Guardian, Thank you for sharing the space and providing a public forum for the issue.
And to the father taking the time to write the letter, to help others – Good job!

In my opinion the author has left out a lot of important points while making sure to interject their political beliefs. You don’t need to mention that you are not a fan of Ammon Bundy…we already knew that. You didn’t mention how old your child was when they started speaking of their problem. That would be good information. I hope that a parent who was confronted by this issue would seek professional help for their child, and not from some liberal whack job psychologist who likes the idea of fashioning boutique children. It seems to me that some parents of very young children who they claim decided on their own that they wanted to change their gender that I have seen interviewed on tv seem way too excited about their new gender celebrity that has opened doors to being accepted by liberal chuckle heads. Pre-teen children are too young to make these decisions on their own often even in conjunction with their incompetent parents.

@ Shoogi and Bubba:
It saddens me to see your comments, and they really speak to how uneducated people are on the subject. You clearly both make a lot of assumptions on topics you’re not knowledgeable about.
Shoogi, you suggest that parent’s seek professional help for their children and not “some liberal whack-job psychologist.” Psycologists are literally the people you have to take trans children to, in order for them to get help. Do you have an alternative suggestion?
Bubba, you also clearly haven’t done any actual research on the subject. The normal course for children starting HRT (Hormone replacement therapy) is to start hormone blockers. This allows the delaying of puberty, and if these blockers are stopped, puberty starts normally. Literally no damage done. These are usually done for a longer period of time to ensure that what they are experiencing and feeling isn’t a “phase” (which btw the psychologist has already confirmed!)Only after this period do trans women start estrogen, and do trans men start testosterone. Often, they are on blockers until they are eighteen and then they start their needed hormones. If surgery happens for a trans teen, it is after a long period of time, and after confirmation by the teen, the parents, and AT LEAST 1 psychologist and 1 doctor (but usually more). If you both honestly think you know more then multiple trained professionals, I suggest you do more research.
I hope you both look beyond your surface level knee-jerk reaction to this, to understand that these teens just want their bodies to match what they need. Denying Trans healthcare isn’t helping children, it’s an act of violence.

@ Mara:

“The normal course for children starting HRT (Hormone replacement therapy) is to start hormone blockers. This allows the delaying of puberty, and if these blockers are stopped, puberty starts normally. Literally no damage done.”

How do you know this? Maybe you can point to some long-term peer-reviewed studies (over decades) showing there’s no harm done, and puberty can progress normally? I doubt that there are any, since this phenomenon is so new. According to your argument, if a boy starts and then reverses hormone blockers he will have the same amount of muscle mass and bone density, and genitals of normal size and function as without. And if a girl starts and reverses blockers, she will still be able to bear children and develop mammary glands of normal size and function? Are you willing to attest to this? Because if those are not true (or if the jury’s still out), then it would constitute medical malpractice to claim otherwise and administer those treatments regardless.

You purport to be a medical professional, so I would like to hear more about your education and professional career history.

@ Bubba:

I never claimed to be a medical professional. I simply have put in the research.
You are absolutely correct that there is a lack of a large amount of medical studies on multiple facets of Trans healthcare. A key factor in that would probably be when the Nazis burned one of the first LGBT clinics down and the world lost decades of research:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_für_Sexualwissenschaft

It’s totally fair to worry about the potential damages to a child’s body and health!
St Louis Children hospital has some information if you sincerely want to know more, and are open to learning:

https://www.stlouischildrens.org/conditions-treatments/transgender-center/puberty-blockers

Keep in mind that to even get to the point that a child is taking blockers, TWO licensed professionals are usually involved and believe that delaying/blocking puberty is the best idea.

Interesting column. I s’pose my major takeaway is relief that I’ve never been on the front lines of this issue. I feel bad for kids who are confused about gender, anatomy, etc. No easy fix – no “test drives” when you’re talking about surgical alteration, etc.!

A general observation about our Legislature… I’d much rather see them spending their limited time solving problems that affect 90% of Idahoans. How many of ’em made campaign promises to finally do something about our statewide gender-identity crisis? (This may be selfish and cold-hearted, but I’m more concerned that my property taxes have tripled in ten years.)

Agreed that parents are into cliches and lack of specifics.

However, the self righteous, born again genderites should take another look in the mirror.

Seems some changes are made for athletics, quotas, etc.,.

PD brings up an interesting point about circumcision. In my perfect world, this procedure would be illegal for a parent to decide on behalf of a minor child. It has no benefits and many risks and negative effects on sexual function. Strangely, female circumcision is illegal but male circumcision is not. To connect this with the article above, clearly parents and medical professionals don’t always know what’s best as evidenced by the frequent choice of circumcision for male infants. And some of our laws and customs are subjective and influenced by culture.

As a society we have decided (correctly, in my opinion) that some life decisions cannot be made competently until we have reached a certain age. The most obvious ones being consent for sexual intercourse, smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption. It seems highly inconsistent for a 12 year old child to be able to (with the right combination of parental and “professional” assent, and paperwork filed) take hormone blockers with potential permanent physiological changes resulting, but not consume an alcoholic beverage. But maybe I’m just a (millennial) dinosaur who needs to crawl back into the cave.

I think the comments on this page show exactly why these decisions should not be made by politicians.

I think the post is propaganda. It’s too perfect. The work of the recruitment club? Not an unreasonable question to ask. Recruitment is real and the schools seem to be participating. Beware of the crap they force on your kids. Protect them from it. Suggest a wide media search and see if someone finds a nearly identical post.

What’s the hurry anyway? Steroids hormones and surgery cause permanent and perhaps very regrettable changes. With the exception of a true biological hermaphrodite (which is rare), permanent changes to the body should never be initiated under anyone’s authority until the age of 18 or perhaps even 21.

Anyone get a teenage tattoo you regret? How about cutting off your junk? Probably shouldn’t do that until an adult.

I would love to know where this whole “recruit” meme comes from. I realize there are always exceptions to any rule, but there’s something here that just doesn’t make sense: with the way LGTBQ+ and trans folks are treated, why would anyone “make a choice” be in that situation?

As someone who is not a fan of any body modification (though I did have an earring in the late 80s/early 90s), I figure that unless liposuction can get rid of my potbelly, none of this will affect me directly. That said, can’t we just leave people alone?

No response Bikeboy? Confused?

I have witnessed the entire entry of this identitarian composition within the pages of far left literature from the 90s on, when I was a follower of leftist orthodoxy. None of this transgender conception language existed outside of the deep corners of gender politics until the 2000s and got really wound up in just the last few years.

When I was growing up everyone accepted their gender that I knew. There was zero confusion about that. Gay feelings only surfaced within the 90s with people I knew and it has since become more open, but still no confusion about one’s physical gender, just sexual feelings. Feelings change without serious damage done, bodies are much different.

When our media culture pushes perceptions of groomed kids like “The Amazing Desmond” who is pranced around on stage and on camera, strip teasing like a pole dancer…then you must ask about the morality of this effort. I doubt seriously that Desmond “chose” to be a drag queen girl when he is a boy. This is all from external tutoring.

No, if someone wants to change themselves after giving serious thought at a responsible age (18 is typical), then by all means, they can make that call and take that chance. But just putting a kid under the knife or pharma processes at young ages when important brain functions are still forming up to the late teens is child abuse in my book. What happens later when the kid is now an adult and wants to undo the transition? How many suicides are accounted for then? We only hear about the suicides of those who “wanted” to transition during childhood.

Parenting has become a lost skill. Too many child adults who never grew up are raising kids, or worse…letting institutions raise their kids. Agendas are at play. Social divisions are being accelerated in the name of “inclusion” and “tolerance.” Rubbish. Child abuse by another name….that’s what it is.