The scientific consensus on the causes and treatments of transgenderism are well known and settled just as much as the round Earth, the big bang, evolution, or a myriad of other things that superstitious people argue against.  As any science creator on Youtube who spends time debunking flat earth conspiracies, or the great flood will know no amount of evidence will convince some people.  So what I have here is a compilation of what is the most important recent evidence on these issues.  This article merely summarizes the findings and places them in a political context. 

Transgender children should be allowed to wear whatever hair or clothes they like and be watchfully observed without pressure until they are 14.  If by that age they persistently, consistently are identifying across the gender line then and only then should puberty blocking hormones be administered.  This allows them to experience a healthy amount of puberty and waiting until 18 or 28 or 48 would not change that.  At the same time, they should not have any surgery until 18 the broadly accepted age of majority in most of the world. Per WPATH guidelines.  Studies done which use the current clinical definition of transgender youth find a persistence rate of around 98%   With most of the 2% who desist retransition latter.   (People who do detrains deserve our love and support, but their situations are not arguments against the rest of us.  

Laws that try to mandate otherwise are not based in science but in discomfort of the same people who in some cases think creationism should be taught along evolution in schools. 

Studies which looked at young transitioning transgender people who were male to female and androphillic (that is if they were cisgender, they would homosexual) have an androgen receptor gene that is different from that of cisgender males.  A similar difference was found for transgender VS cisgender young transitioning females. 2,3,4,5.  Being transgender is not an intersex condition but a neurological atypicality that effects key areas of the hypothalamus that relate to gendered behavior.  Not gender stereotypes but behaviors that cross culturally are common to males and females and used to attract the opposite sex.   People on the political left hate this people on the political right also hate the implications of this.  Such is why those references are not touted as what they are. 

Instead on the left we get people defending delusional positions like transwomen having periods while on the right we get the same reheated religious dogmas from the Scopes Monkey trial. 

Last but not least let me point out a basic law of physics.  

The quantity of dignity, respect, tolerance, and empathy in the universe is not conserved.  These things can be created in unlimited quantities and destroyed by our actions. 

The science on these things is settled. We know that being transgender is not a choice.  How we choose to respond to what we are is an individual thing.  I myself felt my away around my gender expression which was never standard and settled on a place that I am comfortable with.   This is the freedom all of us need to have.  This is a freedom that should be part of life for us from our Teen years to adult hood as they are for everyone else. 

I know first had before laws on our treatment were more permissive, we found ways to do this anyway.  It is safer and more ethical not to drive us underground.  If society does don't claim it's about science.  Scientific truth endures longer than all ideologies and those who deny it always lose the contest of time. 

#SayHerName Brianna Ghey  may she #RestInPower

References

  1. Coleman, E., Radix, A. E., Bouman, W.P., Brown, G.R., de Vries, A. L. C., Deutsch, M. B., Ettner, R., Fraser, L., Goodman, M., Green, J., Hancock, A. B., Johnson, T. W., Karasic, D. H., Knudson, G. A., Leibowitz, S. F., Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F.L., Monstrey, S. J., Motmans, J., Nahata, L., ... Arcelus, J. (2022). Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8. International Journal of Transgender Health, 23(S1), S1-S260. Link

  2. Rosa Fernández, Antonio Guillamon, Joselyn Cortés-Cortés, Esther Gómez-Gil, Amalia Jácome, Isabel Esteva, MariCruz Almaraz, Mireia Mora, Gloria Aranda, Eduardo Pásaro. Molecular basis of Gender Dysphoria: androgen and estrogen receptor interaction. Psychoneuroendocrinology 98, 161-167 (2018). Link

  3. J. Graham Theisen, Viji Sundaram, Mary S. Filchak, Lynn P. Chorich, Megan E. Sullivan, James Knight, Hyung-Goo Kim, Lawrence C. Layman. The Use of Whole Exome Sequencing in a Cohort of Transgender Individuals to Identify Rare Genetic Variants. Nature Scientific Reports 9, 20099 (2019). Link

  4. Ferdinand J. O. Boucher, Tudor I. Chinnah. Gender Dysphoria: A Review Investigating the Relationship Between Genetic Influences and Brain Development. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics Volume 11, 89-99 (2020). Link

  5. Hadar Amir, Liat Perl, Shimi Barda, Daniel Lantsberg, Anat Segev Becker, Galit Israeli, Foad Azem, Asaf Oren. Adolescent Transgender Females Present Impaired Semen Quality That Is Suitable for Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Even Before Initiating Gender-Affirming Hormone Treatment. Reproductive Sciences 29, 260-269 (2022). Link

  6. Settimio D’Andrea, Francesco Pallotti, Giulia Senofonte, Chiara Castellini, Donatella Paoli, Francesco Lombardo, Andrea Lenzi, Sandro Francavilla, Felice Francavilla, Arcangelo Barbonetti. Polymorphic Cytosine-Adenine-Guanine Repeat Length of Androgen Receptor Gene and Gender Incongruence in Trans Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies. The Journal Of Sexual Medicine 17, 543-550 (2020). Link

  7. Steensma TD, Biemond R, de Boer F, Cohen-Kettenis PT. Desisting and persisting gender dysphoria after childhood: a qualitative follow-up study. Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011 Oct;16(4):499-516. doi: 10.1177/1359104510378303. Epub 2011 Jan 7. PMID: 21216800. Link


  8. Olson, K. R., Key, A. C.,&Eaton, N. R. (2015). Gender Cognition in Transgender Children. Psychological Science, 26(4), 467–474. Link

  9. The Endocrine Socieity. Transgender Health An Endocrine Society Position Statement. The Endocrine Society (2020). Link

UPDATE: If you read the comments on this article be on the look out for anti trans Junk science.  A hallmark of this is cherry picking one study or even part of a study out of a larger body and out of context then ignoring the whole body of literature and data.  For example, mentioning the side effects of transgender healthcare as if they were the norm rather than a list of every rare possible thing that can happen.  A common tactic used when people are uncomfortable with various types of medical science.