181 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
CF's avatar

Just from speaking to my trans friends--It takes a TEAM of doctors and therapists to approve surgery. Even getting hormones is extremely challenging.

And the trans community approves of this. Nobody moves forward with transition on a whim. They're doing fine taking responsibility for their lives; the rest of us should leave them the hell alone.

I agree there's a faddish component, but those people already grow out of it without harm.

Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

I was thinking of the issue around minors and surgery.

Expand full comment
CF's avatar

It's going to be a very rare case where minors are allowed to have gender reassignment surgery, if it ever happens at all. Again, there's a huge amount of oversight in the process, even for adults. I have a friend that spent the better part of a decade working towards surgical transition, saved up for it, and paid for it out of pocket. Nobody goes through that process on a whim--it's quite arduous. (She's much happier now, BTW.)

There are folks who derive money and power from selling you alarming and outrageous myths about things.

The whole trans phenomenon was really uncomfortable and weird to me at first, and like you, I had a lot of concerns. Since then, I've seen conclusively how real the need to transition can be, how careful and serious the medical professionals are, and that it improves lives.

Expand full comment
R Mercer's avatar

Exactly. If freedom and liberty are supposedly your watchwords--why are you unwilling to give people the freedom and liberty to live their lives because YOU don't approve of what they want. It isn't and shouldn't be up to you but to the person whose life it is.

Expand full comment
TomD's avatar

I was thinking of the minors and surgery issue.

Expand full comment
R Mercer's avatar

Understood--the thing is that it isn't actually easy to get that surgery. You don't walk into a clinic and get it done.

It is also hideously expensive, like most medical procedures in this country.

Doctors aren't chomping at the bit to do these surgeries and aren't usually (AFAIK) pressuring people into them unlike, say, a lot of various plastic surgeries or hair transplants or surgical eye correction.

Expand full comment