=========
=========
Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
=========
=========

The Trump Administration recently announced that the Justice and Health & Human Services Departments – and therefore the Executive Branch as a whole – are reverting back to the same definitions and methods used to determine gender as has been known worldwide since the dawn of man’s existence.

As expected, the media and Hollywood are shrieking in outrage.

But the Administration shouldn’t end it there. Per the story cited by Brandon Morse, even surgeons who perform gender reassignment procedures and genital reconstruction for their livelihood are beginning to sound the alarm …

While the World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines currently state nobody under the age of 18 should undergo surgery, Professor Djordjevic fears this age limit could soon be reduced to include minors. Were that to happen, he says, he would refuse to abide by the rules. “I’m afraid what will happen five to 10 years later with this person,” he says. “It is more than about surgery; it’s an issue of human rights…”

Note that Djordjevic is only talking about surgeries here. Children, some younger than twelve, are being given hormone blockers and opposite-sex hormones, many with horrific side-effects, not least of which is permanent infertility.

Note that the infamous Jazz Jennings is not able to have his lower surgery because his taking of hormone blockers at puberty has stopped him from developing enough so that there is anything down there for his doctors to work with.

Even with this knowledge, a worryingly large number of progressives are fully on board with the idea that young children can be transitioned. Vox recently published this (safe link to Twitchy);
It’s okay to let your transgender kid transition — even if they might change their mind in the future.

HHS should announce forthwith, that no hospital may provide anyone below the age of 18, i.e. a child, any transition procedure or treatment, including hormone blockers or cross-sex hormone injections or surgery, except under extremely narrow corrective circumstances having to do with genuine hermaphroditism or genetic abnormalities.

HHS should also announce the launch of a program of double blind multi-year studies to verify whether it is more or less advantageous to treat children suffering from gender dysphoria with a focus toward helping them accept their biological sex (and thereby avoid extensive surgeries and a lifetime of hormone injections and drugs), or “affirming” their belief that they truly are the opposite sex.

There would be a lot of screaming and shouting on the Left, but the fact is, with the sole exception of journalists, Hollywood starlets, feminists and academics, there’s no demographic (including the overwhelming majority of Left-Wingers) that is remotely close to being comfortable with transitioning children.

In other words, outlets like Vox notwithstanding, there really is no political downside here.

So it’s not just good politics, it’s good policy.