Thoughts

Folks that are not trans or "don't have a horse in the puberty blockers race":

You may be wondering why this is a big issue? Surely "kids need to be left alone to be kids"... Right?

Almost without fail, every trans adult that I know wishes they'd had the chance to temporarily pause puberty and prevent permanent body changes from happening. I.e. Most trans adults remember being transgender children. We remember acutely how real this was. Many of us have suffered through reversing the negative effects of an unwanted puberty. For me this has been expensive, horrible, painful and traumatic surgeries that have partially reversed some of what my male puberty did to me. I will have to live with the rest. If a child is saying they want to delay their puberty for transgender reasons, I believe they know their truth a lot better than I do... And I probably know a lot about their truth.

In this country, we don't allow under 16's to access cross sex hormones (that would allow them to have their desired puberty) because we deem them "too young to know". I think there are pros and cons on this argument, but it was defensible because we as a country were allowing those that felt that they were trans to delay puberty until they were legally old enough to decide. Now we're outlawing the medicine that will allow them to wait until they are "old enough to make their own decision".

This move is a step backwards designed to intentionally cause harm to a new generation of trans people. This will cause suffering that will last a lifetime. Forgetting for a moment, how I feel about my body, I have to deal with stares and comments in the street. I often feel scared going to the gym or using the loo in public. I have experienced discrimination at work. And every phone call to the bank involves being asked to speak to the account holder because they can't imagine someone with my voice could be "Sophie". This will never change and is just what my life involves.

However, things changed and I know young trans people that had access to medicine to delay puberty and, when I think of them, it makes me happy that they won't have to grow older with irreversible changes that cause them distress... Having any other thoughts on this subject (other than perhaps "it's none of my business") seems barbaric. It feels like the world was a more humane place that the next generation of trans folks will suffer less than my generation.

Apparently we don't want that.

When I grew up in the 80s and 90s we had "Section 28" with legalized bullying and marginalisation of queer youth. It made it crystal clear that it was unsafe to share my truths with the world. We are absolutely headed back into this place. It will cause suicide, self harm and other acute mental health crises for many trans youth. This will not stop them from being trans. They will just grow up into bodies that cause them distress and have a lifetime of mental health problems and chronic dysphoria as a result.

You may be thinking that I'm being paranoid. It's not targeted at trans people .. and that it's just about children's safeguarding? Well... Firstly, these drugs are safe. They have been used for this purpose for 40 years. And, here's the kicker...the use of this medicine is still allowed for non-transgender youth. That is to say, they are absolutely targeting trans youth. They know the consequences and they know what they are doing. This is cruelty against a socially unclean, powerless minority by a powerful majority. Nothing more, nothing less.

I am appalled by the silence on this issue.