Sabresfansince1980 wrote:
"Sigh..."
I really don't think I've come across so uneducated as to require the condescending tone. The one flammable word I used was "quack", which I'm sure these doctors are not, but we all get to use silly words around here for entertainment purposes. OTOH, you're making a number of assumptions about what you think I know/don't know.
1- I don't think kids are necessarily influenced into thinking they're the other gender.
2- I don't think that kids "...don't know anything about anything."
3- I don't think hormone treatment alters whether a child feels they are a boy or girl.
4- I don't think kids and their families or doctors are simply jumping into a sex change procedure.
You're last paragraph is all that I possibly dispute. I highly doubt that a child can make a well-informed decision about their gender and/or sexuality until they've gone through puberty. To dispute this, you suggest that a child can determine these things before they even truly know what it's like to be sexually attracted to another person, let alone truly know what sex is about. That's my beef with this process - allowing a child to determine a path toward possible sex change, a path that in and of itself can alter the decision, before the child even really knows about gender and sexuality.
CV, you're getting bent over an assumption that I, or people that have the same opinions on this as me, are uncomfortable or otherwise dismissive or denigrating of the LGBT community. I don't care if a child thinks they're straight or gay or wants to be straight or gay, or bi or tarnsgender. I DON'T CARE. What matters is allowing them to be fully informed about themselves before determining a path toward sex change. I think puberty is one factor in being fully informed about one's own gender and sexuality. To dispute that would, imo, take quite a bit of convincing.
I wasn't trying to suggest you were uneducated with my tone, and I apologize if you feel that way. It wasn't my intent. I just find myself frustrated when people try and discuss these sorts of issues without having an understanding of how it all works, as I don't think you have a full understanding of transgender issues, and no, that isn't meant as an insult. I also apologize if I made assumptions based off of what you said. That's what I inferred and my inference was apparently wrong.
Why exactly is going through puberty the defining point of understanding? Yes, I understand that going through puberty is a huge change, and many things about a person change with them. However, a person can still have an understanding of themselves and of how they feel without having gone through puberty. Yes, these kids are young, but they're not so young as to not understand how they feel. Furthermore, the purpose of hormone blockers is to hold it off until their at a closer age where they can make a more well rounded decision. Yes, 12 and 13 is still a very young age to decide whether they want hormone replacement therapy, but I think after years of going through this process, if that's what they're ready to do, they should be allowed to do so. To say they shouldn't would be the same as forcing a gay child to pretend their straight until they hit puberty, so that they can see what they want. Again, that isn't how it works. A gay child is going to be gay before and after puberty. In the same sense, a truly transgendered person is going to be transgendered before and after puberty. Going through puberty simply messes things up, because it will require them to get extensive surgery when they're older to fix what went wrong.
Also to your post... um... I'm pretty sure many gay people were sure. Perhaps puberty could have "comfirmed" it, but most gay people have known all their lives. Furthermore, you're mixing up sex and sexuality. There is a difference. Going through puberty doesn't change what your sex is or what you feel your sex is. Puberty changes sex drive and sexual attraction. Throwing sexual attraction into the picture doesn't change whether or not someone feels like a girl or a boy.