We know that forcing trans children to live as their birth gender can have devastating consequences, including long term mental health problems and suicide. That is a sign that we don't currently have it right.
No we don't know that. This is actually a MASSIVE part of the problem and the debate.
The first problem I have with this is the assumption that being trans is something monolithic. Your identity is that and no one can say anything else.
The co-morbidity with mental health raises the legitimate question over whether declaring yourself trans is merely a symptom of other issues, rather than the mental health issues being a symptom of being trans.
No one has tackled this properly because of the affirmation culture and the hostility to doing research in this area.
The suicide stats regularly, and irresponsibility, quoted have hidden issues when you delve into the data deeper which further raise legitimate questions.
Even when females medically trans there doesn't seem to be a marked improvement. Why? And why is this never mentioned in relation to women considering transition. A significant weight of opinion in trans circles is to encourage medical transition without gatekeeping on the basis that it saves lives, yet the stats they use as evidence to support this, doesn't work for females who identify as trans.
Its an important thing to be aware of for the benefit of females. Yet we can't say this, because 'transphobic'.
This pressure isn't coming from people who are deemed transphobic.
And yet its harmful to the very people who its supposed to protect.
This blindness and dominance of ideology in people who are often very vulnerable because of associated mental health issues is bullshit and does need to be challenged.
The reality is that there needs to be intervention in a lot of cases. This isn't transphobic. Its because there are issues that go hand in hand. If adults don't want to consent to medical involvement for this, that's fine, its their choice but at the same time they shouldn't be allowed to hold a gun to a HCPs head demanding that all trans people should have medical intervention which has long term consequences.
That HCP has sworn to 'do no harm'. Forcing them to go against that in a blanket way, rather than assess individuals on a one by one basis exposes HCPs to legal action for unethical behaviour and it exposes vulnerable people who identify as trans to an ideology that doesn't necessarily have their best interests at heart.
Ideology has no place in medicine. If trans ideology is allowed to get a foot hold over scientific evidence then this has knock on effects and allows ideology into other areas of medicine. I have a massive problem with this. It just means, if you pour in enough money, you can dictate access to health. It affects women disproportionately too. Areas in medicine most vulnerable to ideology are childbirth and access to abortion.
This is a huge big deal.
There are lots of other issues here. Most currently surround self Id (which isn't the magic bullet suggested, precisely because the pressure to alter your body in someway and to 'conform' doesn't come from the wider community alone - a huge and perhaps higher amount - comes from the trans community which is unable to apply nuance to anything including itself).
But it is not exclusive to self Id. There are big issues over consent and medical ethics.
Every time mental health is invoked as a reason to actively encourage and affirm, I want to scream. Its extremely ignorant and not based on anything more that a bunch of poorly conducted surveys with some of the worst methodology I've ever seen, combined with scientific studies which have been reported and misinterpreted in some of the most poor and shocking ways I've ever seen.