quote:
Your grandparents didn't accept black people. Your parents were smarter than that. Your parents accepted black people; but not gay people. You were smarter than that. You accepted gay people; but not transgender people. Your kids will be smarter than you. They will accept transgender people; but still not Auburn fans.

You're right in the way that trans people will be viewed differently by the upcoming generations. But I think the argument a lot of people here are making isn't that being trans is a bad thing that should be "tolerated" at best. It's that letting a child who is barely older than a toddler make a decision like that is basically ending their life right there at age four if they decide they want the complicated option.

I mean, fricking really. You don't let your kids lease a car, take out a mortgage, or get married at four years old. Why would you let them be in charge of their own gender? What boundaries and structure does a child have after that point? You're going to let them do that and then tell them they have to eat their veggies and be in bed by a certain time?

Children have basic rights to safety, a warm place to sleep, food to eat, an education, and other essentials. Until they're not walking flesh sacks of weakness, struggling to gain a rudimentary grasp on language and not eating things that aren't food, their right to an opinion gets put on hold for awhile. You get to take your first steps in choosing "who you are" when you start picking out your own clothes and have your career day at school. You don't decide who you are when you don't know that sticking a fork in the light socket is an idea that requires further thought.