
Ok, thanks!