There is, of course, a component here where our culture absolutely despises trans women. They're traitors to the patriarchy and invaders of the sisterhood; wretched creatures that our media tells us are inherently worthy of contempt and disgust. We've become so good at warping their stories and framing everything they do and say in a negative light that, well, they're damned regardless of what they do and how they behave - and that cannot help but feed back into the issue. We, culturally, see physical markers of maleness as undesirable when present in women. We're all prisoners of this miserable paradigm. I hate it - it's such an awful, wretched state of affairs, and the sooner we're free from it, the better.
What?
an incredibly heartless way of looking at things; one which completely disregards the multi-component nature of the trans kid experience, focussing on aesthetic physical changes alone and concerning itself largely with the comfort of an external observer
But isn't passing partly for the comfort of an external observer? You cause less discomfort than Danielle Muscato, say. And blockers in a young male lead to an inability to become aroused but an ability to pass. So the use of blockers focuses largely on aesthetics rather than function.
I think it's even possible for transition to be right for a person now, and for them to later seek to detransition/transition back without, at any point in that journey, being 'wrong'.
This is nonsense. This is a major undertaking with permanent physical and psychological effects, to suggest reversing it is no big deal is doing detransitioners a huge disservice. If someone has had permanent surgical alterations to their genitals, is dealing with scarring and incontinence, has limited movement due to mastectomy scarring, or phalloplasty donor site tissue damage, or has a painful neovagina to dilate forever, it seems really crass to suggest the decision wasn't wrong, and can just be reversed. Especially if puberty was blocked - there's no organic puberty going to kick in, fertility is gone. If someone spends ten years in prison due to a miscarriage of justice, sure they can be let out, but those ten years are already gone. Not everything can be reversed.
It would be fascinating to see more comprehensive stats on desistence with or without them, but the only way to get those would be to senselessly deny the suffering of desperate people at their most fragile.
These stats exist, on blockers almost nobody desists. Off them, 80% do. And with regard to suffering, the drugs increase suicidal ideation and prevent the child from going through a puberty in line with peers. The idea that without = suffering is simplistic, and although you might feel that way about your own transition, it doesn't translate into being true for everyone, particularly girls.
Blockers do help kids -who were going to transition anyway-
As adults? How do we know they would transition anyway when 80% desist? How could they transition medically without doctors? Can a dysphoric ten year old just wave a magic wand? There is no way you can say these children "were going to transition anyway" when the adult rates of transition, up to say twenty or thirty years ago, were vanishingly small.
I'm glad everything went so well for you, Butterfly, and that you have suffered no ill effects from having your puberty blocked, and that you pass so well and are so attractive to men and women, and that you have an open and honest sex life where you discuss your trans status beforehand, and that you are conscious of the possible discomfort of women and girls (and men, as you mention in your example). You have shared your stories in a very colourful and flowery way, it has certainly made for interesting reading.