Thank you, I genuinely found this really interesting. But I’d point out that you’re also advocating for the protection of a child you know nothing about. You’ve created a scenario, which while doubtless typical of some children is equally doubtless nothing like others. Some children talk about their gender identity with their parents when they’re extremely young; four or five. Some in their teens, some, like you, much later. Some feel differently as time goes by. Some don’t. You assume that because I’m not trans I haven’t thought seriously about the issue or “done my homework” but you’re wrong. I’ve just read and heard to voices which both agree and disagree with the trans community.

Your assumptions about my motives are also completely unfair and wrong. I don’t assume there’s something wrong with a parent who puts their child on puberty blockers. You act as if every decision a parent makes on behalf of their child (gay/straight/trans/black/whatever) is perfect and that there’s never any need for oversight on a parent’s “final say”. Again, as many times as I say it’s not true youre drawn to the idea that I’m “afraid of different” like the needle of a compass drawn to true north. So once again:

I. Don’t. Hate. Or. Fear. You.

I fully acknowledge that trans people’s sex and gender don’t align. That couldn’t be more obvious, even for a transphobe. Literally all I’m saying is that a calm, open, honest, conversation needs to be had about any medical intervention for children, and that the seemingly inescapable rhetoric that anybody who questions the position of trans people hates or fears them, only makes that important conversation more difficult. I’m saying that whatever solution that is arrived at should encompass a wide range of needs and scenarios, not just the ones you and I are painting. I’m not claiming to know what the right answer is at that scale, there’s lots of data and objective research that would need to be looked at to get there. But whatever that solution is, it will almost certainly look different for adults and for children. That is as it should be. That’s all I’ve been saying all along.