Trans Care

 Jamelle Bouie makes a brilliant case for the universality of trans rights. In this, he mirrors my own preference for couching progressive social issues in universal ideals and long held democratic beliefs. Trans people just want the dignity and respect we extend to other people. That's it.

Yglesias naturally finds a way to be a bit annoying about this. His point isn't terrible, though. We don't know enough about the impact of gender affirming care in younger kids. We don't know why we have seen a massive spike in gender nonconforming kids. 

However, the central point is that while we might want to be careful about how fast we move to new treatments and guidelines, that process has to come from a place that respects the dignity of trans people. If we start there, we should be OK. It goes without saying that the cultural right is not coming from a place of respect for their dignity.

UPDATE: I wanted to add something about the idea that basic dignity and respect are universal values that "everyone" can get behind. Do unto others and such.

What's more, extending dignity and respect is not a zero sum situation. With the arguments between cis women and trans women over who gets to have a prominent voice in women's spaces...I am not able to make any judgments on that. Nor should I. But the civil wars that often erupt between advocates for one group and another are largely a product of thinking that there is a finite amount of attention or resources and if one group gets their side heard, it means - by default - that the other side is muted.

If we think of universal values of dignity and respect then few people would think that extending dignity towards trans people comes at the expense of other groups. In fact, it becomes an expansive practice that grows as it is used. Perhaps it would ease some of the tension between groups. Arguments over when to accelerate transitions or use puberty blockers are important and unsettled. But you begin with dignity and respect.