Here are some possible positions on transgender rights:
- (EXTREME LEFT) All people of any age have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies, and to have that fully respected by everyone else, under the threat of law.
- (LEFT) Adults have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies, and to have that respected by everyone else. Decisions for minors must include medical professionals, but could include surgery. The government ought to allow adults to change their gender markers at will.
- (MODERATE) Decisions about major surgeries must involve medical professionals. Hormone replacement therapy can be “informed consent” for adults. Decisions for minors must include both medical professionals and guardians, and surgery should be extremely rare. How people present and addressed, though, is a matter of personal choice and should be respected.
- (RIGHT) Decisions about any health-related choices for adults must involve multiple medical professionals and a significant waiting period. In no way are minors to be allowed access to any sort of medical transition, including puberty blockers. People are allowed to dress as they please, but the governmental systems are under no obligation to respect that.
- (EXTREME RIGHT) Transgender identities are a symptom of deep mental illness and should not be tolerated in public in any fashion, including language and presentation. All people are assigned a gender marker at birth, correct or not, and that marker must be respected for life.
I have marked the position of these statements based on where I think society was perhaps a decade ago, before this topic became front and center in an ongoing culture war. The Progressive Left would likely prefer (2) to be the “Moderate” position. The Regressive Right is trying to make (4) the “Moderate” position.
This is our Overton Window: A look into what positions on a topic deem “acceptable” and “fringe”. When one side of a debate works to normalize an extreme position, what they’re really trying to do is shift the window.
Here is a story about Wendy’s: Dave Thomas was selling burgers in two sizes, Single and Double. The Single was selling well, but the Double was floundering. His people told him to take the Double off the menu entirely. Instead, he added the Triple. His people told him that was madness: Nobody would buy the Triple if they weren’t buying the Double. He knew. He was shifting the window. A Double was “too large” because it was the largest option. He was right: Few people bought the Triple, but people indeed started buying the Double.
Frankly, as a transgender person who seeks rational discourse, I think the positions and scale markings above are decent ones. As far as minors go, most of the transgender people I know support the position that only puberty blockers ought to be available for most children prior to the mid-teens, and that surgery should only be available after 18 except in extreme situations. The progressives among us who are pushing for further expansion are doing so largely in response to conservative backlash: A response to shifting the Overton Window can be to expand the Overton Window, to balance one extreme with another.