A Beautiful Note To Sound

In the debate over transgender medicine, everyone seems to think they know better than parents.

If you’re following the issue at all, you’re probably aware that several red states have moved to outlaw medical transition for minors, and that Texas went further still — went insane, I should say — sending child welfare authorities after families who supported a child’s transition. You might also be aware of extreme moves in the other direction. In September, California passed a law giving itself jurisdiction over custody disputes involving trans-identified youths who reside legally in other states. And as The Post and, more recently, the New York Times have reported, in many cases, some schools are supporting children who socially transition (by, for example, changing their names, their gender presentation or their pronouns) without telling their parents. [WaPo]

Kudos, also, to Riittakerttu Kaltiala for noting an important and often overlooked detail:

“A child is not a small adult,” as Riittakerttu Kaltiala, one of the Finnish researchers studying this topic, recently told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper; their emerging identities may not be as stable, or their grasp of the consequences as firm, as trans adults who are, of course, fully capable of making their own decisions.

It’s an exceedingly polite way of telling parents to be parents, not indiscriminate enablers.

Which is not to say that kids should be strait-jacketed into gender roles dictated by biological sex. BUT – remember how trends swept through school kid herds when you were growing up? I certainly do. A small percentage of kids will be trans; but a much larger percentage will experiment with it and eventually reject it. They need to be protected from going to far, just as do those who do need to transition should be helped.