The fucked up thing is there really are good clinical, scientific, evidence-based reasons to sometimes delay or defer treatment for gender dysphoria in specific cases, especially among the pubescent or pre-pubescent.
My wife is a clinician. Sometimes – again, not always or even usually! – but sometimes, after months of working on what appeared to be gender dysphoria, turns out to be a deep issue around specific childhood events or formative family situations. And as the person works through them, they sometimes find their gender identity matching their physical body.
Sometimes minds change. That is not frequent and is very difficult when it happens. But it is much more difficult to change physical bodies.
This would be a difficult clinical, scientific, and policy problem in the best of circumstances.
But in MAGA’s post-truth, post-expertise age where feelings matter more than science, we can’t even have a meaningful discussion about the problem much less a prayer of alleviating it.
The fucked up thing is there really are good clinical, scientific, evidence-based reasons to sometimes delay or defer treatment for gender dysphoria in specific cases, especially among the pubescent or pre-pubescent.
My wife is a clinician. Sometimes – again, not always or even usually! – but sometimes, after months of working on what appeared to be gender dysphoria, turns out to be a deep issue around specific childhood events or formative family situations. And as the person works through them, they sometimes find their gender identity matching their physical body.
Sometimes minds change. That is not frequent and is very difficult when it happens. But it is much more difficult to change physical bodies.
This would be a difficult clinical, scientific, and policy problem in the best of circumstances.
But in MAGA’s post-truth, post-expertise age where feelings matter more than science, we can’t even have a meaningful discussion about the problem much less a prayer of alleviating it.