Forgive me everyone this is another of my long drawn out forever responses.
Anyway I finally decided to chime in, actually to be honest I waited to add my thoughts on purpose as I wanted to give others a chance to share before I put in my two cents and might influence anyone.
As I do have two teen kids who are on the Spectrum, plus I myself am assuming I am on the Spectrum though I do not like the label. I personally think of myself as a human not a government or society generated category. But as life needs comparisons to evolve I get it.
So the question is should kids be allowed to transition before they are adults? This encompasses even taking a single step toward transition even if 100% totality is not allowed under the age of 18. Also a part of the question is should parents get a say in the matter and an unwritten part of the question is who else gets a say? Kids? Government? Psychologist? Etc.? I have always tried to judge people by their views not mine as we are all 100% different on the planet and no one size fits all, least of all mine as I know I do not think like anyone I have ever meet.
So first who are we talking about, kids meaning under 18 or the government demarcation to adult. Past generations and cultures had different age brackets but as we live in 2023 and in the USA I am considering that group, this means Gen Z, not X, or Y, or Alpha. So any data or assumptions from those generations is completely invalid as we all know were vastly different times in terms of thinking and acceptance. In my generation it was a rite of passage of sorts if you transitioned and this very fact weeded out any non serious folk.
Gen Z has a totally different mind set or brain wiring then any of the generations before it. Mine and the Boomers were mostly Analog thinkers, meaning we made a system in our logic mind and followed it, to change the system you had to break the old completely and begin anew. Gen Y are the digital thinkers, meaning that view data from the computer thought process of data packets, basically short bursts of many systems at once, thus much more adaptable but still somewhat based in the Analog way of systems thinking. Gen Z are cloud based thinkers, meaning all data is taken in as a cloud of all information, with little bits scattered everywhere where the eventual picture in the mind is formed, basically no system. I think this fact makes them the most creative but also the most lost of Generations, or most easily lead as critical thinking tends to have no logical steps. Sure not all people fit the minds set of their generation but we need a base line so we go with the majority. Also Gen Z is the first generation that has online fully integrated in their evolution as babies and toddlers, ages 1-6, where just about all the morals and mental paths are created for the rest of their life. In this, online is like a reverse TV where TV of my generation was one of ‘look at that person in a fantasy wish I could be like them’, but in reverse it is ‘I am that fantasy person they look at me’. Thus the online handle or alias or identity, as we all know you can pretend to be anything online, has made the sovereignty of a distinct self much more multi faceted. Gen Z them selves are part of the cloud. My guess for Gen Alpha and/or beyond will be a hive mind eventually and loss of individuality will happen as a dominate group of something will figure out how to direct the cloud into their own direction. My thoughts on such are hopefully I will have left this life by then as I will be totally obsolete.
With the Gen Z of the Western World in their proper frame we can now delve into the question at hand. For one thing almost all of Gen X, and virtually all the Boomers, and a lot of Gen Y do not have a clue as to how Get Z mental structure is, as there is no comparison and the idea of cloud based thinking is alien to them. And for any one who does not take the cloud think into account to make any guesses based on their generational experience with LGBTQ+ of the past is totally wrong. Like all the de-transition data for example, the control groups must be done for Gen Z not any other generation as they are not the same at all. I know this is hard to do, especially for me to get over the concept, all the struggle and shame of my generation, though very personal to me, is meaningless in evaluating Gen Z and should not influence my thoughts on Gen Z at all. They are in a transitional state of Homo-Sapien as a species, and I expect a new type of Human is on the rise in the next millennium, I like to joke; it will be Homo-Mobiles but really it might be Homo-Collective or something. For Gen Z they have been using alternate Identities since like the age of 2 in some cases, by the age of 4 I am sure 95% had an account somewhere where they had an alias and most where some hallow version of self online. This lack of a solid name or even sense of self has lead to their current lost singular self as they come of age and have to question the thing as all teens do, “Who am I?”. As Gender is not sacred online, and sex is a click away, plus the false influencers who put on a show but pretend to be real, this has really lead to a super state of a Gen Z teen of questioning self with the cloud based thinking as a system to do so. Thus we get this huge splattering of identities that seem to change every day. As the cloud forms in their minds they will come to solidify into a form of self. There is no scientific basis as to how long a time frame this questioning process will take as the cloud think is a new concept in history, but from my limited Gen X logic system I am thinking it will take a bit more then the current age of 18, but who really knows.
Also as mentioned the Gen Z is still a Homo-???/Sapien with the same genetic structure as us, even if their minds are wired totally differently. This means the basic animal instinct we were all born with is still there for now anyway, they are messing with DNA so I expect this to change eventually. This means there is a distinct set of phases of growing up, given these are not set by age or years alive but in phases of growth; Helpless Baby, Toddler, Child, pre-Teen, Teen, Young Adult, Adult, Smart Adult, Elder, Helpless Elder. Each phase has a basic set of growth to them both in body and mind, as we are talking nothing of Young Adult and beyond, we wont look at those phases at all in the answering of this question. And really Helpless Baby, and Toddler are almost completely under the care of someone else and they tend not to think much about identity at these phases, they just are, we will also not go into much here other then the someone who is caring for them has 100% control of all their mental foundations. Thus the care person is 100% responsible for what happens to the Helpless Babies and Toddlers in all future endeavors till the time they are Helpless Adults. Personally I think it is a shame when someone runs amok and destroys their life because of bad upbringing, they must have had real crappy parents and those parents hopefully have remorse even if they do not have accountability. With that aside we really are looking at the Child, Teen and pre-Teen phases of human growth. We all know and every generation back to the dawn of Humanity that these phases of growth has a solidifying of Identity or place in the world they are moving into part to them, as well as the physical change to Young Adult that we call puberty. Hormones change drastically at these times, and Hormones effect the mental and emotional self, personally I think this is what leads to all the questioning every human has.
Back to the real question at hand; should a non Gen Z limit the exploration of a Gen Z, I think not, it is how we all grew up and it is how they should grow up. Why would we try and alter the human growth cycles unless we are trying to destroy the fact they are human? However if that exploration they are doing causes self harm that is when someone needs to step in and say, “No”, parents are still there till the Young Adult phase for a reason. Just as our parents said no to drugs as they cause serous bodily harm. SRS, HRT, gender affirming surgery cause serious bodily harm by their very nature, these for sure are a no go decision for a non developed mind to make. And for a clueless adult or government system to make the decision for them is also a big “no no”, unless it is a “1984” type thing, best to wait till they are able to make up their own minds with a bit of wisdom behind them. I have not seen decent studies on the other chemical alternative of Hormone Blockers but in my day and age they messed you up physically, just look at Michael Jackson as an example, and to think of it they are altering your hormones so would they not just put off that growth phase both physically and mentally? The other parts of the question like changing names and presentation should be a yep in my eyes, we where allowed to self explore in our way or did it anyway with style and stuff, why can’t they. So as painful as it seems, let them try on what they want and change names as they want, changes genders daily, sexuality, etc. Somewhere in the future they will gain enough wisdom to settle into what really is for them as individuals. Sure some will do SRS, HRT, surgery and other self harming things, just as some of us did drugs, drove too fast, etc that killed and mutilated our selves out of existence, survival of the smartest as they say, it is all part of evolution.
Miriya
