Transgender youth

About

Transgender youth are a particularly vulnerable segment of the transgender population for three main reasons:

• Legal nonadulthood:
  • Parents are often required to give consent for you.
  • Some interventions may be simply illegal, or much more difficult to obtain.
• Physical maturation:
  • Medical interventions, especially puberty blockers, increase dramatically in effectiveness when started during the physical maturation process, preferably before the onset of puberty.
• They are more easily misused in "think of the children" arguments -- framed as victims of some imagined trans agenda, and often not given the opportunity to speak for themselves in support of their transition.

Links

to file

• 2022-10-17 John Oliver debunks myths about gender-affirming care for transgender youths «“To hear some tell it, as soon as a child declares themselves trans, there is an immediate, irreversible surgical decision undertaken, and there just isn’t,” Oliver said, adding, “In younger children, it can mean nothing more than a social transition, like calling them by a new name, or giving them a new haircut or clothing, or providing them with psychological or behavioral support. Because, to be very clear, prepubescent children are not eligible for medical interventions.”»

Related

• 2022/06/15 [L..T] The Battle Over Gender Therapy «What Leibowitz and his co-authors didn’t foresee, when they began, was that their work would be engulfed by two intersecting forces: a significant rise in the number of teenagers openly identifying as transgender and seeking gender care, and a right-wing backlash in the United States against allowing them to medically transition, including state-by-state efforts to ban it.»
• 2022/03/17 [L..T] Trans Kids: The Misinformation Battle «U.S. politicians are trying to keep trans kids from getting the medical care they need to transition — and states are banning them from playing on the sports teams that match their gender. So we’re looking at the science here, and asking: are the medical treatments for trans kids dangerous? And do trans folks have an advantage when it comes to sports? We talk to Florence Ashley, Dr. Jack Turban, and Joanna Harper to find out.»
• 2018/07/01 [L..T] When Children Say They’re Trans «Hormones? Surgery? The choices are fraught – and there are no easy answers.» ...except puberty blockers are generally a good idea. This article emphasizes the unknowns and the risks, and mistakenly implies they're not a good general solution.
• 2018/06/22 [L..T] Contra the Fearmongering Atlantic Story, Trans-Affirming Care Is Great for Kids «Given all this hand-wringing over the children, it feels necessary to say, unambiguously, that such fears are overblown and can lead parents astray, guiding them toward decisions that may permanently harm their kids and endanger their relationship with them for the rest of their lives. Contrary to the fears of Singal and his ilk, current research supports a flexible approach that does not push children toward any particular outcome, and best practices put the needs of seriously distressed children first.»