[quote] We seriously need to do everyhting possible to prevent these people from experiencing a horrifically inauthentic life. At the very slightest inkling of gender nonconformity, these young ones need to be heard. Gender reassignment should be considered at the earliest possible age, absolutely before puberty.

I know you're being sarcastic, but I recently went on a date with a guy whose sister is big into the non-conforming gender movement because her son (who is maybe seven) thinks he wants to be a girl. I've never met the kid or his mother, so I offer no further editorial. But it sparked a conversation between myself and his uncle where I expressed concern, in general, for people under the age of 18 being allowed to take hormone blockers, estrogen or testosterone, and anything else that could completely screw up their physiology when they weren't old enough to fully understand the consequences. I felt that if I were the parent of such a child, I'd give them whatever support they needed, but I would not allow them to do anything to themselves physiologically while they were a minor and under my care. That's what a parent is supposed to do, whether or not the child likes it. The parent is supposed to be the responsible adult.

This guy then went on to argue that it's much better to start the hormone blockers before a child reaches puberty so they can transition more smoothly and believably. And that if they changed their minds, all they'd have to do is stop the treatments and all would be as if they never took the drugs in the first place. And I point blank asked him- Are you a doctor? (He wasn't, of course.) When I tried to argue that there was zero proof of his theory, and that maybe it was better to see if the child wasn't going through some sort of non-sexual phase, since the likely damage to someone's endocrine system was certainly more troubling than the fact that they looked like a linebacker in a prom dress. If a six year old swore he was going to be a cowboy, would you feed him drugs that enabled him to ride a horse and handle a six shooter? He tried to shame me as some sort of bigot and I quickly ended the date.