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See, the thing is, while I might be supportive of a child with gender dysphoria, I'm not going to change my stance that treatments that change the body should not be performed before the age of 18 because I do believe teens are impressionable and make decisions they regret, and I don't want them to regret going through a sex change. If after that age they still believe they wish to change, I can at least say they have thought about it long enough.
But, you know, context doesn't make any difference to these folks, so why bother?
Many transgendered people know from a very young age that something is "amiss". If society wasn't so determined to split people up in either men or women, this wouldn't be such an issue.
Besides, clothes are pretty easy to get rid of and get new ones. A tattoo is there for life (more or less).
I bet most parents who face the second issue will probably react more like the first couple, at first.
Adam must have some kind of deal for straw with all these strawmen he uses. And Adam, a hint: That's not how that works. Congratulations, I didn't think it possible but you made yourself look incredibly stupid, moreso than usual
They are both big decisions, but there is one absolutely HUGE and absolutely relevant difference: a tattoo is permanent and expensive but can be applied at any age. It can be indefinitely deferred... While secondary and neurochemical gender traits, socialization, and gender-group culture acquisition happens once, and can't be deferred.
So while it may not be the greatest thing that children be trusted with such a big decision so early, we don't really have a choice because of how gender happens. It costs thousands of dollars to get breasts removed once they grow, and it costs thousands of dollars to build breasts if they are absent. It costs a lot of money to reduce the size of a penis, and it takes years for a clitoris to grow to a peniform size outside of puberty. And that isn't even accounting for the skin problems and endocrine effects of starting HRT after going through the wrong puberty.
There are options to delay puberty, but they aren't that great, and we still don't understand all the downstream effects of doing so (it may, admittedly, turn out to be beneficial; delaying sex drives from forming until children are old enough to understand the consequences would be one possible way).
This leaves us with the unfortunate position that while it is a big, permanent, scary decision, letting children decide which puberty to undergo BEFORE they begin to develop sexually is the only option we are left with because we can't wait until they are past puberty and we can't delay it without a set of unknown consequences.
There's an extremely good reason why tattoo parlours here in the UK have signs stating that only those 18 or over will be tattooed by the artist(s) there.
And as the fact that their business's very existence relies on a licence issued by the council - with extremely strict regulations which it's issuing adheres to - it's the law .
So as far as this post is concerned, Romans 13:1-5 has already annihilated your argument, Mr. Fnord.
There's something to be said for the 'Nanny State': I'm sure you'd agree. [/2013 Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act, via David Cameron: a Conservative ]
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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