Gender transition for children draws extreme views

The just-passed Texas bill banning hormone treatments, puberty blockers and surgery for children who identify as transgender, likely to be signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, is the latest initiative in Republican-dominated states to curb or ban transition-related medical treatments. Thirteen other states have already passed some forms of such legislation.

To some, such moves are about hate and bigotry, nothing short of modern-day American fascism. For others, they’re about protecting children. But the facts are complicated — and misgivings about medical gender transition for minors are not limited to the right.

Recently, some European countries long known for their progressive attitudes toward gender and sexuality — Sweden and Norway, for instance — have moved to drastically restrict medical interventions for children who identify as transgender on the grounds that the benefits of these interventions seem too uncertain (claims of such benefits are often based on shoddy research) and that the potentially harmful effects, particularly over the long term, are still poorly understood. This should give people pause when they invoke the Taliban as an analogy for “red-state” American laws.

While American liberals have rushed to champion “trans kids,” some voices critical of the trend of affirming gender transition at an early age come from unlikely quarters. They include science writer Jesse Singal, who has worked for such mainstream media outlets as New York magazine and The Atlantic and who believes that until recently, the possibly harmful long-term effects of puberty blockers have been downplayed while the risks of suicide for children who are denied medical transition care have been overhyped. Critics also include Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist who has worked extensively with transitioning teenagers — and who now worries that too many adolescents are transitioning because it’s “trendy” in their social circle.

Neither Singal nor Anderson support bans on transgender care for minors, which they believe is appropriate in some cases of clear and persistent gender dysphoria. And there is no question that many red-state Republican politicians are guilty of authoritarian overreach. Last year, Abbott directed child welfare officials in Texas to launch child abuse investigations against parents who allowed their children to get gender transition care. Some states are also moving to restrict medical transitions for adults and even to ban drag shows in public spaces.

But there are also worrisome trends in states such as California going in the other direction: for instance, to keep parents in the dark when a child explores gender transition at school, or to limit or ban psychological counseling that encourages children questioning their gender identity to adjust to an identity consistent with birth sex. Such counseling has been wrongly equated with "conversion therapy" that tries to steer gays and lesbians toward heterosexuality.

The progress toward equality and dignity for transgender people is an important part of modern societies’ evolution toward more freedom and individual rights. But even positive social change often strays into less beneficial areas. The notion that young children and adolescents who are still developing mentally and psychologically can be presumed to always know what’s best for them when it comes to possibly irreversible medical interventions of questionable benefit may someday be seen as misguided and shocking.

Kids with gender dysphoria deserve a compassionate and individualized approach. Unfortunately, the partisan polarization on this issue — and the overheated rhetoric in which liberals denounce conservatives as fascists and conservatives slam liberals as “groomers” — is likely to encourage bad politics instead of good medicine.

Opinions expressed by Cathy Young, a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, are her own.

By Cathy Young

Cathy Young is a writer for The Bulwark.