What are you talking about? My point has to do with understanding scientific literature as a whole and not relying on just the most recent study. I said nothing about weight loss techniques, much less cholesterol medications. With trans kids, nobody is talking about using drugs and surgery to interrupt bodily pathologies; they're saying we should use them to interrupt normal developmental processes in healthy bodies. The risk/benefit ratio is much different, in part because cholesterol drugs were actually studied for the treatment of high cholesterol before being prescribed by doctors. Even so, most doctors recommend non-pharmological interventions first because most drugs have potential side effects. Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones have not been studied in the same way, nor has social transition. Somehow the usual treatement dictum to avoid pharmaceuticals or surgery until other less invasive strategies have been tried is abandoned in the name of suicide prevention, even though transition does not seem to reduce the chance of suicide in people with gender dysphoria.
I have said repeatedly that trans is a cultural, not an objective or scientific category for understanding gender issues. Additionally, there is a difference between rejecting trans as an innate condition and denying that gender dysphoria may have biological correlates. I've stated over and over in this thread that the biological findings attributed to trans (eg. the argument that transwomen have female-typical brains) might actually be due to homosexuality. Not only that, but early pioneers of transsexuality research argued that homosexuality drives trans identification for some males. See Ray Blanchard's work.
As far as childhood transition is concerned, the evidence base is really poor. Expert reviews in the UK, Sweden, and Finland have all reached this same conclusion albeit with slighly different recommendations for how to treat gender dysphoric kids under 16-18 years old. You can listen to Riittakerttu Kaltiala from Finland talk about her experience working in a pediatric gender clinic as the demographics of the population seeking treatment changed, and as they failed to see the same improvements documented in the Dutch literature (The Dutch Protocol; puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones):
Dr. Kaltiala focuses a lot on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), which she was seeing in her clinic, and which Lisa Littman described in the United States (she was hounded out of an academic appointment after publishing her research, btw). ROGD is a recent phenomenon thought to be "socially contagious." Mass psychogenic illness has long been documented in psychological and neurological literature. You can read about it in Suzanne O'Sullivan's book, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness. Mass psychogenic illness is more common in females than males, and some think it describes a subset of females with gender dysphoria today.
I don't know if any kids will suffer harm if affirmative care is banned. I do know that affirmative care is experimental and that most recipients of this care have healthy bodies. Most people are calling for caution and calling bull on the quasi-religious beliefs that are motivating approaches to care. There's something deeply troubling happening with the sudden rise in trans identification and the rush to medicate.
If you think objections or trepidation about affirmative care is a rightwing phenomenon, you are mistaken.
