Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianTheMick2
I don't regret it. Your point seems to rely on that, so it poofs away in a mist.
I'm looking right now at my right leg and I'm pretty happy with it
Hmm, ok, that's certainly good for you. If you had known before that there was no possibility of you being an athlete (professional, or whatever you thought you could be), do you think you still would have wanted to go through all that?
Do you agree that there are a significant number of people who underwent various sex/gender changing treatments who later regretted it?
Just another thing to consider. I live in Portland, Oregon, which is widely known as being the place to be "weird", has more strip clubs per capita than any other major city, Oregon has a higher percentage LGBTQ residents than any other state. There are marijuana stores everywhere, and drug possession of all kinds has been decriminalized. Basically it's at least one of the most liberal, anything-goes jurisdiction in the country. I interact with trans adults the majority of times I leave the house. I have no problem with any of these things; I moved to Portland voluntarily as an adult, knowing the character of the city.
However, Oregon does no allow minors to have their genitals or nipples pierced, even if they have the consent of their parents. That kind of thing is pretty serious body modification, and is where Oregon decided to draw the line (for minors). I think actually getting your genitals and/or breasts removed/replaced is certainly a bigger deal than getting them pierced, and this seems unarguably true. While this is arguable, I also believe taking drugs or hormones to stop/delay/change the results of puberty is also a bigger deal than getting one's genitals or nipples pierced. It makes no sense to me that children (even with parental/medical consent) should be allowed to do something this serious to their bodies.
I'm not in any way a cultural conservative, and I am as anti-religious as one can be. All my concerns and beliefs in this matter are based on protecting the well-being of children. I understand that some people who are also concerned about the well-being of children have very different views on this subject than I do, and that's fine. But surely they (you) must admit that allowing children to undergo any type of gender reassignment does not really fit with the medical and legal traditions of the country (nor any country that I know of). You can see the contradiction in my example of laws regarding piercings. Of course medicine and law changes, and rightfully so. But this has not been something gradual, or even something generally accepted by the majority of the populace. It seems to have been pushed by a certain small segment of the population for reasons other than the well-being of children. While I can't read their minds, I think the most likely reason is they want to increase the numbers of trans people as rapidly as possible in order to further the general societal acceptance of trans individuals. I even agree with their goal here, but I think that trying to get as many children as possible to identify as trans is not a good means to that end.