Just wanted to share some further thoughts on this
In the 1980s I was very involved in campaigning for the rights of lesbians and gay men and was acutely aware that sinister forces were attempting to appropriate narratives regarding sexual minorities and to pervert them into something evil.
I am specifically referring to the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange, which, as many of the older posters here will know, attempted to equate homosexuality with a sexual interest in children.
The narratives promoted by the PIE were encapsulated in a book called The Betrayal of Youth.
I have read some chapters of this book and not the book in its entirety, however the narrative promoted by the authors of the various chapters that I have read was one in which they claim that society is betraying and letting down children by not allowing them to express their sexual desires towards adults.
The book promotes the idea that children are oppressed by legislation that is there to protect them from the predatory advances of adults.
As someone who can remember my own childhood very well it is my impression that it is common for children to seek affection and cuddles from adults, especially when neglected and abused. It is also not uncommon for children to have crushes on adults.
It is my belief that children should be protected from predatory adults and that sexual relationships between children en and adults are always abusive and hurtful to the child.
Children may think that they want a grown up, romantic relationship with an adult, but if the adult engages in sexual activity with a child, the child is then left dealing not only with the complex, traumatic feelings associated with being sexually abused but also with a sense of guilt and complicity because of their initial romantic desires towards an adult who they loved.
It seems to me that that the rationale for treating children for gender dysmorphia bears many similarities with the narratives promoted by the PIE.
Both narratives depict children and young teenagers as having the maturity to consent to potentially damaging and violating interventions, whether sexual, as in the case of the PIE, or surgical, as in the case of the GIDS service.
I believe that it is important to listen to children's views and opinions, however children are children and should be protected from abuse whether by adults with a sexual interest in children, by clinical services conducting unethical experiments upon them, or by actors monetising children as social influences on youtube and other platforms.