I love Dee Snyder, & while I support trans people all the way, I also agree that kids aren’t ready for surgery as kids.
If I had a trans child, I’d support them in these ways:
*Therapy.
*Allow them to dress however they wish, including experimenting with makeup when they’re into their teens.
*Call them their preferred pronouns, and new name.
*Make sure they’re growing up in a state and in an environment, where others also accept them and their choices.
*Communicate in ways that encourage them to voice their displeasure with anything or anyone, including myself.
*Listen to their fears, hopes, and dreams, without ridicule or judgement.
*Remain objective enough to understand that hormone therapy is at times, necessary, in order to protect the child’s mental health, once they hit puberty.
Again. I would support my child in every way possible, but I would not deprive them of their own conclusions or choices regarding irreversible surgical procedures.
That decision is on them once they turn 18.
And yep. I’d even pay for the surgery, as long as it’s a choice they made as a legal adult, & if I had the money to do so.
I don’t understand how having these boundaries, makes Dee Snyder, or someone like myself, non supportive of the trans community.
What happens if you completely trans your child via surgery before they’re 18, and then they regret the decision?
Will you be blamed for it?
Maybe.
But a decent parent isn’t necessarily concerned by this.
A decent parent wants to make sure that their child is exercising their free will (a fallacy, I know, I know) or more succinctly described, their autonomy.
I am childless. I am very involved in the day to day lives of two young ladies who consider me to be a parental figure.
Currently, one of them is experiencing a VERY difficult time with substance abuse.
She believes that only religion and Jesus can help her. I’m an atheist, and disagree full heartedly. She knows I’m an atheist. She’s perfectly fine with it, and does not preach to me, nor do I attempt to turn her into an atheist.
We have spent many, many hours sharing our own stories about addiction and recovery with each other, which is preferable than her not having anyone she can trust and turn to.
I am now a part of a weekly Bible study she has, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Religion is the tool she is using at this time, to cope with her addiction, while exercising her creativity, her ability to organize and be a leader, and her need for community and wanting to be of service to others.
I’m SOOO proud of her for taking charge of something, as I have ALWAYS encouraged her to do, since she was a toddler.
Am I going to shut her out because she’s going about her objectives and goals in a way I am not in agreement with?
FUCK NO.
Why?
Because that’s what true love for others, is all about. And let’s not forget that it is way more important for her to be sober, even if through religion, which may eventually resolve its way out of her life, than to ridicule her and put her down because she doesn’t believe or think as I do.
We should RESPECT our children.
We should allow them to express themselves however they wish, and only intercede when observed behavior is rooted in suicidal/homicidal tendencies.
The trans community should consider giving high profile people like Snyder leeway.
Most decent people who have LGBTQ+ children, or are friends with people who have kids who identify as LGBTQ+, feel the same way. The ghouls on the new GOP are NOT the majority. They’re just the loudest and the most heartless/careless.
We can fully support the trans community, while also advocating for children to make their own, permanent, surgical decisions, once they’re of age to legally do so.
