It's important to realize that not everyone wants to have kids, and that whatever your goals are in life are definitely not the same for others. I'm trans, and I am immensely grateful for being able to undergo a transition - I would never go back onto my decision, and my mental health has insanely improved. Yes, there's downsides. I'm never going to be able to have biological children, and there's a range of possible risks, none of which have thankfully affected me. But none of that would matter to me if I was dead, which is the harsh reality of completely banning any sort of procedures that bring so much relief to transgender people. I do actually agree that trans-related care should be heavily regulated for kids. Especially considering the recent uptick in the 'trendiness' of being transgender, it should not be as easy as it is to acquire hormones at a young age, and implementing a lot of safeguards and hoops to jump through could help the very small percentage of people that do end up regretting their decision. However, making this issue so black and white (not to mention the shift on ages to make the ban affect people under 19) is the wrong approach. A systematic and empathetic (from both sides) discussion and solution would benefit everyone in this scenario. Yes, I understand that parents don't want their children to do something that they'll regret. My parents told me to wait with any permanent changes until I was a legal adult, and I completely understand them. However, the "surgical mulitation" and "sterilization" that so many condem has given me a second shot at a happier and confident life; I am able to enjoy my experience here, instead of feeling constant self loathing and discomfort. All that I ask is for a little bit of grace and understanding, because I bet that if you met me, you wouldn't have a clue about my past. Let's treat each other as individual people with individual feelings and dreams, with the intelligence to decide the proper course of action.
Empathy. Is doing irreversible violence to the body – cutting off healthy breasts and testicles, for example – lifesaving and compassionate? Could it just be violence against the healthy and naturally sexed body? To treat one violence – self-inflicted body hatred to the point of suicide – as ‘treatable’ by another violence, presupposes a range of attitudes towards the body and human sexuality that all seem tragically pathological to me. I have empathy for my trans identifying offspring (I cannot even say son or daughter for legal “hate speech” reasons) because I do not see their body as an object that should cause them self-hatred in the first place, let alone be “treated” by, well, sterilization, mutilation, prosthetic cosmetic sex surgery, and a life-long dependence on anti-natural cross-sex hormones. Could it be that people who suffer with a hatred of their naturally sexed body have a serious mental and/or socio-cultural illness? I believe this is the case. For this reason my empathy for them – for you – strongly wishes that they would be able to receive the kind of care which would at least aim at gently and patiently helping them to bring their reality denying and natural body rejecting mind into a workable acceptance of the goodness of their naturally sexed body. But it is not as if such an approach is even permissible under our state and legally mandated “gender affirming care” regime for minors here in Australia. There is only one acceptable treatment option: damage the body to heal the mind.
You don’t want to have children. My deeply prone to magical thinking autism spectrum offspring is repulsed by their natural sexuality and thinks that not being able to have children is a bonus. Their ASD is now likely to rob them of the very possibility of being a parent which, yes, I think is a genuine tragedy. This did not need to happen. The on-line and medicalized encouragement for them to re-story their social awkwardness and their difficulty in accepting their own body as some sort of ideological and identity virtue has meant that they were strongly guided into denying nature in a way that, had they been born just 10 years earlier, would not have even been possible. Hannah Barnes’ close look at Tavistock gives strong support to the thesis that queer activism, legislation, and therapeutic practices have produced a generation of trans young people. That production is, I believe tragic, and I have nothing but a sorrowing empathy for those who are the tragic recipients of ideologically promoted medicalization treatments, rather than sane psychotherapeutic treatments, of gender incongruence as a mental disorder.
Very interesting about the internet and search engines. I hadn't really looked that hard at a current story in this way. An experiment to try for myself later.
The internet's treatment of us is so patronising isn't it? And the sanctimony of those who push gender ideology is really off the charts. They insisted that the system was against them even when they had the President of the USA feting them on the White House lawn!
Despite so many other issues being around, this issue really does demand so much more attention if only because of the way that the media (including the internet) and politics deals with it like no other issue.
Unfortunately Pres. Trump's support for medical protections of children may only harden the resolve of "liberals" bent on tearing down these protections. I hope not.
Interestingly, this story has (thankfully?) dropped off the Guardian's front page-
The article you have linked above is unbelievably ideologically biased.
Clearly, the Guardian has a staunch commitment to not giving a balanced perspective on its reporting of the Queensland government’s temporary ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone to minors. The Guardian piece says that “non-compliance with clinical guidelines should be investigated” but does not even acknowledge that the Cairns Sexual Health Clinic has prescribed puberty blockers to 12 year olds and has undertaken such practices without the knowledge or consent of their parents. This is why the ban was applied, but you would not know that if the Guardian was your only source of information on this matter. Further, the Guardian report claims that “there is no evidence of patient harm” at the Cairns Sexual Health Clinic. So going behind parent’s backs in giving puberty blockers to pre/early adolescent children, who are not of the age of consent, and who will never be fertile and never be able to have normal sexual functioning as adults as a result of these irreversible treatments, is “no evidence of harm”? But it is worse than that! This article includes the blatant dis-information claim that puberty blockers – we are talking about 12 year olds – are reversible. It is a scientific fact that if you do not go through a natural puberty at the proper age, you will never sexually mature. Miss puberty, and you miss it for good. Fact check your "information" oh Guardain. And then the Guardian website has the nerve to tells me that it is up against “bad actors spreading disinformation online to fuel intolerance.” Who is the Guardian actually up against, why is it spreading intolerance and misinformation against facts based concerns about puberty blockers, and who is the guardian guarding? And as for balance, what a joke! Only “LGBTQIASB+” affirming outrage can be reported on in this matter in the Guardian. No balance, and no accurate reporting of why the ban is put forward, are considered worthy of publishing by the Guardian. And the Guardian has the audacity to claim that the State Government is guilty of imposing its “ideological views” on Queenslanders. Alas, this sort of deeply biased, dishonest, and sellective reporting is normal in this space in Australia. I have discovered that one has to really dig around, and often go to substack and overseas sources, to even find out what is going on in Australia. We are heavily censored, and our information is heavily interpreted and distorted in this domain. This is simply shameful and unforgivably ideologically manipulative as regards Australian reporting.
It's important to realize that not everyone wants to have kids, and that whatever your goals are in life are definitely not the same for others. I'm trans, and I am immensely grateful for being able to undergo a transition - I would never go back onto my decision, and my mental health has insanely improved. Yes, there's downsides. I'm never going to be able to have biological children, and there's a range of possible risks, none of which have thankfully affected me. But none of that would matter to me if I was dead, which is the harsh reality of completely banning any sort of procedures that bring so much relief to transgender people. I do actually agree that trans-related care should be heavily regulated for kids. Especially considering the recent uptick in the 'trendiness' of being transgender, it should not be as easy as it is to acquire hormones at a young age, and implementing a lot of safeguards and hoops to jump through could help the very small percentage of people that do end up regretting their decision. However, making this issue so black and white (not to mention the shift on ages to make the ban affect people under 19) is the wrong approach. A systematic and empathetic (from both sides) discussion and solution would benefit everyone in this scenario. Yes, I understand that parents don't want their children to do something that they'll regret. My parents told me to wait with any permanent changes until I was a legal adult, and I completely understand them. However, the "surgical mulitation" and "sterilization" that so many condem has given me a second shot at a happier and confident life; I am able to enjoy my experience here, instead of feeling constant self loathing and discomfort. All that I ask is for a little bit of grace and understanding, because I bet that if you met me, you wouldn't have a clue about my past. Let's treat each other as individual people with individual feelings and dreams, with the intelligence to decide the proper course of action.
Thank you for your comment.
Empathy. Is doing irreversible violence to the body – cutting off healthy breasts and testicles, for example – lifesaving and compassionate? Could it just be violence against the healthy and naturally sexed body? To treat one violence – self-inflicted body hatred to the point of suicide – as ‘treatable’ by another violence, presupposes a range of attitudes towards the body and human sexuality that all seem tragically pathological to me. I have empathy for my trans identifying offspring (I cannot even say son or daughter for legal “hate speech” reasons) because I do not see their body as an object that should cause them self-hatred in the first place, let alone be “treated” by, well, sterilization, mutilation, prosthetic cosmetic sex surgery, and a life-long dependence on anti-natural cross-sex hormones. Could it be that people who suffer with a hatred of their naturally sexed body have a serious mental and/or socio-cultural illness? I believe this is the case. For this reason my empathy for them – for you – strongly wishes that they would be able to receive the kind of care which would at least aim at gently and patiently helping them to bring their reality denying and natural body rejecting mind into a workable acceptance of the goodness of their naturally sexed body. But it is not as if such an approach is even permissible under our state and legally mandated “gender affirming care” regime for minors here in Australia. There is only one acceptable treatment option: damage the body to heal the mind.
You don’t want to have children. My deeply prone to magical thinking autism spectrum offspring is repulsed by their natural sexuality and thinks that not being able to have children is a bonus. Their ASD is now likely to rob them of the very possibility of being a parent which, yes, I think is a genuine tragedy. This did not need to happen. The on-line and medicalized encouragement for them to re-story their social awkwardness and their difficulty in accepting their own body as some sort of ideological and identity virtue has meant that they were strongly guided into denying nature in a way that, had they been born just 10 years earlier, would not have even been possible. Hannah Barnes’ close look at Tavistock gives strong support to the thesis that queer activism, legislation, and therapeutic practices have produced a generation of trans young people. That production is, I believe tragic, and I have nothing but a sorrowing empathy for those who are the tragic recipients of ideologically promoted medicalization treatments, rather than sane psychotherapeutic treatments, of gender incongruence as a mental disorder.
Very interesting about the internet and search engines. I hadn't really looked that hard at a current story in this way. An experiment to try for myself later.
The internet's treatment of us is so patronising isn't it? And the sanctimony of those who push gender ideology is really off the charts. They insisted that the system was against them even when they had the President of the USA feting them on the White House lawn!
Despite so many other issues being around, this issue really does demand so much more attention if only because of the way that the media (including the internet) and politics deals with it like no other issue.
Unfortunately Pres. Trump's support for medical protections of children may only harden the resolve of "liberals" bent on tearing down these protections. I hope not.
Interestingly, this story has (thankfully?) dropped off the Guardian's front page-
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/29/queensland-transgender-patient-hormone-therapy-ban-doctors-ntwnfb
The article you have linked above is unbelievably ideologically biased.
Clearly, the Guardian has a staunch commitment to not giving a balanced perspective on its reporting of the Queensland government’s temporary ban on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone to minors. The Guardian piece says that “non-compliance with clinical guidelines should be investigated” but does not even acknowledge that the Cairns Sexual Health Clinic has prescribed puberty blockers to 12 year olds and has undertaken such practices without the knowledge or consent of their parents. This is why the ban was applied, but you would not know that if the Guardian was your only source of information on this matter. Further, the Guardian report claims that “there is no evidence of patient harm” at the Cairns Sexual Health Clinic. So going behind parent’s backs in giving puberty blockers to pre/early adolescent children, who are not of the age of consent, and who will never be fertile and never be able to have normal sexual functioning as adults as a result of these irreversible treatments, is “no evidence of harm”? But it is worse than that! This article includes the blatant dis-information claim that puberty blockers – we are talking about 12 year olds – are reversible. It is a scientific fact that if you do not go through a natural puberty at the proper age, you will never sexually mature. Miss puberty, and you miss it for good. Fact check your "information" oh Guardain. And then the Guardian website has the nerve to tells me that it is up against “bad actors spreading disinformation online to fuel intolerance.” Who is the Guardian actually up against, why is it spreading intolerance and misinformation against facts based concerns about puberty blockers, and who is the guardian guarding? And as for balance, what a joke! Only “LGBTQIASB+” affirming outrage can be reported on in this matter in the Guardian. No balance, and no accurate reporting of why the ban is put forward, are considered worthy of publishing by the Guardian. And the Guardian has the audacity to claim that the State Government is guilty of imposing its “ideological views” on Queenslanders. Alas, this sort of deeply biased, dishonest, and sellective reporting is normal in this space in Australia. I have discovered that one has to really dig around, and often go to substack and overseas sources, to even find out what is going on in Australia. We are heavily censored, and our information is heavily interpreted and distorted in this domain. This is simply shameful and unforgivably ideologically manipulative as regards Australian reporting.