Science Supports Trans People - Here is why

This applies to many other areas - Climate Change a perfect example. Dissenting views won't bring in the $$$$$ and could get you fired from your University position.

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It's simple. It's not about the children at all.

It's about adults pushing their own ideologies and identity politics and using children who aren't conscious of any of it at that age as pawns in their arguments.

That's bad enough, but when it then moves into medication and "treatment" to enforce the supposed identity these adults reckon they are displaying, it crosses into a very dangerous place.

My attitude to this is the same as the one my mam had to the idea of Catholic ideology being forced on me and my sister in primary school in the early 80s. Not going to happen!

Her argument was that if, when we were old enough to understand the concepts and consequences involved, we wanted to become catholics (or members of any other religion) then absolutely no issue with it, but pushing it on young, naive and impressionable children by authority figures in their lives was beyond the pale for her - quite a radical stance for the time as anyone who remembers that far back would know!

Equally, if a person who is old enough to fully understand the meaning and consequences of gender identity - especially if they are also considering surgery or hormonal treatments - decides that they want to live as a trans man/woman then that's fair enough.

BUT... Just as with religion, that right to choice only extends as far as their own person. They have no right or expectation that anyone else will agree with them, will support or validate them (beyond simple common courtesy and tolerance such as calling them by their preferred name), and regardless of whatever steps they take, there are still fundamental differences between the sexes that changed identity and surgery cannot compensate for.

Ideology and agendas will never trump biology or the historical facts about a person.

It seems that what s happening here is that the political right has made this a wedge issue and as a conseqence most of the anti-arguments are actually parody's of the real issues.

The whole thrust of medical intervenions is to support a person in their mental health until such time as they can make an informed decision. This is especially the case for children who will experience immense mental distress by not responding to their experience of their own gender.

The right wants transgenderism to simply disappear and so where the conflict arises is when they try to block support for transgender people. Transgenderism has been with us since the dawn of man and so it will not simply go away and it's time for the right to move on.

Your fairly much wrong on everything you just said. The only evidence of an ideology been promoted is from the Republican parties wedge politics.

Childen become very aware of gender issues as young as five ( most gay people identify this young age as the point of becoming aware of their sexuality), it's a well known developmeantal step. Parent don't like to think of their children having these thoughts but this is not material.

What has happened in America is been adopted across the board by right leaning political parties. The arguments you are advancing are copy and past from American Republican blowhards - so forgive me for mentioning their source.

"Kolhlberg (1966) suggested a cognitive developmental theory on understanding the gender development in children. By the age of 2 years, most infants can identify themselves as boys or girls, which is the first step of forming gender identity. Children gradually understand that gender is something stable and that they would remain as either boys or girls. They have insights about how physical features define the gender of individuals and gain gender stability. For instance, men are those in beard and short hair, while women are those in dress and long hair. Sometimes, children make mistakes by thinking that external outfits will change the gender for individuals; they may think that if a boy wears a dress and lipstick, he will turn into a girl. Such confusions on gender identity among young children reflect their limitations in cognitive functioning, and this can be explained by applying Piaget's (1977) theory. According to Piaget (1977), children in the preoperational stage usually lack the awareness of conversation, which hinders them from maintaining a constant identification of an object with changing appearances. It is usually by the age of 5–6 years that children would attain gender constancy, so that they understand that gender does not change along with physical appearances and that their gender will remain unchanged in their whole life."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/gender-development

You may not think that having a stable gender identity by age 7 is absolutely normal - and that identifying as the opposite gender to you physical birth sex is also similarly set at that age - but what you believe to be true is not material to what is true here.

People imply that identifying as trans somehow equates to been a sexually active transexual - but the two are not remotely related. Few children become sexually active until their early teens - but their gender identity is set at least 5 years earlier.

Lets put this in conrete terms which are hard to ignore. I am presuming that those here arguing against transgender support are all heterosexual males, I could no more pursuade you to become a female gender identifying person as I could identify as a frog. Just try to imagine what it would take for me to convert you to been a female ? The proof of the pudding is in the gay conversion therapy which has never changed the identity of a single homosexual person (it has suppressed and oppressed many though). Why do you imagine it is so much harder for anyone else to be certain of their own gender identity as you hulking male icons are ?

What the latter part of this suggests to me is that you just seem to have an issue with straight men. I have no idea what that increasingly bizzare paragraph was about to be honest.

It seems more to me that you're confusing research opinion pieces and social media crusading for scientific facts and projecting your own views on "hulking male icons" (???!!) into an argument that bears no relation to the reality of the topic at hand.

This is nothing to do with the "Right", the US Republican party, or Twitter crusading. It's about the welfare of young naive and impressionable children who are being used as tools to further an agenda that has potentially very real and serious consequences for them if not held in check by a much needed dose of reality.

You haven't shown any evidence for your opinion that children are been used as tools.

PS I can assure you that I am a hulking male icon as well, you should ask my wife and children.

You completely misunderstood my post. I was saying that supporting someone's delusional beliefs may improve their mental health but it doesn't make the delusion true. This can apply equally to religion and trans ideology. In both cases, people may be happier, but that doesn't mean science is claiming their beliefs have a foundation.

If you don’t get gender treatment as a kid and go through puberty you’ll just be plain old gay I think

Try actually reading the research before making such a comment. You obviously haven't.

There is compelling evidence for a biological basis for transgenderism.

Its funny how people always back away when asked the personal question could you choose to change your gender. I think its the critical question that cuts through the bullshit.

i know what the answer is for me - there is literally nothing that could ever pressure me to change my gender identity. SIMPLE.

any research done on the mental status of people “trapped” in the body of the opposite gender who take no action vs those who get surgery ?

Self identifying as a gender due to your own lived experience is a perfectly legitimate position to take. I cannot imagine anyone lying about their gender identity for alteria motives as sustaining a false narrative would be a massive personal burden - for what gain. The projection of peverse abusive motoiive which is the foundational belief of many conservatives simply doesn't stack up - if you want to abuse others sexually its perfectly possible to do so without lying about your gender - rape and sexual abuse are some of the most common crimes so why do you imagine that people will assume a different gender so they can achieve something that is already commonplace for those who do not.

It just doesn't make any sense.

Its your requirement - not an objective requirement. It seems to matter a lot to you - I say get over it.

However there is a growing body of evidence of a physical - bio-chemical basis of trans self identification - so I would say that most people could provide objective evidence if your criteria were valid.