Canuck_Cat: EDIT: also look up Taiwan. 35% buddhist population (almost the same as Taoism), legalized same-sex marriage in 2019.
dtgreene: 2019 is rather late, though.
In the US, it was legalized nationwide in 2015 IIRC, and I feel even that's rather late, considering the number of countries (and individual US states, for that matter) that had already legalized it at this point.
(In the US, it used to be that you could get gay married in some states but not others; the marriage would be recognized in the state you were married, but not federally (meaning you would be considered married for state taxes but single for federal taxes) thanks to a law named the "Defense of Marriage Act", which was eventually ruled unconstitutional a few years (IIRC) before the ruling on same sex marriage.)
morolf: imo that argument doesn't work when you're talking about teenagers who may be mentally unstable and easily impressionable. There already have been cases of people who later deeply regretted their "transition" and in retrospect thought such an irreversible decision was made too easy, without exploration of less radical alternatives. And as you yourself admit, there's the question of the self-interested profit motive of the medical professionals doing such surgeries.
And "respect we ask for ourselves"...gimme a break, people with views like mine don't get any respect from the establishment in Western countries. The shoe has been on the other foot for quite some time now.
dtgreene: Except that the treatment given to transgender children doesn't involve anything permanent.
* Changes to one's presentation, or one's name/pronouns, are not lasting.
* Hormone blockers are easily reversible; if the child changes their mind, just take them off blockers and they'll go through puberty normally.
* Opposite-sex hormones are not usually prescribed to children.
* Gender affirming surgeries are not given to children, either. (The one case of genital surgery performed on youth, genital mutilation of intersex babies, is not one that I would consider "affirming", and is something that actually should be outlawed.)
you really should read about those hormone blockers. you will get a rude awakening.
children do not stay young. they get older. at that point reversing is not as easy reversible as you think.
humans are not born fully developed. stopping development while the person has not yet reached adulthood means that the adult will be less developed in some ways.
gender changing surgery is actually something that was performed on children. "afirming" surgery is just a carrot so that you don't look at the reality
children want many things. they have alot to learn about reality. they have to mature before understanding many, many things.
no sane adult would accept that their child wants to eat sweets all day and give that kid only sweets. why would you think that it is a good idea to give life altering hormone blockers to the same child?
you seem to think that all those children and adults involved in everything that you listed will take the best decisions possible and there is no risk.
people make mistakes. children even more probable, because they lack knowledge. that is why you don't leave unsupervised children with matches.
humans as species continue to exist only because we reproduce. messing with something that basic is very very dangerous.
it strips the ability to reproduce for the children involved, it scars them when they realize at some level that they are unable to reproduce, it forcefully removes them from the majority. phisicly and mentally.
those kids are set up for some great disappointments.
you want to get sugery? fine. live in the real world for a year, work on a job for your rent, food, bills and everything else, then you have understood enough about real life and consequences and you can read about the risks of the surgery.
when you have done this, i can consider you (i am talking obviously to the kid that would want anything from the list that you wrote) mature enough to consider the short and more important LONG term implications of each of the things on that list.