Cutting Children

Ponder the average toddler.

Would you be OK with that child taking on a mortgage? Getting a credit card and being responsible for whatever it charged? Enlisting in the army? Buying cigarettes, alcohol, pot, or guns? Getting married? Driving a car? Voting? Serving on a jury? Getting a tattoo? Signing a legal contract? A will? A "living will?" A health care proxy?

No rational person would consider toddlers to be capable of informed decision making as to any of these obligations.

A forty-something person of sound mind, on the other hand?

Of course. These are all things that adults can choose to do - and be legally bound by.

There comes a point, somewhere between toddlerhood and middle age, where the human brain is sufficiently developed to "deserve" the right to make these choices and assume the associated obligations and responsibilities.

We call this the "age of majority."

Reasonable people can disagree as to what specific age marks this demarcation. We can debate whether an age-based system is the best, as opposed to individual demonstrations of development, and we can ponder whether different responsibilities should confer at different ages.

As to the latter, we already do. Alcohol and tobacco: 21 years old. Military service, mortgages, contracts, and credit cards, 18 years old. Driver's licenses: 16-18 (varies by state). Marriage: 18-21 (varies by state).

A will or health care proxy: 18 years old.

However, we are now in an era where children are being heeded when they profess an interest in gender reassignment treatments (including both chemical and surgical alterations). Yes, such decisions are "supervised," as in medical professionals assessing the children's claims, and if those professionals were dispassionate, agenda-free, and hesitant to commit children to irreversible procedures, then the tiny number of legitimate gender dysphorics could be given the care they need.

But, the "Gender Affirmation" industry is none of those things. A kid that voices any "maybe I'm trans" notion is promptly "affirmed," i.e. given "yes you are!" messaging. The permanence of treatments such as puberty blockers, mastectomies, and other procedures are downplayed, chemicals are prescribed on the barest of justifications, and public figures as high as the President himself are using the term "affirmation" in a fashion that encourages or even demands kids follow through with what might simply be a transient thought or question in the moment. We have supposedly responsible medical professionals and organizations telling us that some children know they are trans “practically from the minute they were born,” with their evidence being things like trying on siblings clothing, playing with opposite gender toys, and the like.

Billboard Chris 🇨🇦🇺🇸 @BillboardChris

“Playing with the opposite gender toys” is a sign your child is transgender. That’s exactly what Boston Children’s Hospital says.

They appear far less interested in “getting it right” than in trangendering as many kids as possible. Ironically, this segment of the cultural landscape was, just a few years ago, arguing that “girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks” was all strictly sexist social conditioning.

Testimonials from people who regret their teenage transitions are becoming more common every day, and serious questions about the science, research, Big Pharma influence, and leading figures in the affirmation camp are emerging. That sloppy science is being used to justify the incredibly rapid expansion of gender reassignment among teens should come as no surprise. Shoddy, politically driven science has become an expected part of our modern landscape, sadly, along with the agenda-driven rage at anyone who challenges the narrative.

I wonder what the people most vocally advocating for supporting teen and tween transitioning would say about the latest science (here, here, and here) that suggests the human brain is not fully formed until the mid-20s. Some, especially on the Left (shocker), suggest that this proves that things like student loan obligations should be forgiven and absolved. How does that jibe with accepting a teen’s demand to "put me on chemicals and cut my breasts or my penis off?"

It's insane.

Fortunately, some sanity is returning. Shoddy studies are being outed. In the UK, the Tavistock gender identity clinic is being shut down after criticism of "too-quick" referral for transitioning. Domestically, the social stigma of questioning the transgender industry has eased, with many liberals and LGB community members standing up to its excesses, and some doctors and nations are returning to psychotherapy before chemicals. Nellie Bowles at Common Sense reports some more evidence of backlash… and, troublingly, the Justice Department threatening critics.

I'm not a medical professional of any sort, let alone an expert in gender dysphoria (can we even use that term any more?), but I've got enough common sense to realize that teenagers live lives of mental turbulence, that puberty is a time of endless questions, a journey of self-learning, a period of intense emotions that include desires to conformity, to acceptance, and to "notice me!" narcissism. I also know - and societies around the world agree - they're not fully formed humans, capable of making decisions of consequence. At the very minimum, this urges society to caution, "a slow, patient, thoughtful question and answer period," and even thoughtful skepticism rather than aggressive affirmation as the baseline response when it comes to teens professing gender dysphoria.

Moreover, parents must be the prime deciders, in conjunction with medical advice from agenda-free professionals. The government needs to stop this business of overriding parents' authority when it comes to their children. We see it in gender reassignment, we see it in gender identity, and we see it in the woke-ifying of primary and secondary education, where teachers are hiding curricula and programs from kids' parents.

The flip side of that is that government should, where appropriate, protect children from abusive parents. Count me among those who think that parents coaxing and convincing their kids into transgenderism counts as abuse.

We have minimum ages for all sorts of things that are far less consequential than gender reassignment. Teens and pre-teens are not fully formed humans, and we recognize that reality in many ways. "Gender affirmation" processes may warrant a minimum age, as well. Contrary to the narratives, they're irreversible, and even those who de-transition prior to surgery deal with permanent effects from the chemical alteration of the natural process of puberty. There's no perfect answer here, but the old medical tenet, "first, do no harm," must be heeded as well as possible.

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A footnote. This article is about minors. I take no position herein on adults who pursue gender transitioning. The obvious flip side of recognizing that minors are not of sound and fully developed mind is that adults, barring those with mental incapacity, are. Their body, their business. Adults of sound mind should be free to pursue their own happiness.

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Yours in liberty,

Peter.